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Published: March 8th 2009
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Hello everyone!
Moscow was a very good time for us. It was very warm at 1 degree rather than -30!
Day1
We arrived on the morning of the 28th Feb. We were met almost immediately by the driver, who just about acknowledged our existence. He slightly nodded and then looked away. He drove us and our packs to the hotel, where he made sure we were checked in, and then disappeared.
We settled into our rooms and then decided to figure out the famous Moscow metro! The stations are really nice and the system is really easy to use.
We first visited Red Square, to see St. Basils and Lenin's Mausoleum. Unfortunatly the Mausoleum was closed until April... but for 100roubles each, we entered St. Basils and looked around at all the stunning interior.
After visiting St. Basils we decided to find some lunch. We found a nice pizza shop which sold a slice of pizza for 29roubles each! (that's about 50p)
After lunch we decided to head back to the hotel to call a couple of Andy Ostrognai's colleagues that he'd kindly organised to meet up with us. We arranged to meet them both
in a Metro station downtown near Red Square.
At 5pm we met the pair and started a walking tour of the city. We saw Russia's most famous Orthodox Church and many other really nice buildings. We chatted to them for around 2 hours as we walked through Red Square and Arbat Street (a street with starbucks and stuff on it). We settled down for dinner at about 7:30pm, Hard Rock Cafe! For the first time in a long time we had a proper large meal, and even struggled to finish what I would have considered a starter 1 month ago! They were extremely generous and paid for our meals! After dinner we walked outside to find they had ordered and paid for a taxi to take us to the hotel! A brilliant evening, with brilliant conversation and good food drew to an end.
Day 2
This was the day of our official tour. We met our guide in the hotel lobby at 10:30am. At first she seemed extremely shy and a bit nervous. I'm not sure she expected a group of teenagers! Anyway, she was brilliant! I think she may have a Russian history book stuck in her
гум
GUM the shopping centre in red square voice box, because she knew everything. Having grown up in soviet times, she seemed to be a bit of a soviet-sick sally, and seemed to prefer old times to new. This has been the case in a few places we have been. For example, a nomad man in mongolia told us he preferred his country under communist rule as no one was greedy and everyone helped each other with no expectation of reward. Now he says that people are always looking out for themselves and are greedy, trying to get more and more money.
Anyway, Sally (her real name was Leanna) took us around the whole city again! It was great as we learnt a lot of history (which i cant remember as she sped through it like Ross the Race Car Racer) about the city. One great thing that we saw was an old Soviet building. It was used back in the day as the ministry of defense... it's still the ministry of defense, only its not soviet... we think. Anyway, its a really nice building with old design and the hammer and sickle at the top and tanks!
Many people in Russia dont like the fact
that the hammer and sickle/soviet star are still on display, however no one wants to point it out because as one of the guides we met said "Most of us dont believe we are a democracy"
Apparently the Russians set fire to a couple of warehouses so that Napoleon would have to pay to bring in supplies (food & drink etc) after he invaded Moscow. Unfortunately they missed the minor detail that Moscow was almost completely made of wood... Yes, most of Moscow burnt down. I thought that was funny, but apparently it was a great success in the end. Napoleon's army left soon after arriving, and the Russians kept Moscow... Awkward victory.
Interesting fact! Moscow was a name given by the west.
Our tour ended in downtown Moscow, where we spent the rest of the day failing... We tried to buy ballet tickets (girls decision! honest!) but couldnt get them (daaam), and then we tried to cross a road, which was really big, and couldn't.
Day 3
Our final day in Moscow before heading into the was-capital, st. petersburg.
We started this morning by building a really cool snowman. That was until the girls made
it into a woman.. now there are 4 of them... Anyway, we crowned her Stalina the Soviet Snow-woman. She was stunning, such a shame she was made of ice.
oh goodness me, im sorry, you will have to forgive me, i am starting to write things that i'm not really thinking about and might not even make sense. Welcome to my head. (ill probably get banned from writing again!!)
Anyway we made Stalina, and then I tried to make a snow ball so large that I couldn't roll it when I was finished. I succsesseded alot. Miriam and I both rolled it until we could stand on it and look really big and tall.
We then headed out to the Metro station and went to chill out in the city for a while.
After another day in the city we headed back to the hotel for 7pm. I went outside to try and make the snow ball bigger until a woman asked me something in Russian with an angry face. I said what? in english obviously, and her face turned from angry to '****** British'
We grabbed our packs, waved goodbye to the pretty lady at
reception and our beautiful snow-woman and then went to the station.
Steak and chips for dinner😊
Hope you enjoyed. I certainly did!
cheers,
James
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