Eurolux Moscow

... that I would just arrive in Rome tonite, then have all day tomorrow to explore before meeting Jacqui at the train station in the airport on the 16th. I'm going to stay in the Alessandro Downtown Hostel for two nights. Seems like Rome is still a hopping place for backpackers so I should find some interesting people to hang out with.

Then it'll be on the cruise ship until Nov 1. Here's the ...

... being kidnapped!

We then drove for around an hour through the 'light' Saturday afternoon Moscow traffic... light??? Talking bumper to bumper cars flying along in a 60 zone at around 130, unregistered cars everywhere, buses that look like they are falling apart, car accidents on the side of the road... it was scary... even TOM was scared and he doesnt GET scared! In the end we decided looking at the road was a bad thing and I concentrated on staring ...

... et visiteguide de Mirko par la meme occasion). Une fois les billets en poche Koko nous invite a dejeuner dans un coffee shop. Moscou la Majestueuse, Moscou la Capricieuse, de la place rouge au sous sol du Kremlin nous visitons les vestiges de l'URSS. La cathedrale Saint Basile dit le Bienheureux. Pirouette en sa memeoire et la pluie s'arrete nette. Un passage dans le plus vieux centre commercial d/europe, decouverte du metro moscovite et biere dans un bistrot typique.

... they were. They were sharing with two Russians who didn't seem to want to talk to them. We fell lucky with Victor even though he can't speak English he still makes the effort to try and have a conversation with us. Got off at another stop for 20 minutes and bought 3 what looked like bread rolls (so we could give Victor one). When we got back on we found out Victor had the same idea and also bought 3. When we ...

... The name sounded familiar to me, and they claimed to be WWU graduates. Sure enough, I recognized the guy as soon as he walked to our meeting spot. David and Gina Hebley graduated about a year ago from Walla Walla, and had come out to my church several times. It was so neat to see friends in a place so bizarre to us. Friday night, David took us to help him teach English at the English school. It was ...

... pretty. Stalin lived there, the Tsars lived there, all the Communist bigwigs lived there. The congress hall is there. It is a huge meeting hall. The architects were under pressure to make it huge, to be impressive, and could not say no. They didn't want to ruin the look of the Kremlin, so put 5 stories underground. And it is built with a lot of glass, which reflects the other buildings of the Kremlin. The remarkable part of the ...

... otherwise you can get carried away. These jams are caused mostly by the elevators - they are under-dimesioned and people are told to stand only on the right side of the elevator so it takes a lot of time for hundreds of people to line in a single line. At the foot of each elevator flight there is a little cabin with an old fat lady inside who supervises them. Wow, there must be so many of these women - each station has at least one of them and I heard there are 250 stations. At the ...

... other side of the city. Moscow is worse for traffic than St. Petersburg as it's a much older city. St. Petersburg was at least built for carriages. Today, there's way too many cars and way too little space, despite an excellent and extensive public transportation system. Like the US, owning a car is a status symbol. I immediately liked Moscow more, minus the traffic and minus the service at the hotel. We stayed at Hotel Kosmos, which was built ...

... at night on the day we arrived and it was like tinsel town with millions of fairy lights over the buildings. Not totally red, but definately the huge red walls of the Kremlin give you a hint of where you are. At the end of Red Square sits St Basils cathedral - the iconic image of Moscow. It is truly beautiful. We went inside and climbed to the top church alcove. We also spent several hours in the Armory building - we expected guns, swords and such. The place ...

... buy fresh fruit and vegetables. But I beg you, DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT RELIGION! WITH ANYONE! For reading materials either a copy of War & Peace or my choice, Melville's 'Moby Dick' really is required no matter how long you can sit inside your own mind. Captain Ahab, Queequeg, Stubbs, Ishmael and all those on board the Prequod became my, Argh, Maatees! All of us were on board and all in search of something! 'By the Cabin Windows sitting alone' PS: the above events did really occur.