Days 2-4: Moscow part II

Although in the meanwhile I’m already in Novosibirsk I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about the rest of my time in Moscow.

So last Saturday morning we headed off for the city centre of Moscow to do some more “serious” ;-) sightseeing. And believe me sights there are enough of in Moscow! First stop: “point zero” just in front of red square. And as we are standing there watching people throwing coins over their shoulders while silently expressing a wish the want to become true, I see this guy that looks familiar to me. As it turns out, him and me were chatting while waiting for hours in front of the Russian embassy in Switzerland ! So we met again by chance in the middle of Moscow. Sometimes the world is only a village, isn’t it? !

For the most of the weekend Dave joined us (Zhenia, Maja, Olga, Shashaank and myself) in our adventures around Moscow: visiting Red square, The Arbat – Moscow’s La Rambla or Sacre Coeur district if you want-, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Kremlin, and St.Basils Cathedral as well as Izymaylovsky Park. We were really lucky with the weather, for most parts the sun was shining, only the occasional shower every now and then. But when it rain in Russia, it pours!

It was really good to be with people who knew the place and the history, especially since my book didn’t cover Moscow all that extensively! I loved being at a place with so much history and I feel really sad that my knowledge around Russian history and culture as well as Orthodox religion is so limited. I have bought myself a small picture book of the Kremlin, so that I can do at least a little bit of background reading. Next time I come back I want to know more, so I can get out more when I see the things. Thus, on the last day when we went to see St.Basil Cathedrale I allowed myself the luxury of an audio guide and I have to say, it was worth every single Ruble!

I want to come back to Russia that is sure, there is so much I haven’t seen yet: the big museums in Moscow, parts of the Kremlin, I want to see a ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre, futher I want to visit St.Petersburg and finally I’d like go and see Lenin! Lenin? Why that? Despite being there for 4 days I didn’t have the opportunity to visit his mausoleum: on Friday and Saturday it was already closed, on Sunday there were too many people waiting in the line, and on Monday Lenin doesn’t work…;-)
(the former history student in me gets the better of me at the moment- old passions rarely die quickly)

In between all this sightseeing I even got some time to meet up with AIESECers from Moscow with whom I spend an evening talking and discussing.

The time really flew by and on Monday night it was then time to get on the train to Novosibirsk!