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We left St. Pete's late Wednesday night. We took the night train into Moscow and fortunately we were bunked with a very nice Aussie couple from our train tour. The train ride took 8 hours and we were in Moscow by 8 am. After getting checked into our hotel, we set off into the city. Naturally our first stop was to see Lenin in Red Square! We had to drop all of our bags and electronics (no photos are allowed) and queue up for the metal detectors. Afterwards, we walked alongside a Kremlin wall up to the mauseleum being watched by several police officers. Once at the mauseleum, we were greeted by more police telling up to be quiet and to take our hands out of our pockets. THen we all suffled along passed the body of Lenin who was encased in his resting place. We weren't allowed to stop just look at him for maybe 30 seconds in total. It occured to me that this is the first time I've seen a such an important historical figure in the flesh (no offence to any of our 3 previous Prime Ministers, they just haven't had much of a significant historical impact as Lenin). Following the mauseleum, we walked around St. Basil's Cathedral (see photo above) which is an extraordinary piece of architecture. It's definitely the most recognizable building in Russia. Across from the Mauseleum stands the GUM department store which is another beautiful building despite the fact that it is a shopping mall. Now I could tell why Lenin looked like he was spinning because there was a temple of consumerism not more than 300m away from him.
Last night, we attended a performance by the reknowned Bolshoi. The regualr theatre was under restauration but the replacement, the so-called New Theatre was beautiful with crystal chandeliers, brass everything and a wonderful fresco on the ceiling. The show was Ramondo (or something like that, remember our cyrillic isn't all that good yet). After the second act, the dancers bowed and we started to get ready to leave. We hung around to soak in the ambiance but then we noticed nobody was leaving. Turns out, there was a third act (i guess that's why you are supposed to by the program). The dancing was splendid despite the fact we could only see half the stage. Fortunately, we were close enough to see the details of their mangificent costumes and the expressions on their faces. WE could also see into the orchestra pit and watch the bored trombone players trash talk the harpists during their solos. Never have I actually enjoyed the ballet until last night (I've seen 3 shows before), but it was mostly due to the ambiance and the quality of the troupe.
Despite all those wonderful things, the highlight of the day for me was buying a beer on the street from a babushka and drinking it on the metro like a good Russian would.
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