Moscow

Privet!

Moscow. My first Russian experience. First off, we were separated into small groups to get around the city in so we would attract less attention. When I first found this out I was extremely intimidated and had no idea what to expect in the large city of Moscow. Moscow is HUGE, GINORMOUS, for those who don't know. So we followed our trusty leader Vaiva. Oh and walking around streets with only Russian letters is super stressful. Although I will say, since I spent a week in Russia I now feel much more comfortable with sounding the letters out. It started with understanding the word Pectopah. That word translated is restaurant. So P makes an R sound, h makes an N sound and so on. Once I understood that things got much more familiar.

Subway map

So the subway is NUTS! Thus I never attempted to navigate it alone.

Our first day we took a 3 hour tour of the Kremlin.. Somewhat unenjoyable for me. But I will say Catherine the Great was crazy! So I guess learning about her was entertaining to say the least. Hannah V. and I saw some woman wearing snow pants, which caught us up in uncontrollable laughter (we're both from CA and it was not that could out). Haha.

St Basils

We spent a lot of time in Red Square. This is where you can see the beautiful St. Basil's Cathedral. I have a few pictures of it on this post because it is so beautifully ornate.

Our first night we went to the Russian Circus. It was really hard for me to watch. Some of the acts were alright, and tolerable. But some other acts were really hard for me to swallow. Example, the bears. Those poor bears. Bears were not meant to be jumping on wooden beams, or riding motorcycles, or running on their hind legs. It was so unnatural. So wrong. There were a few other acts that were really hard to watch too. Overall it was disappointing to see that, but also disappointing that it affected my whole night. I would say majority of us were upset about it.

Christ the Savior

The next day we went into St. Basils - which was a waste of 50 roubles. It was just a bunch of small rooms with icons and really confusing. I got lost trying to find the exit.

We also went to Christ the Savior Cathedral. It was really beautiful. There was also a service going on while we were in there. Some people said it was a memorial, some people said it was some sort of initiation. Whatever it was, it was moving. The inside of the church was breathtaking, the choir from the balcony was so comforting, and people praying with icons was fascinating. I could've stayed in there all day. Instead we all went to a souvenir  market. I was overwhelmed so I only bought two matryoshka dolls.

Then we walked around a some people went to starbucks (lame and expensive). Some people went back to the hostel after eating dinner, but Hecker and I found a cafe called Chocolate in Russian. We sat their and talked and enjoyed coffee and desserts.

The next day consisted of seeing Lenin's body. Waxy weird. It was super trippy. But super cool too because there are whispers going around about finally burying the body... or at least what's left of the body. It was strange to see the placement and presence of his tomb in the middle of red square. I didn't really understand why the Russians give him such a presence. The same day we went to a museum that was prominently Russian art, and I enjoyed the pieces that were very Matisse/Cezanne/Picasso - esque. Maybe I'll do a post on what I saw. Hm.

That night we were leaving on a train to get to Saint Petersburg. That was an adventure. Basically Keziah, Hecker and I got lost. REALLY lost. And somehow by the grace of God we ran into the trip leader, Emas, and he kicked us back to the hostel. It was literally like boot camp. Sprinting. Speedwalking. Stairs. Sprinting. It was chaos. We made everyone late and stressed out. But we made it to the train in the knick of time. Just thinking about it I shake my head at how we got so lost. We were talking about it with Emas on the train home and there is still no explanation. But to our defense Red Square was closed and there are absolutely no crosswalks above ground, so finding an underground crosswalk was really complicated. But that's the stuff memories are made of, so all I can do is laugh about it now.

I'll update on St. Pburg tomorrow. It's late. I am tired.

Cheers all!
Paje (when the lithuanian speakers say pawhey it sounds like pothead.. thus I acquired a new nickname on the trip).

ps. joke of the trip:  If someone were to get pregnant abroad in Russia and they were having a little girl they could name the little girl Matryoshka, and tell their parents they brought them a matryoshka doll from Russia! What a souvenir! hahahaha.