Iris Congress Moscow

Plan changed, was due to walk the Kremlin, however rain spoiled last night's planning. <br><br>Met a grey nomad from Canada who is travelling with his daughter. They suggest a day on the subway, good idea. Warm and we won't get dry. <br><br>7 million people each day use the 'Rapid Transit', that is the same as London and New York put together!<br><br>Head to the circle line for the trip around, what were they thinking when the designed this place ...

Today we explored the Kremlin. Saw the tsars coronation church, decorated in <br>5 levels showing different aspects of religion. SO beautifully decorated. Also saw <br>tsars burial church. All tsars are buried there until Peter the Great(he is at <br>Peter and Paul fortress in St Pete). <br><br>We saw the building where Stalin and Lenin worked. It made me all shivery to think I was walking the same ground ...

... he agreed with me. Turns out Nikolai grew up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He told me that that even though he was Russian, he thought that the Uzbeks were much more friendly. It was great to get a Russian perspective from someone looking from the outside.<br><br>Yet the more I dug deeper into Russia, the more I realized that the people really weren't cold and distant. Yes it did take time to get to know them ...

... The extravagantly framed artwork reminded me of the paintings of royalty in at the Winter Palace, except they depicted laborers instead. We followed Alexi from station to station through the Moscow subway. As a rider of the New York City subway, I was awed by the extravagance and cleanliness of each stop. The rats and urine stench I that was accustomed to was wonderfully absent here. As the stations ...

... and paid a couple of trips to the café in the huge GUM mall on red square, and My My (Moo moo) - both fairly cheap (for Moscow) places to eat with good Russian food. I've tried to try as much Russian food as possible - and particularly enjoyed Pelmeni (a bit like Ravioli) and Borscht (Beetroot soup). So how is it different? In Petersburg it was 'prettier', smaller (to navigate), and more cultural - with more museums, galleries etc while Moscow I guess was also more of a 'working ...

... clean water flowing through them. Generally I think the Russians love their fountains - they are evrywhere! On another note, I found that generally the streets of Moscow are very safe (in the centre part fo town anyway). You don't see any youngsters hanging out in gangs or anyone behaving in a disturbing manner. They all behave themseves and this might be down to the large number of police presence or the fact that there are station attendants at every station - not ...

... that really happen to people? I head back to the exchange place and wait around for five minutes for someone to claim rightful ownership and decide to make the most of it when no one comes back. I arrive downtown and despite the intense security surrounding the Red Square (I'm talking about tanks and squadrons of army troops) I'm somehow able to walk right in with all my bags in tow ...

... that I had sat down to a big purple gypsy woman, with oodles of kids, and gold teeth. (Borat moment, "Gypsy woman, be not afraid, give me your tears!") I eventually passed through the arrivals area, and then proceeded to wander aimlessly through the tiny, yet busy Moscow airport. I plopped down and sat for a good 4-5 hours straight without getting up. I was tired, and occupied myself by reading another old ...

... pour dormir encore quelques heure pour nous !! Reveil 14h avec un peu la geule en vrac qd meme mais on se motive a faire un peu de tourisme avant notre depart de train sur le coup des 22h. On ferra la crise de pas retrouver l'apart des Illia qui nous avait inviter pour manger un plat traditionnel russe avant de partir ... C'est donc un peu blazer qu'on quittera Moscow pour la 1ere vrai etape du Transsiberien !

Hi all, A quick story about us and Moscow: Friday 10-08 Early in the morning we were at the Barajas airport to take our flight to Moscow and at 10.00 am we are leaving Madrid thought the air. The time difference between both cities were 5 hours so we had enough time to take the taxis in Domodovo airport to go to the guest house we booked in Madrid. The distance between the ...