Moscow Day 1

Moscow Day 1

Last weekend we went to Moscow.  We were able to leave Thursday night and get back Monday morning.  It was a lot of fun.  I did a lot and it was definitely worth it!!

We left on our train about 10pm and got in Moscow at the wonderful time of 5am.  On my mission I always traveled in “kupes” which are a pretty nice was to go.  This trip we rode “platzcart” which is cheaper.  The difference is that instead of having just 4 beds (2 upper and 2 lower) behind a compartment door you have 6 beds (3 upper and 3 lower).  The normal 4 beds and then instead of a door there are 2 more beds on the other side of the wagon.  We got our tickets late and so we were stuck on the beds on the aisle.  They are also shorter because they have walls on both sides.  This was a problem.  The train ride was not pleasant because the only way I could fit on the bed was if I bent my knees but then that wasn’t very conducive to sleeping.  The other thing that prevented sleep was these two young guys (about Katie age old) that talked the whole 8 hour train ride.  It was kind of ridiculous.  But at least I didn’t fall off my bunk like I was a little worried about.

It was still dark when we arrived in Moscow and we were hungry.  We walked down the street and went in the first restaurant that we saw.  It was called Chocoladnitza.  It was really good.  I ordered kasha (porridge) with honey and cherries with apple juice to drink.  The apple juice was really good but the foam on the top was kind of weird.  I really liked the kasha.

After breakfast we set out to find our hostel.  We took the metro to the right stop and walked to the hostel.  We first went to the wrong hostel.  But they knew where we were supposed to go and pointed us in the right direction.  It was probably the same company but just a different building and manager.

We arrived too early to check in to our rooms at the hostile so we headed on the town with our backpacks to see what we could see.  We headed in the direction that we thought Red Square was.  Luckily we were going in the right way.  That was when we lost Sydney, Courtney, Marci and Ty.  Marci and Ty ended up being right behind us and so they quickly found us.  After having six of eight present we split up again to go find Sydney and Courtney.  They were found at Red Square.

The first building on Red Square we saw was the Kremlin.  The huge red brick walls are hard to miss when there aren’t buildings in the way.  Then we saw St. Basil’s Cathedral.  When I was reading about St Basil’s and from other people’s descriptions I was expecting something incredible but it didn’t take my breath away the first time I saw it.  That was because it was stormy and overcast and so therefore lacked its luster.  But when I came back at night.  WOW!!!  It was awesome.  Between St Basil’s and the GUM (the mall opposite the Kremlin) being lit up it was fantastic!

The first building we went into on Red Square was a Russian Orthodox Church.  When I went in there was a priest who was chanting and swinging some incense or something around.  He continued to sing along with these other two women.  After the singing was finished we walked around a little bit and then we left.  We then left to go into our first museum in Moscow.  It was the Historical Museum built from 1874-1883.

We didn’t stay too long at the history museum because we really wanted to eat and put our backpacks down.  So we went back to the hostel and got things situated.  Timmy, the hostel coordinator, told us to go get lunch.  We decided to split up because we wanted different things.  Katie, Sydney, Marci, Ty and Courtney went to Teremok.  Megan and Jessica went to McDonalds.  I went to a nearby convenience store to satisfy my craving for bread and juice because I unfortunately left the juice and bread I bought for the train at the ILP apartment before leaving for Moscow.  I was very satisfied by my lunch.

With eight people it is difficult to find something that everybody wants to do (just like lunch) so we split up into two groups.  I went with Katie, Jessica and Megan.  We went back to Red Square and went into St Basil’s Cathedral.  On the way there we stopped at Gostiny Dvor which was this huge building that hosts different shows.   The show this week was a fur show.  There was so much fur!

Going to St Basil’s Cathedral was incredible insightful because there were explanations and guides for each of the facades.  The explanations would give some history and then tell who each of the people in the Icons were.  That way I knew that #13 was the Apostle John and #14 was the apostle Mark and so on and so forth.

Outside of St Basil’s Cathedral there was a monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.  My new friend Dima told us the history behind this statue.  Back before the formation of the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union there were a bunch of small independent states.  In the early 1500’s Polish people started attacking some of these old states.  Minin was a merchant from Nizhny Novgorod and Pozharsky was a Prince in Moscow.  Pozharsky wrote a letter to Minin asking him to join forces against the Polish forces.  Minin accepted.  With his acceptance many other states joined also.   The combined forces repelled the Polish forces and that was the beginning of the Russian Empire.

We walked to the other side of the Historical Museum and found a line of street vendors.  We talked a little with them but weren’t ready to make any bargains yet.  Then we saw this mall that was almost completely underground and that perked my interest.  At that mall we charged Katie’s ipod in the Apple store for a couple minutes.  While there the salesman was very excited that we were from America.  He said that he really wanted to go to America.  Makes sense because Apple products are less expensive back in America.  There are less shipping charges.  After that mall we went and saw the GUM and St Basil’s all lit up with lights and then went back to the Hostel to go to bed.  St Basil’s, as I said earlier, was absolutely fantastic at night all lit up.