A Weekend in Moscow

      I finally made it to Moscow this weekend. It was a great time, with many different adventures that I will remember for a lifetime. Moscow has been one of my "to see" cities for a while now so I am glad that I finally made a dream come true. So, let me tell you a little bit about the weekend.
      Our way of transportation was sleeper trains. We left Thursday night at 10 PM and arrived to Moscow at 5 AM. The train was not as bad as the horror stories I have heard about them. Fortunately, we did not have any drunk men in our area. I was located on the top bunk, and there was literally no room to sit up. So once you climbed up, which was not an easy task, you were stuck up there laying down. After a while, the lights started dimming so I attempted to sleep. Key word: attempted. Once we arrived in Moscow, we cleaned up our little beds and grabbed our gear and headed out to explore Moscow for the day.

                                                                                      

My bed on the sleeper train. 

        The first day in Moscow was random, yet exciting. The first thing we did was go to an old Convent where nuns used to live. It consisted of two cathedrals, a very tall bell tower, and a graveyard. The sun was just peeping through all of the trees and the scenery was beautiful. It was so serene and relaxing to just walk around, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, and snap a couple landscape pictures. Inside the church there were many old paintings and we saw a couple real nuns which was very interesting. After we walked all the way around the convent we went on the outside of it and looked at the pond next to it. Apparently it is where Chikovsky composed the music for Swan Lake, which I think he picked a great place to write that. There was also a wall that everyone touches and gets a picture with, so we decided to do that as well. After the Convent we decided to walk around and go find the love lock bridge. This is a small bridge in Moscow where the Art Institute created small metal trees that people go and put metal locks on them. Once the tree is full of locks, they replace it with an empty tree and put the full tree along the river. It was very entertaining glancing at all of the locks and what people wrote on them. Next, we decided to walk across the street to a little peaceful park where we people watched the Russian couples and played on the playgrounds there. That night a couple of us girls went to a place called the Shake Shack, it was a Russian version of an American burger joint. Surprisingly it was really delicious, but I think Russians must believe that all we eat are hamburgers and hot dogs. For dessert, the family I was staying with gave us apple crisp and vanilla ice cream! It was like heaven on a plate, I had been missing some traditional American dessert. 

  

The coolest headstone with the church in the background

The bell tower

Touching the wall everyone has to touch. 

                   On Saturday we did most of the tourist activities that people go to Moscow for, so that means we spent the day in and around Red Square. The first thing that we did was go and see Lenin's body. They have his body embalmed and saved in an open glass casket. It is in this dark, black, granite tomb that you walk underground to enter the room. There are Russian guards everywhere watching your every step of the way. While you are in there you are not allowed to talk, stop, or put your hands in your pockets. Once you enter the actual tomb, you see him laying there peacefully behind the glass with red lights shining upon him. It was a very interesting thing to do, and at least now I am able to say I saw a 40 year old corpse. After gazing upon the corpse, we went to the mall that is located in Red Square. It reminded me a lot of City Creek because it had bridges and it was 3 stories high. There was a huge shop in the mall that had pastries, wine, beer, vodka, candy, and ice cream. It took up about a whole section of the mall. Next, we went out around St. Basil's and inside the church. St. Basil's Cathedral is the icon most people picture when they think of Russia which is applicable because it is breath taking. The domes are vibrant, decadent, and detailed. My mouth literally dropped when I saw the church up close. The outside was amazing but the inside was pretty interesting as well. There were secret stairways, passages, and the each wall had different designs on them. I loved how I had never seen any of the patterns in St. Basil's before and I think it would be safe to say it is a complete Russian church. If you come to Russia, you should definitely go see St. Basil's because it is as extravagant as it looks. The last thing we did on Saturday was go to the Kremlin. The Kremlin is a museum that has a ton of royal relics and antiques. Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures, but the memories will be engraved in my brain forever. My favorite thing about this museum was the original coronation and wedding dresses of the Russian royalty. They also had various original carriages and thrones that Russian Czars used when they were alive. A great museum to go to if you love royal antiques. That night we ate tacos and brownies! It was great because I really felt like I was in America. The nice people we stayed with also sent us with Reese's, M&M's and Twizzlers; they are definitely heaven in a bag. 

The outside of Lenin's tomb

Some candy at the mall. 

The ceiling in St. Basil's. 

A view of St. Basil's.

       Before we left on Sunday we went to a souvenir street called Izmilava. It was a little souvenir city where a ton of vendors sold the typical Russian souvenirs. We spent about 4 hours just walking around and bargaining with the different vendors and spending our last hours in Moscow. Once we were done souvenir shopping we headed back to the train station and went on our way home to St. Pete's on another sleeper train. 

         Overall it was a very fantastic weekend. I am still in shock that I can say I went to Moscow for the weekend so casually, but I am also very grateful that I had the opportunity to. It is so great to experience different cultures and see what they cherish. I could definitely tell that the Russians are proud of their past and love to have people intrigued by it as well. The next big adventure on my list is a weekend in Lithuania the first week of April! I am looking forward to that expedition. For now I hope every body has a great week and smiles at some stranger because a smile can go a lot farther than you think.