Blogger does not like me, keeps deleting what I have written. Hence the time taken to write this - fingers crossed no mishaps today!
Anyway, back to Russia. Our final morning in St Petersburg was at our leisure and we were dropped of at the beautiful church of the spilt blood. It was built in the spot where Alexander II was assassinated (hence the name). It's covered in enamel and gilt both inside and out. Definitely a must see.
We then had a bit of time to hit the local souvenir market (and haggle badly) and a quick lunch before hopping back on the bus for our night stop in Novgorod.
Novgorod was once a really important town, it was actually the capital of Russia if I remember correctly. Now it's not much of a muchness! There is a small kremlin there with some interesting buildings and a church which has some really pretty bells that a guy actually uses a little hammer thing to play. We stayed in a slightly dodgy hotel (nothing new there), had another dodgy dinner and then hit a local bar later for air hockey, conversing with locals and dancing like crazy to dodgy dance music in a room that looked like the back room in a youth club.
The following morning it was an early one for our drive to Moscow. We dropped off in a place called Klim for lunch where we had the choice of McDonalds or KFC for lunch (we were truly getting the Russian experience - see?) and had the fun experience of trying to explain what we wanted - us no Russian/them no English. But I guess we gave them a fun story to tell when they got home that night!
We landed in central Moscow in the early afternoon, slightly cranky and tired after another long ride on Russian roads. We went straight to the Kremlin to meet out tour guide and see our meeting point for the next few days.
St Basils
Our guide was actually insane I think, lovely, knowledgeable but insane. She talked a lot - I like to think I'm polite and I was interested but I usually had to switch of after 10 mins (she could go on talking about one thing for over an hour). It was a minus point to Moscow and the whole tour to be honest. Our tour manager also used to give way to many facts (and then get important things like times things opened wrong!).
We then went on a tour of the metro - which basically meant getting rushed around at a ridiculous pace, jumping on and off trains and praying we didn't get lost! The Moscow metro is pretty amazing though - tons of artwork, communist insignia and imagery, chandelier and general gorgeousness. We were told while we were there that there is a push going on to remove all of this to move away from the communist past. This would be really sad so I'm glad I got to see it in its current state!
The tour ended at our hotels metro stop and then a not so fun walk in the Moscow heat to our (tiny) rooms. Dinner in the hotel that night which involved walking through a Russian wedding reception (weddings everywhere in Russia!).
The next day was out 'biggie' in Moscow - fitting a ridiculous amount in Contiki style. We started with a trip to the Kremlin which meant we got to stand in a really big queue even though we had tickets, joy! We visited the armoury museum first which was amazing but unfortunately was not a place you could get away with taking pictures of. It houses thousands of artifacts from the Tsars - amazing clothes, carriages, decorative items, jewels, icons, paintings, silverware and of course some of the original Faberge eggs. A must see in Moscow. (Thankfully we got places with a different tour guide as groups were limited in size - the group who were with our city guide didn't even get all the way around - the woman talked wayyyyyyy to much). We then walked around the grounds a bit and saw the government offices, including the presidents (well the outside of it).
We were free for lunch so went to explore and ended up at 'Chatty Chicked' kebabs - chosen as we assumed we would find ordering easy. Not so much, but it turns out kebab is kebab in many languages! We were then going to visit another church in the city which had great city views but typically it was closed!
We met up later for a trip to the statue park. This is a place that houses the last remaining communist statues and signs. Most were pulled down when communism fell and a group of people rallied to preserve them for posterity. Unfortunately this (as with the metro) may not last much longer. Russia seems desperate to escape it's communist roots.
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Stalin, something wrong with your nose . . .
After the park we headed to the Moscow circus to see some, well, circus stuff! It was pretty fun and what was expected - animals, clowns, acrobats etc. Some of the girls got upset about the animals being whipped - and whilst I don't think they need animals for these shows they looked pretty well cared for in general. If you are overly sensitive about animals I wouldn't go.
We then headed back to the hotel for an optional trip to the club Pacha. It was a mad rush to get ready but we did it! We had all paid a stupid 120 Euros for entry, a VIP booth and the rest would go on a bar tab (got our own toilet and bouncer which was nice). The idea was good in theory but when there are bottles of vodka on the table people get silly (and greedy). So it just over an hour about 5 bottles of vodka were gone. Our TM noticed that some of us had been sensible and gave us the last bottle to share - ha! And the people who had been stupid earlier ended up getting very messy!
The next morning was a chance to go see Lenin's body in the mausoleum - the alarm went off and my roommate and I exchanged glances and decided to pass. Only 4 hours sleep did not bode well for another busy day!
So after a few more hours sleep we headed into town and attempted to force down a lunch (v hot/hung over/not good) and then I went searching for some souvenirs. We met up with the others later that afternoon and learned that we didn't miss much at the mausoleum and inside St Basil's was no where near as nice as church of the spilt blood. I felt less bad about being lazy :). We then headed to a military museum which is normally only for Russians but our guide had contacts. It was quite cool -lots of planes, missiles and tanks outside (the boys loved it). Inside there was a huge selection of uniforms and display (unfortunately could understand any of the explanations). The best room was what I will call the 'Nazi' room - full of flags and banners the Russians captured and boxes full of thousands of iron crosses. Our guide Galina did explain this room but she waffled so much I stopped listening, otherwise I would tell you more! There was however also the wreckage of a crashed American spy plane in the museum.
Some kind of missiles
We ended the evening with yet another bad meal (as if we were to expect any more!) and heading home for an early night. Two full on days had taken it out of me so it was time to say goodbye to Moscow and Russia and get ready for out 7am (eek) departure for Belarus and its capital Minsk.
Thoughts- not a huge fan of Moscow. Nowhere near the character of St Petersburg and a lot more busy. Glad I have been but if I get the chance to go back to Russia it'll be St P all the way!
So next installment, Who wants to be a Belarussian Millionaire?
