Moscow

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Greeting from Moscow! I think it's safe to say my first couchsurfing experience was a good one. Evgeniy, my host, was fantastic. An experience tourists couldn't get. Over the course of my stay he introduced me to Russian food. We ate dried fish and beer the first night I was in Moscow, which is definitely not the cleanest snack, but quite tasty, if you're fine with ripping the fish head off, gutting it with your fingers! The fish is a little salty by itself but combined with a few beers, it's pretty tasty. He also made several different Russian soups during my stay, and gave me a recipe. Friday night we had Russian potatoes, fish and pickles while doing several shots of vodka, and Saturday we had pilmeni, a Russian dish, dumplings which are pretty much meat filled pyroghy. I also found out that Russians are a big fan of mayonnaise in soup, and that Russian mustard has quite a kick to it. It was quite

Moscow, itself is a interesting city. I had no idea that it was as big as it is. Apparently, the Russian government is considering incorporating the surrounding suburbs into Moscow, which would make it the biggest in the world. The skyline is a mix of old soviet-style buildings and more modern, post-soviet era skyscrapers. Though the metro system has had a few additions since soviet times don't there has been any investment in new buses in the past 20 years. As Evgeniy lived well outside the city centre, I saw many metro stations, some of the old soviet-era stations are definitely worth a visit. I spent lots of time around Red Square, saw Lenin, walked around the Kremlin and saw the vast collection of gold, silver, and other treasures once owned by the Russian Tzars. One can't really blame the Russian population for over-throwing their monarchy, when they were living in gold and silver, up in their Kremlin palace, while everyone else was living in poverty. There was also the All-Russian expo grounds, originally built by Stalin, as a soviet trade-fair and Victory Park, a large, post-soviet World War 2 memorial. I wouldn't have known about these last two parks if Evgeniy hadn't told me about them. Definitely worth a visit. I was hoping to see the Pushkin museum, but unfortunately it seems quite popular on Saturday afternoons, and I didn't have time to wait in line for an hour.

As for our Saturday adventures, well, all I can really say is, what a night. After a few beers in a park, we headed out to a club. We ended up at a club, where I proceeded to lose Evgeniy and his flatmate. Russians aren't big English speakers, and I speak very little Russian, but I managed to party into the wee hours of the morning with a group of Russians and “a few” shots of vodka, find the right metro station, and get back to Evgeniy's place. I must say, my experiences with Moscow police were not nearly as bad as their reputation makes them to be.

Needless to say, my Sunday has been quite uneventful. My attempt at making poutine for my Russian hosts wasn't a complete failure, and everything seems to be in order for my continuing adventures to Helsinki. I'm looking forward to experiencing a midsummer cabin party and the infamous Finnish sauna!

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