My luck continues....

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I survived the train, which was an open compartment carriage that has bunks, but they had booked our carriage for sitting. So there were supposed to be 3 people per bunk, but there were also top bunks (no mattresses, pillows or blankets) and so I grabbed one and atleast I got to be horizontal, which I really needed after waiting at the train station for 8 hours and exploring Moscow all day. My travel pillow saved me and I got a pretty good sleep considering. Except that I woke up frozen.
I was able to find a room at a hostel within walking distance from the train station which is great since the subway system is only in Cyrillic which is a slight problem for me. There are some Canadian girls (Saskatchewan) staying in my room, and they came on exchange for 4 months last year, so they showed me around. We went to the Hermitage, which is incredible! It is the world's largest art museum, and I saw some famous pieces. I saw a good chunk of it, but there is really too much to see in one day. After about 3 hours, I had had my fill and we went and got some Russian food. Oh, I forgot to mention: I got into the Hermitage for free!! They have a free day once a month and, lucky me, it was today! So I only had to pay $4 so I could take pictures, saving a whooping $16! haha every little bit counts!
After lunch /dinner we went for a walk and checked out more churches, and I went into the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (build on the spot where Alexander II was assisinated in 1818- it has amazing mosiacs. Stalin had it destroyed but they collected each mosiac tile and built it the same (it took 17 years)), which was supposed to cost about $14 plus $2 to take pictures, but I used one of the girls old Russian student card and got in for $4 (including picture permit!) WOOHOOO for me! The admission charges at these places can really add up, so a deal just makes my day...haha.
I'm looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed tonight, and then more exploring tomorrow!

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