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Published: February 26th 2008
Early morning visit to St Basil's
The benefit of getting in so early was we got to see all the main sites with almost no one else around and a fresh coating of snowWe arrived in the capital around 6am after a restless nights sleep on our first Russian sleeper train ride, a mere 8hrs. It was incredibly hot and stuffy making sleep difficult. We ventured out into the morning air to find it was snowing heavily. With only a short distance to our hostel we decided to enjoy the snow and walked, we arrived at the hostel by 7am. As is Russian custom (we have now realised), the hotel was not sign posted, was behind a blank door and the front desk staff were suitably grumpy, particularly given the time!!! It was a 24hr desk supposedly but we found out in the next few days that Russians stay up late and start the day late..
We were not allowed to check in till 1pm so after regrouping in the hostel kitchen, a chat to some art students from Onslow, we were off to work out the metro. The metro is quite amazing considering how old it looks! Very efficient and easy to use which was a nice surprise. Made it into Kitay Gorod region of the city and did a bit of a walking tour.
It was particularly spectacular with all
the fresh snow and so few people around. We saw loads of churches culminating in the amazing and famous St Basil's cathedral at the end of Red Square and the Kremlin.
By this stage it was all of 9 30am so we decided to find a place for a coffee. Afterwards we headed back to red square to visit Lenin's tomb/mausoleum. To say it was bizarre would be an understatement. Firstly you have to queue, then check all bags and cameras in before passing through security and metal detectors. Once through this you are herded/watched carefully by many guards down into the tomb and up around the long preserved body of Russia's reveered father Lenin. Considering the guy died 84 years ago he looked pretty good, a truly eerie/creepy experience.
From here we walked around the Kremlin and across town to the tourist strip Arbat Street. Walked up a down here for a while checking out a few stalls and shops. Kirstyn bought her Matryshkya/Babooshka dolls from a nice young vendor and by this stage we could head home to check in!
After a bit of a rest we ventured out again to get some supplies. We
Lenin's Tomb
The mausoleum is in the foreground, followed by the Kremlin then Basils wandered back and forth on our street of the hostel past a sign we were certain pointed to a supermarket before giving up and going into the bottle shop! Had a few beers back at the hostel trying to regroup and met a nice English guy called Mo. Later Mo showed us where the nearest shop was to get some dinner and of course more beers. A tiny little store with a friendly lady whom we visited lots over the next couple of days (I think she thinks we are alco's...although this is Russia so probably not too abnormal).
The next day was our 2nd Wedding Anniversary...ooohh... unfortunately we spent most of the day trying unsuccessfully to get tickets. Firstly for our impending train journey/s and secondly for a night at the Bolshoi theatre. The travel agents were open but didn't sell train tickets on the weekend, and the Bolshoi, being under construction took us for ever to find and when we did it appeared to be sold out for the night. Given our lack of Russian we didn't brave the queue to find out the obvious and couldn't be arsed dealing with the slimy scalpers out the front.
Went home somewhat deflated and had a bit of a rest. Regrouped and went out for a nice dinner that night... The night was somewhat hampered by the fact our card was blocked by the bank (one more thing!!!) so we had to be a little conservative on the spending.. Had some in depth chats with some locals back at the hostel that night, the guys were literary experts making us somewhat out of our depth! A quick phone call to the bank to unblock our card and let them know that it would be used many more times in Russia, Mongolia and China and we were able to get money out again.
Our third day was again taken up by the challenge to get tickets! Nothing happens too quickly in Russia we have found, most places don't open till 10am. Managed to eventually sort out our train tickets over emails with several travel agents... the winner was infinity travel who were the quickest, Tatiana was very nice and helpful given the language barrier and we booked all of our tickets the whole way through to
We tried to do some site seeing but missed last tickets
for the museum by 15mins. Wandered round some of the supermarkets before heading home for a fun night with some fellow travellers.
Our last day we finally got to visit the Kremlin, the heart of Russia. Inside consisted of several Cathedrals (we got a free hymn sung beautifully in one), an enormous cannon, and the impressive Armoury museum containing most of Russia's bling bling. One of the more interesting rooms contained many of the previous royal carriages, very impressively constructed and decorated..
After the Kremlin it was time to leave, we headed back to the hostel, got our bags and walked the short distance to the train station to board the no. 16 'Ural' at 4 08pm..
Our trans-sib trip had officially begun!
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