Hotel Izmailovo Gamma-Delta by CTO Moscow

The only thing Moscow had in common with St. Petersburg was the air. On sunny days the glare through the hazy sky left my photos looking washed out. When I breathed the air I smelled cigarette smoke laced with auto exhaust, or vice versa when I was out of doors. But the extravagant 18th century palaces ubiquitous to St. Petersburg were nowhere to be seen in Moscow. In fact the city's architecture was so dull and monolithic I regretted my impatience with the overly fussy buildings I had just ...

When the sun came up over Red Square it brought the vivid colors to life, and this place seemed almost cheerful. That was not what I would have expected when I thought about the parades of tanks and soldiers that marched through here for decades. If I had known that Red Square was named for its beauty, not for its red color or Communism, I wouldn't have been caught off-guard by its charm. At the south end of the square, St. Basil's Cathedral showed off its festive colors and exuberant design...

Expensive comfort food is how I describe my dining experience in Russia. After walking through the extravagant palaces and museums, sitting down and ordering a meal was dull and bland in comparison. I welcomed the warm and hearty dishes after the first couple of meals because it was nice to heat up my stomach after coming in from the cold. The next few meals I tried to check off my list the typical Russian foods I needed to try - Stroganoff, Borscht, ravioli-dumplings, meat-filled pastries, h...

So, today was the travel day to Moscow, Russia. Got up surprisingly early and got the last of my stuff packed up. Glad to be in one place in Russia for 7 days so I can unpack and clean up finally, haircut, laundry, etc. Tomorrow's going to be a do nothing touristy day cause I need to get some things done.

The trip to moscow was surprisingly simple. No issues anywhere with my Visa or passport, which was a concern of mine. Stopped in Warsaw, and found the airport there to be quite large...

I decided my first day in Moscow was going to be a recovery day. Too much has been going on and I've got **** to do concerning the rest of my trip, cleaning up, laundry, etc. Plus, needed to get things square with the 2 roommates I've got moving in (well Gary's already moved in basically).

So I started searching for a laundromat, but only found one in the whole damn city. I could've let the hotel do it, but for ~$70, whats the fun in that. So, I figured out how tod o it in the tub and ...

Moscow's starting to warm on me. Today helped a lot by just getting out and wandering the streets. It does suck a bit being here alone though and while I'm still enjoying myself... i doubt i'll do another trip like this alone (that being the russia part, I'll do a cruise alone just fine cause I always meet people). I had other reasons of course and part of it was required to have some significant alone time. In either case.

Today, was a get up super late and finally get out to see the...

Today was another standard tourist day. Go up fairly early at 8am and squared away to go visit inside the Kremlin and other standard touristy areas. Started by meeting up with my buddy Paul from the cruise and doing Lenin's Mausoleum first. Found out the hard way (russian security yelling and pointing) that cameras aren’t allowed (and it’s very much screened. So we waited in some stupid line to drop off our cameras for all of 10 minutes. The experience was more funny then the body...

Today was another tourist day, but since the standard places were done, I more or less wandered a bit. I decided to go to the Cosmonaut Memorial Musuem which was awesome. Lots of recreations of all types of space vehicles, old letters, awards, etc. I took a bunch of pictures to try to translate later what I saw. Either way, it was by far more interesting then the other places I've seen so far.

After that, decided to check out another area called the Park of Statues or something. It was...

Very dead day today in Moscow. I stayed in my hotel and wandered about for food. I wasn't much in the mood to play tourist though so I didn’t. Enjoyed some reconnection time back home and sorting out what to do in Irkutsk. Also packed a bit since I’ll be departing the next day at a late hour 23:25.

We eventually got on the overnight train to Moscow and we were happy to find our fellow travellers were two young Russians unlikely to cause too much trouble and we went to sleep quickly and easily. However we were woken shortly after by a howling Hippo snoring so loudly I almost vibrated out of the top bunk. She did at least break up the onslaught with the occasional sleep-song which lulled us into a false sense of serenity, 10 hours later we arrived in the Russian capital. A relatively simp...