Moscow ... from Russia with love

Our train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow was quite nice and well deserved after the troubles we had getting the tickets, we even got two little packages with food for the ride, like an airplane meal. We arrived at 10 pm and were greeted by Ewa’s cousin Natalia and her father Kola (Ewa’s uncle). They were waiting on the platform with big smiles and flowers when the train got in and took us to one of Natalia’s apartments where we would be staying for the week. It was very close from the train station and smack in the middle of Moscow which is a good thing because the traffic even at night can get pretty bad. They took us to the apartment and there on the table was a welcoming present for Chad - his shoes had arrived from Kolo! Thank you again to everyone involved in the recovery! We really appreciate all the help.

Inside the Kremlin

Natalia showed us how everything worked, security system, computer etc. and, after a welcoming glass of vodka, they went home as they live about a half an hour away. Natalia was really nice and stocked the fridge with everything she thought we would enjoy, so we didn’t even have to worry about food. The next morning we waited for Natalia and her boyfriend Kostya to come over and get us registered in Moscow. While Natalia went to the post office to get everything settled, we strolled the streets around the neighbourhood with Kostya. Chad had a lot of interesting questions for Ewa to translate to Kostya about the black markets in Moscow. Apparently it is very easy buy anything you would like including a university diploma. He also took us to a book store so we could get a Moscow map which is obviously needed since Map Man (Chad) didn’t have one and felt a little off. The one we got also had the Moscow metro map on it, the Metro in Moscow is huge! The rest of the day we drove around the city with Natalia and Kostya and they showed us around. Unlike St. Petersburg, Moscow is not easily navigated on foot. It is too big and a lot of the sights are scattered around the city. There are about 11million people living in Moscow legally and probably a few more million illegally, so it’s a pretty big city. We saw an old palace made of wood that used to belong to a rich duke, the tv tower, a field where old war planes were displayed. By old we mean cold war old not 19 century. For dinner Natalia took us to a pretty cool fish restaurant. There is fresh fish laid out on ice and you can just point to the fish you want and they will cook it up for you in the style you want; steamed, fried, baked in salt, boiled…however you want! Of course none of us could decide on what we wanted, because we all wanted them all so we decided to get two whole fish. One was wild sea bass which we had baked in salt and the other was Natalia’s favourite Turbot which looks a little like a sting ray. When our fish was ready the waiter added a table to ours and laid out all of his tools and brought the fish to the table. The sea bass was covered in salt that had formed into a thick crust. He poured vodka on the fish and then lit it on fire! Petty cool. Then he let the fire die and tapped the crust with a spoon to separate it from the fish. He fillet both the fish and dived up the catch. We stayed for a little while after dinner and then went home for another wonderful sleep in our super comfy bed.

Some nice stiff branches to whip yourself pure again!

We spent the next few days at the dacha, the family summer house, which is about an hour and a half outside of Moscow. Uncle Kola drove us there and stayed with us. He prepared the banya, a Russian sauna for us. It was about 98 degrees C in there! We also got to use soaked birch twigs to hit ourselves with and mint water to pour over the hot coals. First we used the sauna dry and then poured the mint water on it to make it a wet sauna humid and insanely hot. We didn’t manage to stay in there too long and Ewa was on the floor (the coolest place in the sauna) the whole time. In the evening it was time to have some shish kabobs and drink some vodka with Kola. The next day was spent recuperating from the previous night. We left the dacha at two and headed back to Moscow where we vegged all day long and did absolutely nothing.

Kola at the Banya

On Wednesday we were in for a treat; Natalia organized a Kremlin tour for us through her work. We arrived just in time because we got lost a little bit. When we got to the right entrance of the Kremlin we didn’t have tickets because they were waiting for us a the ticket office but since the Kremlin is where the Russian governments headquarters are you have to go through security and Chad had a backpack which obviously is not allowed inside. Find the coat check - hmm ok. So we are now running around outside of the Kremlin trying to find a coat check. There are no signs, there is nothing that looks remotely like a coat check. We see a woman running towards us. She asks if we are the people for the Kremlin tour from the bank (Natalia booked it through her work), yes we say totally out of breath. We explained what had happened and she took us to the coat check and whisked us back to the Kremlin, past the big line that had now formed and motioned us to go through. The guards asked her who we were and why we are jumping the line and she said : “they are guests of the museum!” Then she got us past all of the lines inside and provided us with an English speaking guide and disappeared.

The Saviour on spilled blood

The tour itself was great, we saw the armoury as well as three of the Russian churches on the grounds, it was about 4 hours long. In the evening we went to Kola and Tatyana’s house for dinner, where we spent the evening visiting and enjoying their company. The following day we went to see the red square and Vladimir Lenin’s Mausoleum. We weren’t quite sure how to find the ticket office so we asked a police officer who then proceeded to ask us if were in a hurry and if we were…it would only cost us 300 Rubles for him to get us in very quickly. No thank you officer. In the Mausoleum lies Lenin, embalmed. It is a pretty strange sight to see a dead body that looks somewhat as if the person is just sleeping, they have eerie lighting in there as well and you are not allowed to stop. Russian solders stand all over the place inside making sure that people move quite quickly through the building, we were in and out in less than 2 minutes, but it‘s for free, so we didn‘t have any complaints about the duration. They are very strict on keeping you moving, even on the outside, where many other Russian communist leaders are buried.

One of Ewa's Grandpa's medals.

Later that day, we had one last evening with Kola and Tatyana. Kola showed us my grandfathers medals that he had received when he served in the Russian Army, he was an engineer. It was a very nice evening but also a bit sad because it’ll be a while before we see them again. We spent our last day in Moscow exploring the vast Metro stations. This may sound strange but Moscow has the most beautiful stations all decorated differently, in different themes and using different media. The new stations are not very exciting, but the ones that were built first are impressive. They have marble walls, mosaics, statues, and huge chandeliers.

Moscow metro

Natalia and Kostia on our last night in Moscow

Our train to Beijing left at 23:55 so we still had time for dinner with Natalia and Kostya. This time we went to a Russian restaurant. They drove us to the train station and helped us get settled in, translating for us to the attendants. Natalia even got them to make sure to take us to a bank once we hit China since we did not have any Chinese money. And we are off on our 7 day journey on the trans Manchurian!

Moscow ... from Russia with love

Moscow, Russia