Hello all!
Wow I'm tired. There's so much to see and do here that we are just smashing ourselves all day every day walking so much. The 27 degree warmth zaps your energy too (please not I am not complaining! I am loving the sunshine!). But once again had a fantastic day!
This morning we left quite early and enjoyed a much quieter Red Square. We just strolled around. I wanted to go and see Lenin's mausoleum but it's closed on Mondays so we are going tmro. Might seem weird that I really want to see his body but I guess a part of me is just curious about how it's preserved! Will be very surreal to see 'him'. Stalin and others are buried behind the mausoleum. More on that tmro!
Went around to the Alexander Gardens and meandered through there. Saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and rolled our eyes at the tourists jumping the fence and having whistles blown at them. Morons!!!
We then went to GUM (pronounced 'goom') department store which was built at the end of the 19th century to get rid of the dirty market that apparently used to take home in the square. GUM reminded me of the Galleria in Milan. Huge, high ceilings with a glass ceiling to let lots of light in. And most of all - very exclusive and expensive stores!!! We didn't do any shopping needless to say. Instead, we enjoyed the beautiful flower exhibition on inside, as well as a fountain there.
Next we walked to Kitay Gorod to meet a free walking tour. Our guide was Irena, and she was so lovely and enthusiastic. She was born in Moscow and was clearly very fond of her city. We had a great 2.5 hours on tour with her making our way around the older Kitay Gorod neighbourhood, then red square, then GUM for a yummy ice cream, then to the opposite side of the Kremlin. We had a SERIOUSLY annoying Israeli woman who talked over the tour guide and interrupted rudely with facts and questions all the time. She thought she knew everything, everyone had a bit of a laugh about her. We learned so much, but here are a few facts I found interesting......
So as I said yesterday, St Basil's Cathedral was constructed under the orders of Ivan the Terrible. Legend says that he found the cathedral so beautiful he cut the eyes of the architect out so that he couldn't construct anything else as beautiful!!! In 1812 when Napoleon was being an idiot trying to take over everything, he of course found the cathedral amazing and wanted to take it back to Paris. But, soon realising it was obviously impossible to just uproot the cathedral and carry it back to Paris, he then decided he wanted to blow it up so no one could enjoy it. Luckily, as the cannons and were set up a downpour began and so he couldn't blow it up!
This whole time I had been thinking Red Square was named such due to communism. However, apparently the in Russian, red means 'beautiful'. And this is partly the reason why the communists chose red as their colour, as in Russian culture it is a favourite colour!
Our tour ended outside the walls of the Kremlin and Irena recommended us some Russian pancakes in an underground food court. Jan from work had also told me to eat these, so we gave them a go. Delicious !!!! I had cheese and mushroom, mum had ham, cheese and pickles and dad had beetroot and mushroom with meat. And once again I must mention how lovely everyone we have spoken to is here, particularly the pancake lady. Dad asked a guard at Lenin's mausoleum today how early we should queue tmro and he was polite and helpful. Irena felt like a friend more than a tour guide, and the lady serving mum and dad here was really enthusiastic about us trying something Russian and suggested which ones to have in perfect English. We had a look around the underground shopping centre quickly after this. So strange!
We then went and met Irena once again for our second tour of the day, this time of the Kremlin! For those who don't know, the Moscow Kremlin is a fortified complex (Kremlin in Russian means fortress!) that was built in the 15th century. The complex includes five palaces, four cathedrals and 19 towers along the Kremlin wall. Used to be used as a fortress to protect the city, Tsars were coronated there, Lenin lived there during communist times, and today Putin works there while the soldiers/guards train and live in a separate building. We found out that the kremlin is closed on Thursdays and you'll never guess why! It's so they can have a falcon hunting session and get rid of all the pigeons !!!!!! Our small tour group was great. Initially a French lady arrived and started verbally abusing Irena because she had had trouble finding the meeting point, and we all though 'oh god what a cow' haha....but she apologised later on and said she had been hot and flustered and sent on a wild goose chase. She actually turned out to be quite nice! Then there was a Russian lady who lives in America now, her 6 year old son who behaved amazingly and her American mother in law. We had a great time touring the Kremlin for two hours. Went inside the cathedrals, saw the world's biggest canon and world's biggest bell and once again laughed at tourists having whistles blown at them for doing things wrong! There were clearly big heavy chain fences prohibiting you from walking on the road, yet dumb tourists still did it. Within seconds the Kremlin guards were onto them, for me the whistle was the equivalent to someone at home shouting "OI!!!!" because the looks of shock on their faces for being told off was hilarious. People watching at its finest!!
Then after the tour we walked around a couple of museums including tapestries and a few other things, then some churches where we learned that Ivan the Terrible was the first tsar. He changed the term from king to tsar (coming from 'Caesar') to seem more fierce. However, his three sons all died so with his death came the question of who would next be the tsar. A civil war broke out whereby many different families wanted to be the royal family. Eventually the Romanovs were chosen. After these, museum fatigue hit! For those who don't know what I'm on about, Mum and I always say museum fatigue is when you just hit a wall after walking around and stopping to look at things. All of a sudden I felt like I couldn't see anything and my legs hurt! So we went to the Kremlin Gardens. Mum and I sat on a bench and you'll laugh at the photo of us leaning on each other worn out. But after a quick power rest, we had a look at the gardens some more and then headed back.
Tonight we had dinner at a Russian place over the road. I had lamb meatballs with rice. Was really nice! Mum and I went shopping and once again I bought nothing! Mum bought a little souvenir.
Tonight once it's dark (about 11pm) we are going to Red Square, apparently it looks completely different at night! Pics of that on tmro's post.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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