Moscow

I was finally able to visit Pat in Russia for the last week of May (he had been there since the beginning of April and since I had never been there, I was really excited to visit). I arrived on a Friday evening, basically from Maui via LA, Chicago & London, so we decided to order room service and call it a night. We were really hoping to be able to make the most of the weekend, since he did not have to work. The weather, unfortunately, was appropriately “soviet” – cold and rainy. At least, that is what I would consider to be soviet weather. I am sure that many of the people we passed in Red Square would disagree with me (although I can not confirm since we could not understand what they were saying. But they were definitely protesting something).

Anyway, the awful weather was quite a shock to my system, coming from paradise. And it made sightseeing miserable. Even more miserable than it already is in place that stinks. I mean literally, smells very very badly. Pat always teases that I have the nose of the dog, but he wholeheartedly agrees that Moscow is one big ashtray. With a rotting onion in it. EWW. Yes, I will say it again. EWW.

So after you get over the awful smell and miserable weather, Moscow has some very historical and lovely sights to see. On Saturday walked around Red Square and the GUM. During Soviet times the GUM was the state operated department store, now it is a very big, very nice mall with stores ranging from Hermes, Dior, Gucci to Motorola and Zara. The ironic thing is the bathroom, or should I say toilet. Or maybe just hole in the floor. Yep, that is what it was. So after casually sauntering past D&G (guess who won’t let me go inside), I found myself in that line. Luckily I noticed everyone grabbing little sheets of tissue before heading into the stalls (at least there were stalls!). It wasn’t “hole” like outhouse, it was more like a metal rectangle in the ground, with a urinal shaped hole, and a foot outline on either side to show you where to stand. And a little trash bin for your tissue. That’s right, no flusher. It was eerily outdated and hi-tech at the same time. Very odd.

Here is a picture of us in front of St Basil’s, one of the most photographed things in Moscow. It seems so out of place to me, being that it is so colorful and playful looking. But it is truly beautiful. The inside, however, ick. You guessed it, stinky! I can barely look at that picture without the stench coming back to me. It is not one big space, but 9 separate churches, so very small and enclosed spaces.

You have to look very closely, but we are barely in this picture to the bottom-left of St Basil's:



Here is the Red Square:



Sunday we walked around the inside mall a little bit, just to look at the stores and gasp at the prices. It is underground and was between our hotel and Red Square. And yes, uper stinkalicious.

Then we went to visit Lenin. Sorry comrade, but capitalism is now at work in your name! There was a huge line and the mausoleum was only open for another 45 minutes so we were worried about making it in time. Then a guy with a badge came up to us, and in perfect English he offered his services: if we paid him to be our guide, we would supposedly skip the line. It was only $10 each, so we took the chance. The funny thing is that he only “guided” to where we had to check our cameras, water bottles, & big bags, took us to the front of the line and then he was gone. That was it. His sole purpose was to get us to take us to the guards at the front of the line. And he had a badge, so this was an official capacity, not some self-nominated position. A little ironic, ay? From there we were on our own to make the walk down the length of Red Square, past many busts of other comrades. Then we finally arrived at the actual mausoleum and there are military guards everywhere, lots. It was very very dark, with a red glow. He is in a glass case in the middle of the room, you walk around 3 sides of him. And you are not allowed to stop. The people in front of us did and were berated by the scary Russian military guys. There was no music, no information about him, his life, his death, the revolution. Nothing! Just his weird body (which to me look more like just a head & arms) and that red glow.

We couldn't take a picture of Lenin, but here is a picture from the web and he hasn't moved much.



We stayed at 2 great hotels during my week in Moscow and went to couple yummy dinners. Here is a picture of the view from our breakfast table at the first hotel:



This is us at the rooftop sushi restaurant at our second hotel. Check out those cool chairs!



Here is a view from the roof after dinner. It is hard to tell with this picture, but it was really light out even though it was almost midnight. In the summer, parts of Russia have only a couple hours of night, while in the winter they have only a couple hours of daylight. It was so weird!



This is us at a cool restaurant in Moscow. It was very Versaille; the décor and the servers’ clothing was all “Marie Antionette”, but the menu however, was quite eclectic – Asian and European, but not French! This is us in front of the moving centerpiece in the main dining room. A couple days later we saw the original at the Hermitage!



More on Russia later . . . we spent an amazing weekend in St Petersburg (the anti-Moscow!).