Weekend at Lennies
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2004
1
5
84
Trip End
Nov 16, 2006
Moscow,
Russia
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Or so Alexander, the father at our latest homestay thinks. Maybe the Russians aren't too different. Our latest homestay family in Moscow are grand, and although they have even less English we're getting by. Alexander is very similar to Mr. McCabe we reckon. He's a good laugh and we're getting on well.
The house wrecked our heads the first night as their dogs kept us up the whole time barking, and the phone never stopped ringing. But now everything seems to have settled.
It's just like staying in your nanny or great aunt's house.
The train down to Moscow was an easy enough trip
1 - Me with Karl Marx
. Mike and I shared a carriage with Rodney, and a Russian soldier. I had one conversation with him which was basically, "Moscow?" "Moscow."Mike's first image of Moscow was waking up and looking out the window, hearing Tchaikovsky playing, and seeing the soldier combing his hair. Surreal.
Our first day saw us on a tour of Moscow. Our guide was a 19 year old student who was doing it to practice her already brilliant English. Her name's Inessa and she's gorgeous...a total Darling. She showed us around the place, including Red Square and the Kremlin and some other stuff. The highlight was at lunch when she took off her jacket. She had a great body, emphasized by the short skirt she was wearing.
In fact, we have come to the conclusion that Russia is the ass capital of the world. The girls here are fantastic.
I think the Metro system here is brilliant. So cheap and real easy to use once you get used to the writing being in Cyrillic Alphabet. I'm getting to learn it well enough. Having said that, me and Mikey were following signs for 'Red Square' yesterday, and they turned out to be 'No Entrance' signs. We're not there yet...but we're getting there.
All the stations are great with chandeliers, stained glass windows and monuments. A big change from the DART, where the highlight is Anto's contribution...changing 'Trains may pass at speed' to 'Rain my ass at speed'.
We went out for drinks the other night with AHHA (Aine), the daughter of the family we are staying with
2 - Us in Red Square
. Good looking and nice enough. Looked a bit like Lynn, so we refer to her as Hicksky. She was just as opinionated too, and couldn't comprehend why we would leave jobs to travel.There are also now 3 Germans staying in the house. One of them came over 10 years ago and became good friends with the family. He since moved over. Had some drinks with them in the house...shots of Cognac. They had even heard of Stroh! Banter!
Last night we went to a 'Black Music' bar with Rodney and Inessa. Was a good laugh. Unfortunately Inessa no longer meets the Darling criteria-18.
Today we went to Victory Park and also went to see Lenin's tomb...where he is preserved and on display. Possibly the best thing I've seen so far. You're not allowed to talk and have to keep walking by. No standing still. Was amazing.
We had hoped to grab him and take him out for a night out but security was very very tight.
That's all I can think of. All is brilliant here
3 - Dukov
. We have stocked up on food for our 3 day train journey to Irkutsk. Should be interesting! I have around 3 books to read, so if I get through them I think I will have doubled the number of books I have read in my life. We have Yahtzee too, and a Rock Paper Scisscor tournament planned, so the days should fly by.Weather is about -5 degrees. Havent really felt it yet. All good.
Sorry this is such a long entry....got carried away.
My mobile isnt working over here. I emailed O2 but they're rubbish.
