"Moscow"

Here I had my first encounter with the police. I arrived in Moscow so early in the morning that I decided to sleep a little on the train station, I sat on a bench with my big backpack between my legs, leaning over it, and the small one enclosed between me and the large backpack. Clothing wise I looked like a bum with my oversized jacket, train-hair (after sleeping on the train your head has been moving around so much at night that there is really nothing to do except avoiding mirrors. Anyway, so here I was sleeping on top of my backpack. I was dreaming about that I was walking on the train station and two police officers stopped me to check my visa, and decided it was not valid. So, while dreaming this someone tapped my shoulder. This turned out to be a police officer! He did of course not speak any english but I understood he wanted to check my passport and my train ticket. So he did, and handed them back. Then he started gesturing about not sleeping in the train station. Something made me feel he was just afraid my bags would get stolen, but later I realized that they were having trouble with homeless people coming into the train stations to sleep. Maybe it was a bit of both reasons?

There is so much to see in Moscow, and the best way to do so is to walk. So with my backpacks I started walking the city. I saw countless cathedrals, beautiful bridges, and monuments to both Lenin, Gagarin, Stalin and Peter the Great. One of the Peter the Great statues I walked to with some Americans I met. They were from New York, and had been to a town four hours outside of moscow to fly MIG fighter planes! The statue shows Peter sailing a big ship out of Moscow. It is, or was, the sixth largest statue in the world, they told me. It was impressive, but looked almost like it was stolen from Disney land in California.

The Americans wanted to go ice skating in a park, but I was more eager to see more of the city and went on towards the Kremlin. It was not that cold outside, and with the heavy loads I was carrying I was very warm, but my nose was bright red, again. So I decided to go inside the shopping center on the Red square. It was huge, and only featured exclusive stores like De Beers, Cartier, Lacoste and so on. I found a bench to relax on while watching the amazing holiday decorations, which included a huge slide for children to play in.

In Moscow I stayed with Alina, her mom and her grandma. They were all wonderful, and shared two apartments in the same gigantic "Soviet style" building. Alina is a very cultivated and polite girl. Her views on the world and her daily affairs were all interesting. One example was her participation in a muppet-theatre group/business she runs with some of her friends. They have a cooperation with professionals now, so cool for her, even if she is a little worried they will not be satisfied!

After a shower and a small talk with Alina we headed over to the other apartment to prepare for new year. Alina had about 12 friends coming over. They all brought salads. One with crab, pineapple, greek cheese, cucumber and mayo. Several others with all kinds of ingredients. We feasted on this delicious food, drinking wine, while listening to American music, like Elvis Presley and The Eagles.

Right before midnight we turned on the TV to watch President Mediedev's speech. I knew what he was saying, even if I don't speak any Russian. They always say the same. The year that has passed has been hard, and the one that is coming will be just as hard, but there is light in the future, etc.

Then, we opened the champagne and poured in the glasses so fast half of it ended up on the table. We counted down the last seconds and wished each other a happy new year, "Snovom Godm", and toasted! Then we partied all night till 6 in the morning. There were several games, but it was hard to find good ones where no writing or reading was involved (that would be hard since my Russian is not too good and some of Alina's friends were not that much better at English). It was a lot of imitating, and it was fun!

I also met another couch surfer here in Moscow, Dasha. She was kind enough to walk with me for a couple hours just to talk and then to take a cup of tea. She is in love with the Spanish language, and I felt how much I missed Spanish. Talking to her I also figured out that I had no desire to learn Russian, cause if I had, I would already have understood a lot more than the normal "Privjet" and "Spachiba" (Hey and thanks). I did become interested in the acrylic alphabet however, and that has served me well!