Moscow - Day 1

Hello! Leah Again - Jeana I thought we'd give Ross a break from all this writing he's been doing and besides I am still pretty excited about all that we saw in Europe's largest capital city. Here goes:

We got off the train in Moscow just before 7-am at Leningradsky Voksal (station) and soon thereafter made our way to the centre of the city. The four of us made our way to the maze that is the Moscow Metro - which in reality turned out to be not so bad. Thankfully, Laura made a special trip to Dom Knigi (a huge bookstore here) the day before and bought us two Moscow street maps which also had metro maps so that we could more easily navigate through the city. At any rate asside from the occassional double checks to see that we were headed toward the right station and the sometimes winding, many-staired paths which took us from one station to another when having to transfer, our metro-ing was quite straightforward.
Anyway, we jumped onto the metro and within half an hour were riding the escalator up to street level and then walked the few blocks from Lenin Library Station to the Alexander Park which lies just outside of the Kremlin walls. We popped into McDonalds for breakfast - it was one of the only things open (at just after 7am), and bought ourselves breakfast and more importantly caffeine!

After breakfast, we backtracked slightly to view the Grave of the Unknown Solider - (note: they have one larger grave monument to an unknown solider and then also have several other unmarked graves for major cities/battlegrounds during WWII: Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad, etc...), took a few photos of the massive statue of Marshal Jukov (Just for you Sean ! Jukov was a WWII hero who returned from the Far East to prevent the advancing Nazis from capturing Moscow, after that he was transfered to command the defense of Stalingrad, then lifted the seige of Leningrad and finally launched the final assault on Germany itself eventually capturing Berlin - he won dozens of medals and awards and is considered on of WWII's greatest heroes), and finally passed under the gates by the History Musuem out onto RED SQUARE!

Being that it was still quite early (not yet 8am) on a Saturday morning, not very many people were around and the sun was not yet completely up, so all in all the scene we arrived to was quite thrilling. I experienced an "Oh my God!" moment upon realizing where I was and, I'm not sure if some of this was not partly the blame of the cappuchino I had just drank, was suddenly more awake than I thought I would feel all day! History lesson: around the square stands the Kremlin (huge fortification, once a royal citadel, in which are numerous cathedrals and the formal residence of Russia's President), next to the Kremlin stands one of Moscow's most recognizable sites St. Basil's Cathedral, across from the Kremlin is the GUM (formerly the state department store - and now a three floor mall which would make Lenin, who's mausoleum is conveniently just across the square, fume with rage - Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Monsoon a British store I love and over 150 other stores, mainly European names I am unfamiliar with) finally, the Museum of Russian History sits opposite St. Basil's on one end of the square. The square has been for the past several centuries a meeting place, market place, and most recently has been the site of military parades.

Since nothing yet was open because it was so early, we took advantage of the square's relative emptiness to snap a few photos - us with St. Basil's, us with Lenin's Mausoleum . . , and as we were doing so, Ross and I noticed that our one roommate Jessi had been approached by, and was now talking to a random man who had come up from behind her and said "Good day to you." We made our way over to them, where Andrey (as we learned was his name) was apparently having difficulty speaking with Jessi but had discovered that we were from Canada, he quickly switched over to conversing with Ross - talking about hockey- and was most thrilled to hear that Ross' favorite hockey team is the Edmonton Oilers. We chatted with him for a few minutes and before continuing off in our seperate directions I dug down into the bottom of my bag (we were carrying all of our things with us since we had not yet gone to the hotel) and pulled out one of the thousands of Canadian flag pins we brought along to give as gifts (thanks Tom!) to give to him. He seemed quite pleased, and he left a very pleasant first impression upon us of the friendliness of Moscovites! (I had been losing my patience with the abrutness, and rudeness of people recently in St. Petersburg, but I am convinced that the nicest people that we have met so far in Russia, were all in Moscow - Andrey was the first)

Around 9:30 or so we had already wandered nearly halfway around the Kremlin and found its ticket office, had deposited our bags in the coat/luggage check (you aren't allowed to have any bags whatsoever or camera's in Lenin's mausoleum where we planned to go first), and had found out the times of entrance to the Kremlin's Armory which houses a collection of valuables owned by the Russian Tsars. We then made our way back to Red Square because we were all determined to lay eyes on Lenin first and since his hours of operation are limited - only from 10am - 1pm - we thought it would be wise to see him immediately before losing track of time in the Kremlin and missing our chance. However, once we arrived on Red Square we noticed that no lines were forming near the mausoleum, and no one seemed to be going in so Ross bravely approached one of the armed guards (there are about a dozen or so) guarding the area around the mausoleum and asked when it would be opening. The guard responded that the mausoleum would be closed until the 16th of April!!! As we discovered later, apparently they are in the process of changing his clothes and re-preserving his body - if only we had known this before - now we will just have to make another trip to Moscow before our time is done here.

Feeling rather disappointed about not seeing Lenin (he was #1 on my list), we bought our tickets to the Armory and for the Cathedrals of the Kremlin and then proceeded to the massive line leading into the Armory. Because of the rarity and value of the items housed here, and given that we were entering the walls of the Kremlin where Russia's President lives and works, security was tight. We had to slowly inch our way closer to the entrance, eventually passing through metal detectors and being scrutinized by yet more armed guards into the building within the Kremlin that housed the Armory's exibits. Inside we meandered through a couple of rooms which exhibited all manner of Tsarist junk! We saw case after case of tacky, over the top gold and silver platers, servers, punch bowls, vases, at least a dozen carraiges half of which belonged to one Russian Tsarina while the others belonged to another - why one woman would need 6-7 carraiges is beyond me - in general the contents of these exhibits were not of great interest to any of us. As we were leaving the Armory building however, we spotted another cash desk which was selling addmission into the "Diamond Fund" the price of entry for a foreigner was 500 rubles but we flashed our magical student cards and got in for 100! Good thing we did too, because this section of the exhibit housed a portion of the Russian Crown Jewels, and thousands of other precious stones and metals including hundreds of un-cut diamonds, and some of the largest diamonds and other gems in the world! This part of the museum was breathtaking! We even got to see the crown which was made for Catherine the Great, and was subsequently worn by all of the Russian Tsars up until Nicholas II.

Following the Armory we made our way back around the outside to the entrance which would take us to the centre of the Kremlin where all of the cathedrals are located. We passed through another set of metal detectors and once inside were herded to one side of the street by more guards - within the Kremlin there are strict rules as to where you can and cannot go owing to the fact that many of its buildings are still in use by the President and other government officials- and headed for the collection of churches in the centre. We snapped a few shots of the massive Tsar Cannon which dates back to the 1500's and is the largest ever made, and the equally striking Tsar Bell, the largest bell in the world, which was damaged and cracked in a fire and now sits at the base of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Then we proceeded to visit some of the Kremlin's many churches - I believe there are 6 or so in all - Three which we visited: The Cathedral of the Dormition completed in 1479 was where all the Tsars were crowned; the Cathedral of the Annunciation 1489; and the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael completed in 1508 is where many of the earliest Tsars of Russia are burried.

Finally, after completing our tour of the Kremlin we returned to Red Square so that we could visit St. Basil's Cathedral. St. Basil's (easily Moscow's most recognizable landmark) or the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate his defeats of the Mongols and was eventually completed in 1561. Within the church are several different chapels because initially it had been planned for a cluster of smaller churches to be built each commemorating a different saint's feast day upon which Ivan the Terrible had one specific victories. Because of its age, the interior of the building has suffered and in many places the detailing which must have once been upon every surface has been damaged and is no longer visible. Inside it is a bit like a maze with dark passages linking the different chapels to one another and heavy metal doors or bars blocking certain passages. I am sorry to say, but for some reason I am still attached to the Church-On-Spilled-Blood and think that it is far more impressive than St. Basil's. St. Basil's is beautiful, don't get me wrong, and I was definitely facinated by its history but because of the damage to its interior it just cannot compare - to me at least - with the Church-On-Spilled-Blood.

By the time we had seen all of these sites, since our night on the train had been less than restful, and because we wanted to take advantage of the daylight we decided it was time to make our way to our hotel. While leaving Red Square to head for the Metro however, we stopped for a photo op with Lenin and Stalin!!! "Look alikes" -who dont really look all that alike- are all over the place in that part of the city, but we just couldn't resist getting a photo with them, so Stalin threw his arm around me and Lenin handed Ross a red flag and Laura our photographer extrordinare snapped a couple pictures of us. Then to the Hotel: Ross and I had found the hotel on Expedia.ca of all places and had booked it because of how reasonably priced it was, and because we read that it had "Scandinavian furnishings" but its one downside was that it is located quite far from the city centre. I had copied directions down from its website however and after only one metro line transfer, and finding the right trolley bus (who's driver was supposed to be announcing the stops but instead reminded me of Charlie Brown's teachers) we soon found our hotel where we were met at the front desk by a smiling Dmitry -again demonstrative of Moscow's friendliness- who quickly set us up with our room keys. Exhausted and with sore feat we got to our room and oh was it glorious! It did not smell dusty and stuffy, the walls were not covered in wallpaper peeling at the corners, and the bed was (and again I may be biased because I have been sleeping with springs jabbing me in the neck and back for the last few weeks) fantastic: so comfortable, with sheets that didn't feel like carboard and didn't smell like fish and a duvet! Then we found our bathroom! YAY! Did I mention that our bathroom at the Gostinitsa has been nicknamed the GasChamber? Well this washroom was fantastic, with a great big shower that had an adjustable shower head, floor to ceiling tiles which of course were spottless, and soft clean towels. After just the first night I never wanted to leave! I could have stayed comfortably in that bed for a week at least.

Still to come . . . Day 2 in Moscow