Day Five: Saturday, 24 March

This morning we arrived in Moscow! Our first sight was, of course, Red Square. Right in the center of Moscow is the beautiful catherdral, Kremlins wall, Lenin's maseleum, the history museum, and the GUM mall. We went on another guided sight seeing tour of the city that didn't end until 3 pm. Our hotel was another luxuirous accomodation. We had free time once we arrived so the girls from Vaxjo and I rested and tehn went to the ballet at the famous Bolshoi theatre of Moscow! We got tickets through our tour guide, thinking they'd be good seats since we paid so much for them, we were in the last row of the top top balcony. Oh well. I forgot the name of the ballet, but it was a good first time expereince of the ballet! After the show was over we were able to see Red Square at night when it was all lit up, beautiful! We took the underround back to the hotel. Very cool! The subways are very old and creepy looking and you need to make sure you have your stuff on you at all times. We didn't carry purss to the ballet because we didn't want to worry about our stuff on the subways. We didn't have any problems except for one man who tried to follow us to our train and tried to use my ticket to go through the gate and tried to get me to buy him I ticket. I think that was the only time I was really nervous about being pick pocketed. other than that, they were pretty safe rides on the udnerground! And the escalators that everyone says are so huge in Mocow, really aren't. They were like any other escalator you'd have to take to get into an underground. They were fun though! That night we went to BED! It felt great to be in a comfortable bed, better than my dorm room! The following night we'd be on the bus again!

Day Six: Sunday, 25 March

Our morning today was free until the afteroon Kremlin Tour. We really wanted to see Lenin's Moseleum so we left early to get in line. Security was tight, as anywhere else in Russia, and we couldn't bring anything in with us, and had to keep our hands out of our pockets the whole time. Walking through the tromb we went down some stairs first, then in a room with his casket- encased in glass I might add. There was a guard at every corner you turned making sure no one misbehaved. You walked around the room, circling his body then up the stairs and out the other side of the tomb. We were told that Lenin's Moseleum is closed two days of the week so they can re do the makeup on his body and preserve it for show. After visiting the tomb, we met with the rest of the group for our tour of The Kremlin. Let me tell you... SO COOL! I went a little picture happpy in here just becuase it was so pretty and the buildings were outrageous! After the tour we had the chance for our own free time in Moscow. Walking the city streets and visiting the history museum is what we did- seeing Moscow on our own feet was the way to go.

Again, tonight was the second night of our overnight drive back to St. Petersburg. I got mroe sleep this night than I did the other night on the bus. I think this one totaled about 4 hours of sleep, whereas the first night on the bus was about 1, at the most!