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Moscow is crazy!! We've now been here nearly 4 days and every day there are new surprises as to just how much we are foreigners here.
For starters, the metro system is completely illogical and we keep getting lost somewhere in its maze. They don't like to bother mentioning which station you're at, and signage really isn't high on the agenda, but it is one of the most specacular sites in Moscow. Each metro station is a work of art in itself, one has stained galss windows covering its passages, the other mosaics, another has a population of bronze statues and another is done up like a royal palace ballroom. These distractions might go some way towards our inability to end up where we intend.
The Russian language, which uses a different alphabet to ours, is prooving more than a little difficult to master and hardly anyone here speaks English. So far, we've only been able to perfect the term "spasiba" (probably not correct spelling) which means thankyou.
- [local] left (point) right (point) and then priouette
- [me] thank you
- [local] You dropped your beanie
- [me] thankyou.
- [local] can i please have some money
- [me] thankyou.
And with the different alphabet to contend with it has become a game of which symbols match what.
The weather has been pretty good for us up until today. Today we've had a wee bit of a cold snap so now I can proudly say I survived a day site-seeing in -12 degrees. I have to say it did put a bit of a bite in the air, but I still couldn't believe that there are women still getting around in stilleto boots (a rare skill given the amount of ice on the ground), thin stockings and short skirts. Crazy Russians must have ice in their blood!
But even though it was so cold the sun was still out and created a really amazing light show where it looked as through the air was filed with glitter. I think the sun was reflecting off fine snow particles.
We've done most of the sights already and tomorrow, as our last full day we will hopefully go to a 'banya' which is a traitional Russian bath house where we get whipped with birch leaves(!!). Will let you know how that goes!
Then we're off to Prague on the 25th!!
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