On the train we slept very soundly but not nearly for long enough. 

Rolling into Moscow at 6.45 am (having got on the train at 11.15pm and finished talking by lights out at 12.30am) is definitely an experience. The invasive cold was an experience as well. The trudge through the rain to our hostel, crossing the road at the crossings even though motorists here stop only when they absolutely have to was an experience. 

Waiting in the flea-bitten looking hostel, which had a washing machine, dryer, wireless internet, and a pretty nice bathroom, until it was 9am and the pancake shop across the road would be open, was an experience. 

Eating breakfast (mushroom pancakes) and trying Kvass (a drink which looks like Guinness but is non-alcoholic and made from fermented bread) was an experience, even though our heads were spinning from fatigue. In the Cyrillic it’s spelled KBAC. 

Dragging ourselves through Moscow, through the famous department store GUM to Red Square, only to find it closed (due to it being Friday), and then finding out that our Youth Travel Cards entitled us to a huge discount on the ticket price for the Kremlin, was definitely an experience. Somehow I pictured the Kremlin as being a solely political entity put in place by previous Communist governments; in fact it contains many important churches put in place by institutions dating well before 1917. And also there’s a large collection of jewels and precious objects in the Kremlin armoury, including some incredibly beautiful Faberge eggs which were easily the highlight of the day. 

Our favourite was a golden egg with sculpted daisies ‘growing’ out the top. One-third the way down there were clock numbers spread around the circumference of the egg; the top of the egg turned and as it did so it told you the time. Also worth a mention was a horizontal egg which was entirely clear, except that it had a tiny ship inside it, and it was half-filled with glass so that the ship appeared to be floating. Of the churches in the Kremlin; there are too many and they are too spectacular to mention here; ask us about it when we get home or go see ’em for yourselves. Suffice to say there is one where most of the Tsars up to about 1600 are interrred, and in that very church there are regular hymns sung by a very talented quartet. And the resonance is unbelievable. 

In the afternoon we flaked out (and so did everyone else) and headed to the hostel for clothes washing, email checking, blog writing, photo selecting and sleeping. 

On the way to dinner we found Red Square open again and stopped for photos; and then we attempted to cram more MOSCOW into the day head first by going out for a tour of the Metro stations – many of which are spectacular – followed by an excursion to a shopping centre to grab supplies for the train the next day to… (drum roll) Siberia.

Suffice to say that many of the group were nearly asleep on the Metro, although we woke up a little bit when we came across a man clad entirely in black, with long black hair, out cold on the platform of the metro, blood around his nose, while two policemen stood over and watched him. One of the policemen had his foot squarely on what looked a lot like a Colt .45 (or perhaps something similar but smaller), and in those circumstances you wouldn’t imagine the gun belonged to the police. How it got there, I should like to know. 

In the hostel we tried really hard to go to bed but the running jokes already starting up in the group kept everyone awake and giggling for another hour, when we all willfully collapsed.   

 

Greg 

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