Moscow : a belated post

On the journey to Africa Sam and I first went through Moscow, to which we had never been. Although we were tired and in travel mode, we managed to spend several hours wandering around and got some of the obligatory shots of Red Square, The Kremlin, and the like.

Sam even went to see Lenin. I however, passed, feeling rather indifferent about seeing the embalmed body of the former Soviet leader. And besides, someone needed to hold the backpack. So I people-watched on Red Square with my to-go cup of coffee as my companion while Sam waited in the ever-lengthening line that began to form over half an hour before the mausoleum was open.

Sam's Lenin visit






After the corpse viewing (i mean literally that what it was, right?) Sam and I walked around inside the famous and extremely over-priced "гум" (pronounced "goom") - a huge, fancy shopping mall on Red Square.

гум


inside










ceiling


I took the above photo and then Sam noticed these guys:

window washers



And when I say "over-priced" I mean: think $120 for a t-shirt. We did actually buy something there, though. I found a travel coffee-press at кофе хауз (a cafe chain we have here in SPB). I had actually looked at four different кофе хауз cafes here in SPB for this particular one-cup sized plastic travel coffee press, but none of them had it in stock. And thankfully they were priced about the same there as they are here - a reasonable 320 Roubles. (less than $10)

travel press


Finally we decided to find a продукты (a convenience store) to buy some stuff for sandwiches and drinks. We got our lunch stuff and headed to the benches in the park outside the Kremlin and enjoyed the breeze and the sun and all the pretty flower gardens while we contemplated the next day and a half of flying and waiting in airports.