Moscow
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2007
1
2
43
Trip End
Feb 26, 2008
Moscow,
Russia
Thursday, September 27, 2007
We left St Petersburg on a train - a very smart train at that, sharing our 4-bed cabin with a Russian gentleman, who immediately after leaving changed into his pajamas and slippers in preparation for the journey. Then began an interesting sleep with a lot of snoring and sneezing (I have soon realized that this is going to be very common on this trip). The train-ride was only 8 hours long and actually really relaxing; an easy break-in for some of the much longer train-rides still to come...
We arrived in Moscow really early and decided to head straight to the Red Square. We went to Lenin's Mausoleum and St Basil's Cathedral (Pokrovsky Cathedral). I didn't actually believe it to be true, but they developed some secret recipe (I guess like Kentucky's secret chicken recipe) to keep Lenin's body from decaying
Gorky Park
. You wait in a long queue, and then shuffle into this room where he lies looking quite waxy but very dead. Apparently every 3 nights they have to wipe him down and re-wax him - the recipe is no longer a secret. You can also pay about a million dollars to have your own body embalmed when you die! (money well spent)Our accommodation was interesting while there and not exactly like a typical hostel. The internet was "down" which meant so were the phones?! It was called "Home" Hostel but not at all like home really. There were quite a few locals staying there and instead of going out in the evenings, they bought a lot of vodka, put on some porn and made their own party...quite difficult to sleep through, and then at about 7 am started the Russian ritual of early morning clearing of the throat and nose cavities. This involves standing at the basin (communal and outside our door) and trying to remove any phlegm using a series of snorts, and wretches, and can last anywhere from 5 mins to an hour.
On the 2nd day we headed to the Kremlin for the day. It is an amazing collection of old and new buildings and cathedrals. One of them is the Armoury which houses a collection of Russian treasures including the Faberge eggs, and a lot of very expensive looking jewels
Christ the Saviour
.That night we decided to get our own back on the locals in the hostel and had organised to meet Vlad (a guy who works in the UBS Moscow office). He had booked a table at a restaurant called the Vodka Restaurant. We had never met him before but were already nervous based on the name of the restaurant. As seems fashionable in Russia, he arrived and of course has a very curly mullet! Well the evening was quite something, It turns out a vodka restaurant is indeed that...vodka is brought to the table in half or full litre jugs, and all sorts of flavours; the worst being Wasabi vodka - not recommended. The next days was spent mostly in bed, but at about 3pm Dicky and I plucked up the courage to go to the Izmaylovo Market where there are all sorts of local crafts, a couple of bear skins and some Soviet paraphernalia including gas masks (you never know when you may need it)
The next day we set off to Sergiev Posad which is a Russian Orthodox town on the Golden Ring with a very impressive Monastery. It is a very pretty town where we spent the day looking around. Later that evening we headed off for Gorky Park. It is a wooded area along the Moscow River, containing a theme park and some restaurants. It also has a Russian space shuttle on display. It is a Challenger like shuttle, covered in asbestos tiles. Quite amazing to think it could make it into space!
The next day we went to Novodevichy Convent and Cemetry - next up a train to Yekaterinburg...25 hours
Comments
chuckles
vodka restaurant! sounds like asty heaven...