Russia, Moscow

Monday 7th August

Spent the entire day in Pobedy Park next to the hostel just chilling out, passing time and relaxing before our 8hr train to Moscow at 11pm tonight. We'd met a wonderful Indian submarine officer and he wanted to spend the last few hours of our St Petersburg stay with us. He's been so helpful offering endless valuable information on dealing with very real situations in Moscow. At 9.30pm we made our way to Moskovsky station where the rather smart long distance sleeper train was waiting. We boarded, showing our passports and tickets and found our very comfortable 4-berth compartment - complete with purple curtains [just for David, his favourite colour]!! Included in the ticket price for our 2nd class ticket, was a substantial amount of snack food, breakfast yoghurts, water, chocolates, clean linen and and an airline-type pack of toothbrush etc... Impressed, we settled down for the night with our 1 other "compartment mate", an elderly and friendly Russian chap. Lulled to sleep by the gentle rhythmic rocking of the train, we were all woken up 20 minutes before arrival in Moscow's Leningradsky station. If last nights sleep was anything to go by, the Trans Mongolian should be really great.

Russian Cyrillic, Registration Procedures and Crooked Cops

Tuesday 8th August

If last night was all about relaxing, catching up on sleep and de-stressing, then our arrival in Moscow was all about becoming unrelaxed again. The stories you hear of the police corruption and being stopped and inquisitioned are oh so very real here. At 7am the train pulled into the huge station and somehow we founed our way to the underground merely by searching out the small "M" that indicates the Metro - kind of hidden away amongst the heaps of Russian and cyrillic! Whilst I guarded the packs, David fought the crowds to buy us some metro tickets. Then for the descent into the depths of the earth. Moscow's metro used to double as air raid shelters in the war so they are quite deep down. As long as you know exactly which station you intend going to, it's not TOO difficult to negotiate your way around - that plus some basic knowledge of cyrillic [which we're slowly coming to recognize]!! We surfaced at our hostel's closest metro but got lost trying to find it. 45 minutes later we'd retraced our steps and found out that the place was a mere 2 minutes walk away from the tube!! NOT what our directions indicated. Up the stairs we went and found we had to wait [again] until 1pm for the visa registration lady to "do the deed" to make us legal in Moscow! Such bureacratic procedures. In fact this hostel doesn't do free registration - being more of a homestay/apartment - but the owner has a "deal" going with a woman who works at a local hotel [doing registrations legally]. The 2 are obviously friends so they are in fact pocketing all this money on the side for themselves. Such are the ways in Russia. Everyone is out for an extra buck. We were emphatically told that should the police stop us to check our documents, that we were not staying at our present hostel, but at the hotel of the visa registration lady!! The procedure was all above board for us - but it's the Russian women who are taking the chance. As tourists here we are obliged to go along with the registration procedure because we cannot walk on the streets with any peace of mind unless we are registered. Once all this was done, we ventured out to book our Trans Mongolian train tickets as we'd planned to get all these "chores" done before doing the sights! Before leaving the hostel we made the owner translate our ticket dates and requirements into Russian for us, so that we could just produce this at the ticket counter! This had been successful in St Petersburg, so why not here? Hah! think again!! Basically the class of ticket we wanted "wasn't available" or was "fully booked"!! The babushka behind the counter wasn't at all interested in other options so we went next door to the "service centre" to get advice but had to pay a surcharge for our tickets! This was worth the extra bucks. We produced our translated sheet of paper and got what we wanted, including a smile from the clerk! What a performance just to buy some tickets. T

The stress was mounting, the hidden eyes around the streets were watching us and everytime we saw cops we either crossed the street or ducked into a shop. You feel so paranoid. The "new Russia" hasn't quite hit Moscow yet and I can only imagine what life must have been like in communist times. No feeling of individuality or privacy! Scary really. Most people we've spoken to who have been to Moscow, say they cannot wait to leave the place. They rush around the main sights and get out!! We returned to the hostel only to have this paranoia justified when 2 English guys, who had been to the British Embassy to do something, had been intercepted by the police right outside the embassy door, and they were asked to hand over their passports and documents. Luckily the embassy official had seen this and told the police their fortune and explained that HE required the passports for official use!! But the cheek of it - right on what should actually be "British soil".

Wed 9th August

2nd day here but another one of "chores"! Red Square and The Kremlin are literally around the corner from us but we still haven't set eyes on them! Instead we needed to visit the Mongolian embassy to get our visa. We arrived between the stipulated hours, casually walzed into the building, wandered up the stairs, grabbed an application form, gave them all they needed and left! Such a simple and uncomplicated process compared to the Chinese embassy in St Petersberg. The Mongolian place had no security whatsoever - it was like walking into any shop on the high street! We returned at 2.30pm to fetch the visas as we'd requested a one-day service. Pretty expensive but worth it. Our planned 2 weeks in Mongolia may well now turn into a whole month! We have 30 days and we've been chatting to a guy who has just been there and he reckoned even 1 month isn't enough in this incredible country, brimming with hospitable Mongols, wild horses and the vast Gobi desert plains, criss-crossed by Bactrian 2-humped wild camels. Returning to the hostel we experienced furthur fun and games on the metro when we had to negotiate 3 line changes which necessitated lengthy tunnel walks underground - with all signage totally undecipherable! Using colours, line numbers and recognising an odd word or place name we miraculously worked out the cyrillic code. This really is hard work! Not to mention the continual uncomfortable feelings of being watched everywhere you go, the surly, abrupt and almost rude mannerisms of most Moscow Russians and the language barrier!. For us it's a true Soviet cultural experience. It's not in my nature to be aggressive or rude, but somehow that's just how you have to be in order to get anywhere in this city. These are the travel experiences you read about and in reality it forces you to make some, albeit temporary, disturbing mental adjustments! It also forces you to step into Russian people's shoes and makes you understand a little bit about just how awful an existence they must have lived during the Soviet times. Moscovites hardly smile, they appear hard, tough and look straight ahead all the time. The city is swarming with uniformed army/police uniforms!

Thursday 10th August

Red Square, St Basils Cathedral, Lenins Mausoleum and the Kremlin. The 4 biggest sights in Moscow. The weather's changing. It's noticeably colder and some say that winter is on the way! Can that be, it's only August? It can snow in October in Siberia and Mongolia so maybe it is!! Anyway, wandering around Red Square we were surprised by how much smaller it is than we'd imagined. The wide cobbled square has the N.E wall of the Kremlin on one side, Lenis Mausoleum on the same side, St Basils Cathedral at one end and the Old State History Museum the opposite end and the GUM shopping arcade [a la Harrods] across from Lenins tomb. A point of interest: the name "Red Square" has no connection whatsover with communism [as we thought], but is derived from the original red cobblestones first laid here. Today the stones are grey [!] but instead, most of the surroundings buildings are red!! St Basils Cathedral, nicknamed 'pineapple church' by Victorian travellers, is as impressive as all the pics of it portray. It has 9 brightly painted, dis-similar domes and stuns the visual senses. Quite unique. The GUM shopping arcade, with it's upmarket stores, is a monument to Soviet shortages and externally is just like Harrods in London. Lenin's Mausoleum is a red granite tomb where Lenins wax-like mummy lays at rest for all the world to gawk at. We didn't go in but have been told that it's a rather morbid and macabre sight to see, with Lenin lying there, totally preserved in a dark suit and tie.

The Kremlin is the heart and seat of Russian government. The entire complex is set within 2 and a half square km of ground and it's amazing to think, that along with the USA Presidents in the White House, this is where all the big Russian "cheeses" hang out!! On Thursdays [today] the Kremlin is closed to visitors so going inside wasn't an option.

Friday 11th August

The weather's not being kind to us as we woke up to pouring rain. It did let up mid morning so we took the chance and headed to the Kremlin. That queue - so long - put us off, so we thought Gorky park, way up along the river would be a great option. We passed the beautiful golden-domed Cathedral of Christ The Saviour and the totally outsized monolithic statue dedicated to Peter The Great. They say it's taller than New York's Statue of Liberty, excluding the base, and rises out of a small island in the middle of the Moskva river. Behind it, the Red October Chocolate factory emits some powerfully rich and sweet aromas! Gorky Park, featured in some prominent movies, is now home to a large fairground. There's an entrance fee even to just stroll around, so instead we crossed the road to visit the Sculpture Park - a garden filled with - what else, sculptures! Our walk back took us along the opposite bank of the Moskva river where we ended up again at the red Kremlin walls.