Sightseeing and ballet!

Hello everyone!

Another big but great day. The weather is still quite warm and apparently about 28-30 in Poland so the summer clothes are getting a good workout at the moment!!

Last night we enjoyed Red Square by night and the lights were beautiful - see the photos below!

Firstly today we set out for Lenin's mausoleum. We had read in my guidebook you weren't allowed bags, cameras or anything so we left them in the apartment. We arrived about 9.30 and lined up in what we thought was the queue. This happens in Russia a lot! Lots of uncertain queuing. Eventually a nice lady told us and some Americans that you actually have to queue down the street from the mausoleum (makes sense - not!). So off we went. The queue built very quickly and we were glad we had arrived early. 

We got in about 10.10am. Along the kremlin wall behind the mausoleum there are lots of graves, but it was all in Russian so we didn't know who most were. In we went to Lenin's mausoleum. It was cold and dark and there were creepy guards lurking everywhere shhhhing everyone. Then we got to the main room. In here is Lenin's body. He died on January 21, 1924 (and I'm such a nerd that I didn't even look at my cue cards for that - due to extensive exam study four years ago it's imprinted in my brain!!!!) after a series of strokes. He wanted to be buried with his mother in St Petersburg but apparently he had no choice due to Stalin wanting to use him as a communist icon still and is on display like a bit of a zoo animal if I'm honest. Feel a bit sorry for the guy!! Apparently the Russians want to bury him now communism is behind them. Maybe one day he will in fact be buried with his mother! Dad and mum thought we'd be seeing some kind of mummy in bandages, but it's actually his entire body preserved. Here are the gory details about how....

The dark spots on his body due to initial decomposition were bleached, his lips and eyes sewn shut, and his brain was removed for scientific testing. His body is wiped down every few days and every 18 months placed in a tub of chemicals including wax. Yuck!!!! No photos obviously but I've taken some off google because I wanted you to see what I was talking about. 

Then we finished outside and I finally recognised one grave; that of Stalin. We headed back to the apartment and got our stuff. 

Our next activity for the day was seeing some pretty metro stations. Moscow is renowned for its decorated metro stations with chandeliers, mosaics and paintings. So we checked out Park Kultury and Kievskaya stations. We needed to get to Kievskaya anyway to catch the sightseeing cruise we wanted to do. 

We went for a walk outside the station on the way to the dock. Walked up a cool bridge and then went to the ticket counter. Bought our tickets and realised we were about to miss the boat and that another didn't come for 40 minutes which would stuff up our entire day. So even though they were pulling all the ropes in reedy to go, dad ran through the gate and they somehow let us on! It was an 'Amazing Race' moment. 

We enjoyed a 90 minute cruise along the Moscow River from west to east. The scenery was nice as we passed several churches and parks as well as the Kremlin of course! However we did have a really annoying couple behind us who made out the entire cruise. Kind of fun to be able to yell 'get a room!' and have them not understand you hahaha. There were also two rude little boys who hit mum and me when running through the corridors (on purpose!). I went into teacher mode and told them off when they then smashed into me while I was holding an ice cream. Don't think they had a clue what I was saying but I put on my best grumpy Russian face and that was worth 1000 words....

We got off the ferry and then found the nearest train station. Our next stop was the Armoury inside the Kremlin. As with most things in Russia, the process to get into this is much more complicated than it has to be! Long story short we were going for the 2.30-4pm window and you had to queue for tickets at 1.45pm. We were cutting it very fine for time and didn't know where to queue - not a good combination!!

We arrived to the Kremlin ticket office and I asked a guard who spoke no English whatsoever where to queue. Somehow after lots of pointing and charades we were directed to the right place and successfully got our tickets - hooray! Everything keeps working out just fine !!! What came next was even more unexpected - we made a Russian smile and laugh! We were going through the security scanners to enter the Kremlin and dad kept beeping. One guard said to the other 'something something Americans' and mum turned and said 'no actually, Australians!' And they both smiled, laughed and said 'ohhhhh Australians!!!'. Was strange being the cause of laughter and smiles as usually the only time Russians do so is with people they know!!

We spent 1-1.5 hours in the Armoury which was decked out with heaps of jewellery, utensils etc all very over the top and sparkly. My favourite things were the dresses from the tsarinas and the royal children, as well as the coronation thrones and carriages. We started to get a bit of museum fatigue again though - a few big days in a row has caught up with us!!!

Finally we walked to Ulitsa Arbat, a popular pedestrian street full of artists. Mum bought a picture and we went for a walk. Then we had an early dinner at a cafeteria called 'Moo Moo' as tonight we are going to the ballet (I'll add to my post after the show to tell you what it was like). I had chicken and some sort of beef thing with cheese and mushroom, was really nice!

On the way home it poured with rain for about 20 minutes and then luckily stopped! We got ready and them walked to the Bolshoi theatre to go to the ballet! The show we saw, 'The Taming of the Shrew' was actually on the new stage not the old stage, but we went outside the old stage and took some photos as it's very picturesque. In we went and we managed to find our seats and everything easily. We had great seats in the stalls in the middle! I didn't really understand the plot line, but loved it all the same. The dancing was so elegant and beautiful! One girl was so thin I could pretty much see her kidneys sticking out though, bit scary! The theatre was really beautiful as well on the inside. After the ballet, I pretended to be a ballerina out the front and got some funny looks from people. But why not ;) 

Tmro we fly to Warsaw, Poland. I have loved Russia and have been really pleasantly surprised. Not once have we been completely and utterly confused and not known where to go or what to do. The people in general have been overall quite friendly and if anything were ruder in St Petersburg which was unexpected. Have only come across one really rude person in each city and both worked at train stations!! Would highly recommend coming here to anyone who hasn't, worth all the hoops you have to jump through to get a visa. As long as you do your research, buy a good guidebook and realise that it's the Russian culture to not smile all the time, you'll be fine! 

One more random thing that I've been meaning to add - the clouds in Russia are amazing! They look like paintings. Please see the photo below! Just beautiful. 

Bring on Poland!!! See you there ;)

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox