23rd August 2010

Moscow

Our train arrived at 10.30am and the metro was connected to the train station, perfect! It was easy to figure out the metro system and we didn’t have to go far to go to the hostel. The hostel was an old apartment converted into rooms and a small kitchen and shower rooms- our room was huge with a massive window and balcony. We dropped off our bags, had some breakfast and then wandered down to the Kremlin and Red Square that was 15 mins walk (with 10 extra minutes for ducking out of a huge rain downpour). Red square has some pretty impressive buildings, but St. Basil’s Cathedral is the most spectacular, even with a grey sky in the background! Unfortunately they had started erecting huge scaffolding in the middle of the square in anticipation of the upcoming weekend festival celebrating ‘Year of the Teacher’ which annoyed Nigel because he couldn’t get a photo of Red Square without the ugly metal seats in the way.

We walked around the buildings taking it all in, chasing pigeons, eating ice cream, watching the guards changing stations and soaking up the very chilled out atmosphere. We took a

Chasing pigeons

little jaunt into GUM- a very old posh shopping centre (1893)- known as the place to be seen, where the boys checked out the old cars. Then we walked across the bridge to the canal and hopped on a boat going down the river for an hour. Some pisshead Russians (is there any other kind I hear you ask?) befriended us - they LOVE Irish people over here!!!! And soon we were doing ‘shots’ of vodka while they talked Russian at us…… amusing for a while. We got off the boat, into a restaurant for dinner and suddenly it was 7.30pm so we headed back to our hostel to put Sid to bed.

24th August 2010

What do you do when it rains in Moscow?

We set off on a walking tour of Moscow in the morning as it was lovely and sunny. We bought a picnic and sat on the lawns behind the Kremlin and watched the dark clouds forming. We quickened our pace and investigated Arbat street- a bit like Grafton street; a pedestrian shopping street with street performers / buskers etc. except it was ten times longer and by the time we got to the

The National Museum

end of it, it was raining heavily…… so what do you do in Moscow when it rains?????? You do a subway tour! Moscow is famous for it’s amazing subways- we stopped at 4 of the famous ones to see statues, mosaics, stained glass and chandeliers- all of which were stunning. After the subway tour we bought an illegal copy of the A Team and went home to watch it!

25th August 2010

Our last day in Moscow

We checked out (midnight train) and set off to pick up our onward train tickets from the travel agency. This took a bit longer than expected since there was a mix up and they canceled them! After an hour, we got new tickets and were on our way again. We got the metro to the Kolomenskoye Museum Estate which is a big park with old Royal Estate buildings (listed as a UNESCO heritage site). It also claimed to be hosting the World Championships of Sand Sculptures which I was really looking forward to seeing! The park and gardens were beautiful and the buildings were amazing…… the sand sculptures…. well, the exhibit only consisted of 12 sculptures but on the plus side-

Inside GUM

An old shopping Centre- the building dates back to 1893

Ireland had the winning one! (which was not Sid’s favourite). There was also a giant pit for the kids to sculpt their own masterpieces. We had the place to ourselves, so Nigel and Sid got tucked in. We spent the whole day here making sand castles, knocking apples off the tree, flying the Frisbee, took a train around the park, bounced on the bouncy castle and finally it was time to go. We got back to the hostel at 8pm and hung around till 10pm. We got the metro to the train station and jumped on our train at 11.30pm - next stop, St. Petersburg.

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