Friday morning we had our breakfast cooked for us yet again, this time it was a porridge, mixed with apple and cinnamon which we both thoroughly enjoyed and set us up well for the day. We didn't get out the hostel until quite late on in the morning and it had turned into a lovely day, pushing 28 degrees, which is quite rare for that time of year in Mosocw. We followed our same route into the centre of the city but took a right just before we hit Red Square. In the distance, through the Moscow haze, we could see a huge Russian Orthodox cathedral, so we walked in the direction of that. No matter how far we walked though, it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Eventually, we made it and after passing through some less than impressive areas of the city with no tourist presence we were pleasantly surprised to see quite a few milling around the cathedral. Our map helpfully informed us that this was the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It was a very impressive building, with its gold domes shimmering in the sunlight and situated in a great location, right next to the Moskva River. We wandered across the bridge over the river opposite the cathedral, took some snaps of it and admired the views of the Moscow rooftops down towards the Kremlin. With nothing else of note in this part of town, we made our way down to the banks of the river and walked along in the direction of Red Square. We passed the Kremlin, it's impenetrable red brick wall looming over the river and came to the back of St.Basil's cathedral and Red Square but we were unable to get to them due to the 8 lane motorway in the way. We managed to find an underpass a mile or so down the road, so after our slight detour, we had made it to our destination. By this time our porridge had worn off and we were pretty much out of energy so we decided to hunt down a supermarket to pick up some much needed lunch. In Moscow though, this is easier said than done. Food is plentiful, we stopped by a kiosk and picked up 2 pies which had meat and rice in, they were tasty apart from the large amount of fennel stuffed inside them. After that we needed a drink and this is where the problems started, we couldn't find a supermarket anywhere. We had a look in the state department store (more on that later), known as "ГУМ" or "Gum" to you and me, then round the roads linked to Red Square but nothing. Exasperated, we decided to try once more in "Gum". Low and behold, tucked away on an entire stretch of the ground floor, was the "Gum" grocery store, how we missed it I'll never know but we got our drinks and sat on a bench to relax. While drinking we were admiring a Christmassy jumper in a window of a shop, when we finished we had a look in to see if it was in our price range. At 20,000 roubles (£200), it's still on its hanger in the shop. We had seen a pin badge earlier in the day at an underpass souvenir shop (they tuck themselves away underground to get away from the biting winters), so we made our way back to pick up one each and then headed for home in preparation to meet a dead man the next day.
Breakfast was cooked for us again, a Russian one of a porridgey rice thing, which was okay but nothing spectacular. We took our usual route to Red Square and joined the rather long queue to see a Communist icon. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died in 1924 of a stroke. For the first few days, his body was on display for all to see. So many people turned up to see their former leader that they decided to go against his wishes of being buried next to his mother in St.Petersberg and keep him on display permanently. They charged a group of scientists with coming up with a way of preserving his rapidly decaying body. It basically consisted of dunking him in a large vat of wax. Nowadays, despite calls for him to finally be buried, he lies in state in his own mausoleum on Red Square and is one of Moscow's most popular tourist attractions. The long queue moved fairly quickly and before we knew it we were having our bags searched by the police and moving through metal detectors. We were clean, no threat from us. This whole part of Red Square is known as a necropolis, as hundreds of Pro-Communist fighters and politicians, as well as cosmonauts are buried here, including Joseph Stalin and Yuri Gagarin. You walk past plaques on the wall of the Kremlin, marking the people buried inside until you eventually reach the mausoleum. It's heavily guarded and policed. It's very dimly lit and you follow a pathway round until you reach the main chamber, where Lenin is situated. You aren't allowed to stop and you aren't allowed to take photos. Despite the pitch black conditions, he is well lit and almost looks like he belongs in Madame Tussaud's. This is probably the weirdest thing Charlotte and I have done and will do while travelling. He seems to follow you as you walk around the room and you cannot take your eyes off him. I'm sure his fingers twitched...? It was strange to see the body of a dead man, so revered by his country, they've kept him preserved and on display for so long.
Next up, we headed for the Kremlin, to have a look around where the President lives. The main ticket was easy to get, just from a machine off to one side but we decided to queue to get one to enter the armoury too. After 15 minutes we noticed a sign above the kiosk that the person was on a lunch break and would be back in 5 minutes. No wonder the queue hadn't moved an inch! When she got back it started flying, when we got to the desk though, we were unable to get a ticket, as they are only sold from 40 minutes before the start of the tour and are limited. We left it and just stuck with the main area of the Kremlin. After some more security checks we were in, and free to wander around the grounds to our hearts content. The main attraction is the cathedral square, which is home to 4 impressively large domed cathedrals. I won't bore you with all their names but when stood in the middle it is a very impressive sight. Our ticket included entry into a couple of them so we decided to utilise this and compare them with St.Basil's (which we had found out was 9 or so small churches all roled into one, hence its size). One was quite similar, with small passageways leading from room to room and the other contained a large open room, with artefacts and museum parts dotted around. After the churches we wandered round the gardens of the Kremlin, which offered great views out over the city. On our way back to the square we passed the tsar cannon and bell. The cannon is a huge bronze cast piece, one of the largest calibre weapons in the world. It's never been fired in malice and only once otherwise. There is a stack of cannonballs next to it, which are actually too big to fit in the barrel. Just down from the cannon is the Tsar Bell, which is again, cast from bronze. It was cracked while casting and subsequently has never been rung. It is currently the largest bell in the world, coming in at over 6 metres tall. Our final visit inside the Kremlin was to visit the patriarchs palace, which is now a museum holding hundreds of piece of mainly Tsarist history. After the long day, we made a quick stop at "Gum" to refuel with drinks and baked goods, then headed back to our hostel via the world famous Bolshoi Theatre.
For our final full day we had our most interesting breakfast yet. A rice pudding with Apple and cinnamon. I struggled through mine but Charlotte couldn't stomach hers and had to throw it away, we were still very grateful for receive it though. Our first port of call was to establish how to get to Yaroslavsky train terminal to catch out train the next day. We negotiated the complicated Moscow Metro with ease and found it in no time but then struggled to find the entrance back into the metro. Eventually we found it and decided to head back to Red Square one final time to browse the highly recommended Metro station at Ploshchad Revolyutsii. It was a very impressive platform, with statues lining all the archways leading to the trains but it was awkward to take a photo due to the terrible lighting and the constant flow of people. We left the metro to do one final bit of souvenir shopping. The whole way round Eatern Europe we had resisted the urge to buy a Russian Doll, they are quite common in the Baltics, and we wanted to get one from Russia itself. So after scanning the stalls and a souvenir shop, we picked out 1 each, containing 5 in total and bought them, for a pretty reasonable price. With Москва complete we headed for home once more, pleased with our 5 days work. That evening it was lovely to Skype my parents, Rob and Hannah and also my uncle Stewart who is over from Canada visiting. We'd just enough time to have an "interesting" conversation with a Russian about immigration (the details of which I won't share) and head to bed, it was like going to sleep on Christmas Eve as a child!
The next part of our trip is what the whole thing is really built around. My lifelong desire to ride the Trans-Siberian railway. Albeit not all the way to Vladivostock but with Mongolia and China on the horizon, I won't complain about that!
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