day 100, moscow

As Brian said, I slept like the dead yesterday night and it was amazing. We were meeting at ten so I sorted meself out with some scrambled eggs on toast  (which was fabulous) and had an amazing shower then moved onto the red square and the kremlin via the metro. We got our tickets for the armoury chamber and a few churches with student discount (it’s ridiculous in Russia, verges from two thirds off to completely free) and went in to the armoury chamber. Inside was various items of Russian culture, from prince’s cots, dinner sets, Faberge eggs, swords and armour, carriages (just like the one that the queen was in, you know the gold one, that she rode round for her golden jubilee or summat), amazing dresses and suits and general outfits which was excellent, then from there we went onto a few churches which were scattered around the kremlin which was very cool. After that we went wandering down a big pedestrian avenue and figuring out where to eat, ended up at this japenese/traditional Russian joint and had a “business lunch” which consisted of Borsch (excellent) and two mains, pork in a sauce with potatoes and chicken again with a sauce and vegetables and rice which was cracking, I tagged team the two of them and washed it down with a cuppa. From there we went to the space museum which was super cool, it was situated in a good area where they had quite a few things of visual interest, including a huge shuttle monument, the shuttle itself was small but it was really high up this huge silver thing which looked like it was taking off. Inside had all the usual space stuff but it’s never boring and continually fascinates me how they think and then implement everything, makes me giggle just imaging the packing list for a journey into space. After that we only went to the bloody circus! We got tickets mostly all together (split into two) and it was an amazing permanent building and was fantastic, thoroughly enjoyed everything about the circus, the amazing acrobats, the slightly rubbish clowns, the gymnastics, the little dogs doing tricks, the ballet dancers, the fillers, more acrobats and tight rope walkers, a shit magic act (who were also the ballerinas) more acrobats/gymnasts, model aeroplane stunt flying, 8 girls dancing with a horse which was bizarre and general things like that. The only down note of the experience was when a golf cart came out with 4 monkeys varying in size, from relatively small to fuck off massive and were leashed and forced to do shit things, like hold a guitar and jump up and down and smack it’s hands. They didn’t seem to be enjoying it and the handlers were quite aggressive and it was not entertaining in the least, regardless of the animal welfare issue which was a shame, however as a whole I loved it. We hadn’t been back to the hostel since 10 that day and got back at 10 so we were all knackered, so made a shit dinner, showers and monged about, before 5 of us, kelly, bryan, kim, andy and me decided to go for a walk to see the red square at night, which was magnificent. The shopping centre which reminded me of st pancras and was rather grand was all lit up to make it look like Christmas, and the kremlin and St Basil’s cathedral was all lit up, it was raining which my imagination turned to snow and it was magic. Was really cool to walk around moscow in the night and see things lit up and lots of little cool things, like the water cannon street cleaners who turn up their cannons to get the tramp who is stood by the centre of Russia picking up the coins where people flick coins and make wishes, and the lack of underpasses and eight lane traffic all in one way in the middle of the city. We got back to the hostel around 2 and hit the hay as soon as a shower, ready to wake up to sort out breakfast and 3 and half days of food for the train which we’re catching at half 11!