They Klosed the Kremlin!

So our first major stop - Moscow. The city of The Kremlin, St Basil's Cathedral, a long and varied history, and, I have recently discovered, beer cheaper than water!

So which of those things did we check out I wonder? Nearly all of them I think. Nearly all? Surely one must see the Kremlin! Sadly the title tells it all - they klosed the Kremlin! In preparation for Victory Day (9th of May) the Kremlin and its surrounding area was closed off and ringed by frightening looking Russian guards! No Lenin Mummy for us ....

Nevertheless we did manage to see a lot of Moscow, mostly from traipsing the streets, but it is truly one of the most impressive cities to be seen from the pavements. The domes of Russian Orthodox churches suddenly appear from round any corner it seems, not to mention various other ornate state buildings.

One of the first things we saw was the VDNKh (The USSR Economic Achievements Exhibition Centre). Less a centre and more a vast sprawl of impressive buidlings built to glorify the successes of Soviet Russia. Certainly, it may be a little strange now but there is no denying that it is an impressive collection of Socialist imagery - lots of 'people' holding on to sheafs of corn or standing over machine cogs. Subtle it was not!

Next on the list was St Basil`s Cathedral which looked just like it should according to all the postcards, except for the fact that it was bathed in sunshine rather than snow and grey skies as one imagines Moscow!
Later on we went to check out Novodevichy Convent and the cemetery there. Somewhat morbid we`ll admit but it is where various illustrious Russians are buried including Chekhov and Sergei Prokofiev. Sadly our cyrillic wasn`t quite up to the task of identifying individual`s names - nevertheless we`re fairly sure we had a good look at all the tombs there so we must have seen them, we`re just not sure which they were!

We were staying in Godzilla`s Hostel which was a reasonable enough place. Despite only booking one night, they managed to fit us in for three nights, and two of those were in a roomy double. It was certainly in a good location and although the facilities weren`t top notch they were certainly more than reasonable for a hostel.

Our last couple of days in Russia were taken up by the Victory Day parade and the preparations for said event. This is when we discovered that we probably weren`t going to be able to wander around the Kremlin as we`d liked but we did manage to walk around the rest of the centre of Moscow as they closed all the roads so that was fun. The Kremlin certainly looked impressive from the outside as flags flew and posters showed Russia in all her glory. We also found one of the best places for a decent cup of coffee was the rather impressive GUM department store, housed in a fancy 19th century building.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave the Victory Day party people on the streets of Moscow and head for Yaroslavsky station to catch the Trans-Mongolian train to Ulaanbaator. Our hearts sank a little as we discovered that Yaroslavsky was the most wretched hive of scum and villainy this side of the urals but despite such wanton hyperbole we spent a couple of hours nipping to the nearby supermarket to stock up on supplies for the upcoming journey.