Saturday, June 8, 2002

Baltica Beer is Best

BALTICA BEER IS BEST
Tonight is our last night is Moscow. We arrived here at 6.20am on Tuesday morning after catching the overnight train from St Petersburg. As luck would have it we met two lovely New Zealand girls from Auckland (Veronica and Erika) staying at the same youth hostel in St Petersburg who were booked on the same train and ended up shared a four berth sleeper with them. We've spent the last three days together seeing some of the sights of Moscow, enjoying the great weather, cheap beer and some of the football World Cup.
I had been to Moscow before in 1999 so I knew my way around but it took some time to get familiar with the Metro system. For those with a Moscow Metro map handy, we're staying near Prospekt Mira, north east of the city center. On the first day here we had to catch up on some much needed sleep but then it was down to Lubyanka (the old KGB HQ) and Red Square to see the heart of the city. The sun sets quite late (about 10:30) so we stayed out and made the most of the daylight. The next day we went out with Veronica and Erika to get tickets to the Moscow Circus and Bolshoy Ballet. Sara and I decided to pass up the Ballet in the hopes of getting a cheaper price on the night. We stopped for close to three hours for lunch at a Russian chain called Yolki Polki to try some of the local food but ended up sampling more beer than food.

St Basil's cathedral in Red Square

In front of Lenin's tomb in Red Square

Yesterday we spent the day at the Kremlin and the evening at the Circus. It's been sunny and hot in Moscow and already we are feeling a little worn out with all the walking. There are loads of cafes everywhere so it's been very easy to sit, relax and have lunch. We have struggled a little with the language but we're both now pretty good at reading Cyrillic script.

Spires inside the Kremlin
The Assumption cathedral inside the Kremlin
Sara in front of the Tzar bell inside the Kremlin

Today we went straight down to Red Square to see Lenin's tomb and then out to Ismaylovsky Park to do some shopping - Sara found a wonderful Sable Hat at a bargain. This evening we've been trying to catch up on the latest news including the situation in India/Pakistan which could potentially effect our future plans. We're just across the road from the Bolshoy waiting to see if we can get ourselves in to Giselle.
That's all for now - tomorrow we board the train for Irkutsk.

The Moscow Circus

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