2nd Stop on Trans-Mongolian Trip – Moscow, Russia

So after an interesting night train which started out my Trans-Mongolian trip from St. Petersburg, a friend and I arrived in Moscow around 8AM. The train we took was a hard sleeper carriage which means the entire train has open area beds with the main ones stacked three high and the ones along the wall having two. I actually slept quite well but my friend and I were definitely the only tourists on the train.

In the Red Square…

When we arrived that morning, the friend I’d traveled with had a couple friends waiting for her on the platform. One of them was a lady she’d randomly met while in Moscow months earlier whom she’d met while sightseeing around town. She had merely asked her for directions and the lady ended up giving her a full four hour tour of Moscow as she had lived there all her life.

Likely the sweetest lady in all of Moscow…. No doubt it would have taken me hours to find my place.

To make a long story short, this lady had shown back up this morning to meet my friend as a surprise. Since my friend and I were headed in two different directions, we split ways at the station but this lady insisted on helping me find my hostel. Four subway stops later and a bit of a tour on foot during the walk, we finally reached my hostel door which consisted of nothing but a Russian address written in Cyrillic.

Standard Russian issue… Actually, the cost of a new car in Russia is two and three times what another country would pay for the same car. In fact, some cars are bought from Japan, salvaged and split in half and then rebuilt here.

Shortly after I dropped my things at the hostel, I had met a friend that was traveling for the weekend and we decided to sight-see around town and started things out at the infamous Red Square which was only a twenty minute walk from where we were staying. Before I got there, I didn’t really know what to expect. After dodging all the tourists (remember, I am a traveler, not a tourist) we got to the middle of the square and realized that Lenin’s tomb was under construction for some reason and was closed.

Lenin’s Tomb. This is as close as I was going to get… hanging over a fence to take a picture…

For some reason, seeing the dead body of Russia’s most famous political figure intrigued me and was at the top of my list for things to see in Moscow though I’d now realized I’d have to make a return trip now. And there are literally statues of Lenin everywhere throughout Russia with Moscow being no exception. Of course one of the main reasons to come to the Red Square is to see St. Basil’s Cathedral. The inside is very different from any other church I’d been to before in Europe but after spending more time in Russia, I realized that its interior is actually quite common throughout Russia.

Trying to look cool in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral

As for the other buildings in the Red Square, the one that was most confusing was opposite the Kremlin which is actually an upscale mall inside. It just seemed out of place to have a mall here….
The next day we decided to take the recommendation of another friend we’d met and go to a Kremlin on the north side of town. After getting off on the wrong subway stop and being lost for a bit in a random part of Moscow, we finally found the place we were looking for. This place was definitely not a tourist attraction and you likely won’t find it in any guide books but it was definitely worth seeing and likely the best place to buy souvenirs and to try some random Russian street vendor food.

We walked around the inside of the Kremlin a bit and then spotted the Russian Vodka Museum. That’s right, an entire museum dedicated to Russian Vodka. And of course, after getting in there, you quickly

Is it too big on me? I think its quite fitting….

realize its exactly what you think it would be…. a history of Vodka with 1000’s of various bottles of Vodka on display. At the end of the tour you are supposed to get a free shot of Russian vodka. However, things got interesting when they first offered us a shot of whiskey. After questioning this they then offered a shot of vodka but my friend pointed out that the type of vodka they were giving us was actually Polish Vodka (not Russian at all). And of course what made it even better was this sign above us…

This sign specifically states that “Only Vodka from Russian is Genuine Russian Vodka” – A bit ironic?

So we took the shot anyway, called them out on their ‘authenticity’, got a good laugh and pressed on. All she could tell us was that they get a good deal on the Polish Vodka which translates to ‘free’ in my book.

All part of the experience, right?

So much for having a shot of Russian Vodka in a Russian Vodka Museum….
On my last day, I went inside the Kremlin. Again, it wasn’t what I expected as there are both government buildings mixed in with cathedrals and a park but it was worth seeing the interior within these government walls.
A few of the things that really stood out while I was in Moscow however was the military and police that seemed to be everywhere within the city.

The world’s largest cannon… found inside the Kremlin

You couldn’t walk more than a block or two without seeing some type of security or police officer and the military always seemed to be on the move as well with vehicles running all over the city. Another thing you’ll notice while here, if speaking English of course, is the fact that people will turn all the way around on the sidewalk to check you out if you’re speaking English behind them. I guess they don’t get too many foreigners…

The Tsar Bell inside the Kremlin. The largest in the world weighing over 200 tons, standing 6 meters high and almost 7 meters across.

So my time in Moscow was coming to a close. It’s definitely a city worth exploring and I’d wished I’d spent more time here but I was set to get back on the train en route to China. There would be a few stops along the way but with a train journey that takes 7 to 8 days, I was ready to get started after spending a few days in Moscow…

The kremlin we stopped by on the north side of Moscow