I decided that going into Moscow for day trips and only being able to spend 3-4 hours in the city is ridiculous so I went in for the entire weekend and found a lovely hotel near Arbatskaya Metro Station, Element Hotel. Apparently every room is different. My room was a lime green. Very nice and calming. The hotel does not have a dining room so breakfast is served in the room. I don't recall when last I had breakfast in bed! It was wonderful. A pity I had to get up early as I had booked tours.

The first tour I went on, was the Metro Tour. I was the only one on the tour which was really awesome. I had the guide all to myself so I could ask as many questions as I wanted and it also meant we could spend a little more time at each metro station. Moscow has 195 stations and every year more are opening up. The metro station opened in 1935 with only 13 stations. It was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. Out of the 195 stations it has today, I only got to see 8 of them on the tour. Each station has its own beauty. The amount of marble used in the stations is unbelievable and the artwork that went into each one of them is breathtaking. I cannot describe the awesomeness (is there even such a word!) of the stations. I will write up a description of each station on the photos page.

My second tour was a general tour of the city. I did the city tour on my own when I first arrived and nothing made any sense to me so this tour was really just to find out more about what I saw the first time around. The tour was very informative and some of the information I probably would never have found out about had I not gone on the tour. I got to see a few more buildings and places on this tour, so it was definitely worth doing.

The same tour company has a Communist Tour which I would love to do. Perhaps on my next trip into the city, I'll go on this tour. If things go according to plan, I would like to go into the city as least twice a month and stay over. That way, I'll get to see more as well as experience the night life that Moscow has to offer.

The weekend flew by and ended with rain.