Snowy Moscow with Basil

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Woke up to snow - lots of it. Arrived in Moscow early morning happy to be there feeling as if the travelling adventure had really begun. We navigated our way through the metro to our hostel without a hitch. Tina was really pleased that yet again her choice of accommodation was spot on - this hostel had been booked for the resident cat Basil - he was an enormous black and white cat with a strong Russian accent. The hostel - basically a guys apartment had everything we needed. One of the most striking things about Russia is the scale of everything - huge. We made the most of the first day visiting Red Square, walking round the outside of the Kremlin and the GUM(!) an up market shopping centre on the square. We made it round St Basils Cathedral as amazing inside as out. In the evening it also became apparent that our lack of Russian was going to curb Tina's choice of food -they stuff meat into most dishes and already Mark had had a number of bonus food items that Tina confidently bought thinking that they were vegetarian rather than just having vegetables in them - as well as half a pig.

The time changes over the past few days meant that we were quite disorientated. We decided to take it easy and take a look around the metro system - take a look at the pictures if that sounds crazy.

What we saw -

Russians park their cars anywhere and rarely seem to clean them - although there may not be any point with the mix of snow and dirt of the city.

Everywhere is very clean - especially the buildings and monuments.

The buses run on electric overhead wires.

Lots of Vodka consumed - we see more of this later.....

Tina was keen to see the Bolshoi Theatre, with no tour available we had to subject ourselves to 2 hours + of 'a tribute to' evening of opera. The upside of this being that we only paid 2 pounds from the box office buying them just before the show started. The main theatre was every bit as beautiful as anticipated (by Tina) and everyone (Mark) was pleased when the last tune was Nessun Dorma (reminiscent of Italia 90).

Went for a walk inside the Kremlin. Met the Kremlin cat.

Final day saw Lenin’s Tomb - we were given less than a minute to view. This day was freezing cold and Tina wasn't impressed by the lack of guidance by the guards about where to queue to get into the tomb, after waiting in 'the queue' outside the tomb we gradually realised the entrance was round the other side of the square we got to it as two coach parties arrived in front of us. At least it was free.

Then off to the station and onwards to Suzdal.

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Comments

[Wayne Butterfield-Berridge]

I imagined Moscow to be drab
Hello to you both. It looks amazing. I am very jealous of you having this amazing experience. I look forward to your next update. Take care. Anyway, Mustgo. Wayne BB