Sunday morning we got a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and
then headed to the Kremlin. There aren’t
very many places that you allowed to go in the Kremlin but the armory is one of
them. In the armory they have a lot of
relics from the 15th to the 20th century. There were Bible covers and other religious
paraphernalia and regular plates and goblets. We also passed antique clothes
worn by royalty, Maria Fyodrovna was incredible skinny when she was coroneted,
and a couple thrones and crowns. I was
impressed by the stagecoaches and the sled that royalty would ride in. They were very big and looked somewhat
comfortable with their big cushions.
Before we went into the Kremlin we saw our first “forever
flame” of the day and our first one in Moscow.
Also situated by the Kremlin are some gardens and some fountains. Russians do love their fountains.
We then met up with everybody else and we were all together
for a little while. We first walked on
top of a mall that we had been to earlier which was pretty cool. Then we walked down the street in search of
the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
The problem was trying to get across the street. It was a street with six lanes of traffic
that seemed to be constantly coming.
There really didn’t seem like there was a break but Megan just wanted to
run across. That would have been really
dangerous! But instead of probably dying
we went around the corner and actually found the place we were supposed to
cross the street. It was better this way
because then we actually found the museum.
If we would have j-walked then we would have not found the museum
probably.
I really enjoyed the Pushkin Museum. It was a special collections art museum of
paintings and figurines. We all started
out together on the main floor and on the 3rd or 4th
painting I asked Marci, “So what do you see in this painting?” She replied, “I really like these kinds of
paintings. This one is very calming with
its color.” Then we all seemed to go our
own ways. Some faster, some slower. I enjoyed myself a lot in the museum.
There was an old guy (like 65 years old) in the coatroom
that took me of guard. He asked if any
of us spoke Russian. Everybody looked at
me and I said I did. So then he asked
what some English word was in Russian that I don’t remember. Then he asked what a Russian word in English
was. I translated the word to mean ‘be
quiet’ but the dictionary he looked at said ‘shut up.’ At first I slipped and told him that that was
a more vulgar way of saying it but then said that it was stronger. ‘Be quiet’ was more pleasant to hear and he
should say that. I was totally taken by
surprise because I didn’t expect a guy that old to speak English as well as he
did.
It was at this time that the other group left to go to the
open market and buy souvenirs while Katie, Megan, Jessica and I stayed close
and went to the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior.
It was a magnificent cathedral.
We didn’t go inside because we were pretty sick of being inside but we
saw it from the outside and it was really cool.
There were a lot of statues on the outside walls that we could see and
were really cool.
Right there close there is a statue to Emperor Alexander
II. The sign says paraphrased, “He got
rid of serfdom in 1861 and freed millions of peasants from many centuries of
slavery. He held many war and legal
reforms for the instigation of self-ruling government and farming
practices. He fought many wars in the
Caucasian area. He freed soviet people
from the ‘osmansky’ occupation. He died
on March 1, 1881 as a result of a terrorist act.”
We walked across this bridge to get a better view of the
Cathedral of Christ Our Savior and plus to look at the city over water. That was really cool. Then we happened to run into a couple clear
boxes that had various things from Italy.
There was one with a motorcycle and Vespa. In another there was a sweet
Ferrari. There were also two big heads;
one made of grapes, the other made from macaroni.
We saw a couple more churches and then found the metro so
that we could go somewhere else in the city.
I tried to ask a couple people where the nearest metro stop was but they
just kept walking. Then I asked this
other guy with a little kid and he told me to keep walking straight until the
light and then turn right and I would see it.
We rode the metro a little ways to Park Pobedi (Victory Park)
When we got off at Park Pobedi there were a bunch of exits
and so I was looking out the exits and I saw this big bridge and I thought, “Oh!
That’s cool! I want to go see
that.” We went and saw this arch. It was called the Triumphal Gate of
Moscow. It was about this time that I
thinking this is awesome. I don’t really
need to go to Europe now. I bet the Arc
de Triumph looks a lot like this and so I have seen that and the Hermitage is
comparable to the Louvre. I am glad I
came to Russia. The Triumphal Gate was
situated in the middle of a really busy street.
There were four lanes of traffic on each side that seemed to ALWAYS be
flowing.
Also at this metro stop there was this huge monument to
World War II. It was at this time I kind
of felt bad that I don’t know very much about WWII or The Great Patriotic War
as Russians call it. This was definitely
one of my favorite places that I visited here in Moscow even though we only
spent an hour here. Marci, do you
remember when Sveta was talking about the place “Poklonnaya Gora?” Well this is where it was. I didn’t realize it until I was looking at my
pictures and read some of the signs I just took pictures of. Poklonnaya Gora literally means “bow down/
worship hill.” So it is very important to Russians also.
I am getting ahead of myself. There was a huge open square and on the left
there was a big hill. On the hill there
was Moscow in flowers and a huge clock.
The really cool thing was that the clock actually worked!
Walking towards the huge obelisk on the left were monuments
to each of the forces that fought in the war and the years in the middle. For example there was the Black Sea group
commanded by Admiral F. S. Octyabersky and the Baltic group commanded by
Admiral V. F. Tributs.
Approaching the obelisk was amazing! It was incredible tall! Looking on Wikipedia it says that the obelisk
is 141.8 meters tall, which is 10 cm for every day of the War. In front of the tower is the Coat of Arms for
Moscow. Saint George is depicted being
victorious over a dragon. On one of the
pictures you can see that the dragon has Nazi/Fascist swastikas and that the
dragon has been cut into many pieces. It
showed that Russia won over Germany.
On the close inspection of the obelisk you can see different
cities that were were very critical to the victory of the Soviet Union; i.e.
Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Kiev, Minsk along with many others. They were the same ones that were given
stones at the Kremlin and hung on banners in Chelyabinsk around Victory Day
(May 9th).
After admiring the obelisk I saw the second ‘eternal flame’
of the day. I love this idea. A symbol to remember WWII each Russian city
has a flame that is supposed to be allows lit.
Then I went down some stairs because I saw this monument and
thought it would be interesting. It
was! It was also kind of
disturbing. I didn’t know what it was
all about when I was taking pictures. Upon returning home I asked Oleg, my host
dad, and he explained it. He said that
this monument was to remember the repression of Stalin on the Russian
people. He then had me look on Wikipedia
to learn more. On Wikipedia the article
was called the “Great Purge” which was when Stalin purged the government of all
the people that didn’t or wouldn’t see eye-to-eye with him. The plates behind the people say “Let it be a
sacred memory of them that will remain throughout the centuries.”
Another monument at this same place was to remember the
countries participating Anti-Hitler Coalition.
Yet another reason I really like this part of Moscow was
that the trees were absolutely beautiful.
The leaves were changing and there were wonderful greens, yellows,
oranges and browns. I also loved how far
you could see. There were plenty of
apartment buildings but they were quite a ways in the distance. I felt like I could farther than I have any
other place in Moscow which made me feel less trapped in.
But then it was time to go back to the Hostel so that we
could gather our stuff, go to dinner and make it back to our train at 9:27.
It wasn’t until I was leaving the hostel that I finally took
a picture of it. The hostel was called
“Za Za Zoo” and they had a wall that you could write a nice note on. Megan wrote two things.
For dinner we went to the restaurant Mu Mu. It was like a buffet. There was a bunch of
prepared food laid out and we just pointed what we wanted and then we were given
some. Usually you try and get combos so
that it will be cheaper but I was super hungry and plus I was going to be on a
train so I got everything. Salad, soup,
main dish, dessert and strawberry drink.
The salad was lettuce and tomatoes with olives and a nice dressing. I had borsch for soup. The only thing I was disappointed by was the
chicken. It didn’t taste that good. But
the mashed potatoes and the chocolate cake were excellent. Then my strawberry drink had actually
strawberries in it and that was awesome.
In the picture with my food I am sporting my new Kremlin museum t-shirt.
We finished eating and then had a little bit of time before
we needed to be at the metro station to meet up with the other group because
they went to get Thai food. We went to a
convenience store and bought a couple liters of water which I was glad
for. Then with a little extra time we
fast walked to GUM to try and find us some “I love Moscow” shirts. But because we were running low on time and
we weren’t finding any place where we could buy the shirts.
Getting on the train back to St Petes was kind of
stressful. My group ended up getting to
the train station at like 8:45 which was a normal time. But the other group (Marci, Courtney, Sydney
and Ty) hadn’t come yet. I was worried
and so I stayed outside the metro stop at the train station until they
came. I wouldn’t feel good about just
leaving other people in Moscow to fend for themselves to get back to St Petes,
especially if I could have helped them.
When Jessica and Megan were freaking out that we needed to get on the
train I thought of a Disney Movie.
“Ohana means nobody gets left behind.”
So everybody stuck it out because Megan, Jessica and Katie didn’t know
where to go and so they had to wait for me to follow. Then I saw the other group and I made sure
that they saw me and then I was off. I
am a pretty good speed walker I have found out.
We walked straight but then hit a road block. We were going the wrong way. In front of us were the suburban trains that
went only a short distance. Then one of
the security guards asked us where we were going and I said to Saint Petersburg.
He pointed us in the right direction. We
passed through the door we were just about where we needed to be. We were on platform 4 instead of 5 and so we
made that quick walk and then made the longer walk to the 12th wagon. We got on the train and still had like 15
minutes or something. Maybe only 10
minutes. But we made it.
I had a top bunk going perpendicular to the direction of the
train and that was SO much better than the train ride to Moscow. I didn’t immediately go to bed but instead
wrote down my comparison between Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Then once I did that then I went and found
Marci, Courtney and Sydney because I knew that they would still be awake. I showed them my comparison and they
approved. Then we talked for a while
longer. Courtney then asked me if I
would talk to the conductor lady to see about moving beds so that she was
closer to Marci and Sydney. I asked but
the conductor said no. It was then at
that time that I laid in my bed and went to sleep. And what a glorious sleep it was. I was ready to go once we arrived here in St
Petes at 5:15am.
We then found our way to the metro, waited like 20 minutes
for it to open, and then rode that home.
I then walked to my host family’s apartment and got on the internet
because by then it was like 6:30am and I thought that they would be getting up
soon. It took them longer to get up then
I expected but I was happy with what I was doing.
I didn’t take a nap the whole day because I really didn’t
need it. I am not counting the 5 minutes
that I was asleep at the old kg when we were waiting for lunch after
teaching. Then at night I didn’t go to
bed until 11pm because I was talking to Oleg about my trip to Moscow. You might ask when I caught up on my
sleep. I may have gone to sleep at 11pm
but I didn’t wake up until 10:30am the next morning because I don’t teach in
the morning on Tuesdays.
I believe that about sums up my trip in Moscow. I was very glad that I went. I learned a lot in Moscow. Dima was a huge help and I am grateful for
him. I also left Moscow with questions
and I have been able to get some answers to these questions here in St
Petes. I still have lots to learn though
and am glad that I still have a couple more months to learn even more about
Russia. Russia definitely has a rich,
fascinating history.
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