Moscow

I felt that the whole mess at the embassy had put a serious wrench in our sight seeing schedule, I had hoped to go and see Lenin that morning. Over lunch we both agreed to put off visiting the Kremlin to the next day when hopefully I would be calmer and catch the Metro to go and see the Novodevicy Convent. Moscow sits on the Moscow river and like the River Thames in London the river loops around creating a meander. The convent sits on a piece of land bordered by the meander on three sides.Jenny had recommended that we come to see the convent, the outside at least and also to go to the cemetery behind it. We found the convent O.K. and it was closed, which we knew, we set about finding the entrance to the cemetery. We ended up walking around the whole thing, par for the course, If only one of us had said to turn left in front of the main gates instead of both of us going right! I don't think it's ever going to happen that Anna and I will take the short way when there is a much longer route available to us!! In the cemetery we hoped to see the graves of Nikita Khrushchev and Boris Yeltsin. At the entrance they have security guards, all dressed in black, I wondered if they were going to check our bags on the way in, but they didn't. There is a map of the cemetery showing all the graves, of course it is in Cyrillic. Anna and I puzzled over it for all of a minute and then we went and grabbed one of the security guards. I am getting braver at asking people for help now. He was great, he showed us where the two graves were that we wanted to see and threw in details on where Gorbachev and Anton Chekhov's graves were. Cool. I took a photo of the map and off we went.
Yeltsin`s grave is very cool, it is built in the shape of a rippling flag, the flag being that of the then new Russian Federation. I walked past it the first time thinking that it was just a sculpture. Then it was on to what I thought was Gorbachev`s grave. It took a little finding but I think we were both surprised when we did find it as it had a statue of a woman on it. We didn't think anymore about it, took a photo and continued to wander around the cemetery. Like the cemetery in Yekaterinburg this one also has a lot of trees so you are not greeted by a wide open vista. I think this makes it more intimate and peaceful.Some of the memorials are truly amazing, they really do seem to celebrate the person interred beneath them.Every now and then I would run into a tour group, this actually came in handy when it came to finding Khrushchev's grave. Despite this it's an amazingly peaceful and beautiful place. An unusual sightseeing spot I know, it is.....We left the cemetery and walked along the bottom of the loop to the river, we crossed over and went into Gorky Park.
The park is huge and there are no maps in English or Cyrillic.We got lost and had to climb over a wall, when we got to the other side we were in the grounds of some institute.I only got nervous when I saw the guard at the entrance, we got out O.K. and went back into the park proper. We left the park and walked up to a roundabout to see a statue of Lenin. I can't imagine what it was like before 1989 in Moscow but now there just aren't that many statues of the communist leaders in the city centre. A lot of them were taken down. After the statue we decided that it had been a long day and we needed a drink. On the way to the park we passed the Muzeon Arts Park, I said no to going in. Although it was on my list of stuff to do, I was simply too tired and I wanted to spend some time there, I didn't want to rush my visit just so I could "tick" it off my list. We found the bar, sat out on the terrace and enjoyed a couple of beers. I felt as if I had been walking all day, I was so tired. After the beers it was back to the hostel, grabbing something to eat from the supermarket on the way. I went straight to bed, I could shower in the morning.
I was up early again the next day and I was excited, we were going to the Kremlin today. Cool! I had said that I couldn't walk back to the sculpture park, it's right across the city from where we were staying,we caught the Metro. It's amazing how much quicker you can get somewhere when you know where you are going, the trip from the Metro station was plain sailing. We had to pay to go in, but it was so worth it. The statues of the former leaders are very cool and well worth seeing but they aren't the only things to see there. The park is also home a lot of modern art. I don't always understand modern art but I felt better able to cope with some of the sculptures I saw there than those I have previously seen in MOMA. it was a nice start to the day. Our route to the Kremlin took us along the river and we got to see the monument to Peter the Great. He started the Russian Navy which explains why he is stood astride a galleon in the statue. I didn't know this at the time but the statue has been voted the 10th ugliest building in the world. Moscow City tried to get it relocated to St. Petersburg but they refused. I actually really like and think it's an awesome landmark. Poor Peter!
As I walked across the river in front of the Kremlin I was able to get some amazing photos, well I think they're amazing. For me part of it is just being in such an iconic place. A place that I've seen on T.V. hundreds of times but never thought I would visit. Not because I couldn't but because it hadn't crossed my mind that I wanted to. In fact I hadn't ever really considered visiting Russia and if it hadn't have been on the train route home, I never would have visited here. That's a cumbersome sentence, I am never going to be a successful novelist! Kremlin means fort in Russian and this is exactly what it is. It contains the parliament, former palaces and churches of Russia's ruling elite. Of course now the ruling elite is an elected one instead of an hereditary one. I was a bit disappointed with my visit. All you can see on the basic ticket is the outside of the Parliament, the Armoury, the inside of three churches,which you can't take photos of and the Kremlin gardens. The interior of the churches are incredibly beautiful but once you've seen one church, the next church has to be pretty special to arose any real interest. Outside of the Kremlin walls is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we decided to come back later that afternoon to see the changing of the guard and made our way to see the Karl Marx statue. The statue stands in it's own small square and it feels like it's only a matter of time before it is moved. It is steps away from a brand new hotel and is in a prime location.Across the street from the statue is the Bolshoi Theatre, Anna and I had tried to get tickets for the ballet but they were no performances while we were in town as we had arrived on a Monday and would leave on the Friday afternoon. I took a photo of Anna in front of the theatre, doing a ballet pose. When we left several other women were following her example!
We spent some of the afternoon sat in a park drinking beer, we are two classy chicks. It was another blazing hot day. All through this trip I have been hoping for cooler weather. When I left Phan Thiet the rainy season had just started and the temperatures were nudging up to 34C. When I had checked the weather in UB, the forecast had said it would be in the late teens, that was wrong. Irkutsk had also been hot and now Moscow was hot, so far only Yekaterinburg had been cool. It was nice just to sit and relax, I felt as if I had walked miles again that day. We went back down to the Kremlin and waited for the Changing of the Guard, some of the time we sheltered under a tree as a thunder storm broke out over our heads. Then the guards came out, it was very short and disappointing. There was none of the gun twirling that I had seen at Arlington, the new guards just marched up to the old guards,saluted, swapped places and that was that. Blink and you would miss it! Not impressed.
For dinner we actually made it to a restaurant, it had been recommended in Moscow Time Out. We had to be buzzed into the restaurant, which I thought was a bit odd but O.K.. We both ordered Borscht, I haven't eaten much traditional Russian food as yet and since we only had one more full day in the country thought it was about time. The restaurant was out of Borscht. My pancakes were good, as was the beer but I couldn't get over the disappointment of no soup. We were back in the hostel for 8pm, which was nice in a way. The two other nights I had pretty much gone straight to bed as soon as arrived back there. At least this way I had time to sit,relax and chat to someone other than Anna.Another day done, another day closer to being home.