Day 4 - The Kremlin
Yesterday we woke up just a little bit later and wasted some time before heading down to the buffet breakfast. It's damn expensive at 720rub a piece (about $22 each at a quick guess), but we needed something substantial after missing dinner again the night before and since it was Mon's birthday yesterday, it seemed only fitting.
There does seem to be something about the different time that it gets dark and the times we've been eating which has really thrown us out for when we're actually hungry. I have no doubt I've already lost a little weight here due to the sickness on the first day and not quite regaining my full appetite back yet, so as such I was very much looking forward to chowing down on a full buffet breakfast.
When we got down there I proceeded to fill my tray up with a wide assortment of pastries, cereal, toast, fruit, yoghurt and the like. I think I ate only just over half of what I put on my plate though as I don't know whether it's the different country or just the quality of hotel buffet food, but a lot of it wasn't really what I was expecting. Everything was fine of course, just nothing what really good, certainly not what I'd expect for the price, plus it's surprisingly disconcerting to find things like bread and milk taste so different to what you're used to. Anyway I ate enough of what was there despite giving up on a few items halfway through and then we headed back upstairs to get ready for our day.
We met Masha and the two Jens yet again as Masha had offered to show us the Kremlin, so after another quick train ride we were walking right back into Red Square. We had to go all the way around to get to the entrance of the Kremlin but it certainly didn't disappoint, the place is huge.
The tickets were expensive but very well worth it as we quickly discovered. We had to wander around to the other side to see the Armoury area, which was the majority of the cost, and after struggling with the door for a bit we were directed to go through the staff entrance and they let us check out coats and go inside.
The Armoury is really fantastic and highly recommended, it's a beautiful building filled with rooms of antique items that get better and better as you go through. There are old icons, gold plates and tableware through to suits of armour, thrones, swords, rifles, saddle pistols, medals, gowns, and even ornate carriages. It was definitely worth the cost (which was twice everything else in the Kremlin), and the English audio guide was amusing if only for the mispronunciations of words.
We then moved out to explore the rest of the grounds, there were multiple churches, I think 4-6 at least that we saw, and each was different and interesting in it's own way, though I'm certain we'll be experts on churches by the end of this trip. But there were also several other areas which housed other items including one which had royal outfits, medals and awards. Unfortunately you can't take photos inside most of the buildings, but Mon took plenty outside which was still impressive. I'm sure she'll post them all on her journal when she gets the chance.
One thing I did take a picture of though was something that continues to capture my attention as well as seemingly everyone else in the immediate vicinity, snow being thrown from a roof. It's like fire, there's this natural human reaction to just stand and watch something be thrown from a great height just to see it fall and hit the ground.
This was in the Kremlin grounds, they'd sectioned off an area underneath so they could shovel the snow off the roof either side of the doorway, of course this meant that if you wanted to enter the church (like we did) that you got hit with a spray of snow every time it hit the ground, so it was kind of like being snowed on, except someone way throwing it with a wooden shovel way up above. Still, strangely hypnotic to watch.
Anyway we made our way around everything which the Kremlin grounds had to offer and the plan at that point was to go see the Novodevichy Convent and Cemetary. At this point however I decided it was time for some lunch, I think it would have been 2pm by this point and my back pain had come back terribly while lugging our water and such around the grounds. We were going to check out the Russian McDonalds across from Red Square (I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of this, but I'm sure it won't be the last change), but we ended up going to Sbarro next door instead. This turned out to be more of a Pizza Hut style place rather than an actually Pizza and Pasta restaurant that I assumed it was going to be. Still, it was food and we were able to load up and find somewhere for all of us to relax and just eat and talk.
By the time we finished eating I decided my back wasn't really up to the task of another few hours of walking, so we just stayed and chatted there instead. It was really nice actually to just sit back and talk about stuff with the girls, thankfully their English is all very good despite their claims to the contrary and we were able to talk about music, movies, anime, dolls and lots of other stuff to pass a few hours until Masha's mother decided that NOW IS THE TIME TO PANIC.
So with the sun having already set we trudged our way back to the Metro station past a very large regiment of police/guards. They are certainly not joking when they say security is high now, there are visible police absolutely everywhere at the moment.
Walking back to the hotel it dawned on me what I like about the way that Russians get around. Everyone seems to have a mutually understood system of where you walk on the footpath, I mess it up sometimes because I'm used to driving on the left, but since they drive on the right, they walk to the right to get past each other and so long as you follow that rule you don't get that thing where two people end up almost running into each other, and then can't work out how to get around the other. It's all very efficient and makes very busy places like the Metro very easy to get around. This is the complete opposite to Melbourne which makes me want to punch people in the back of the head every time I walk from Flinders Street to basically anywhere.
So we got back to the hotel and just before we were about to drift off to sleep the phone rings. We just sat there for a few moments wondering who would be actually calling our room. I answered the phone in English as I knew if I answered in Russian I'd probably not understand the next thing said and the guy on the phone asked to speak to Simone. I assumed it was some kind of call from home or something but it seems instead the hotel had given us a free bottle of champagne for her birthday. They sent it up with a nice little note and I managed to take a quick blurry picture before I popped the cork.
We only drank about half a glass each as being Russian champagne it wasn't at all what we were used to, and honestly I'm not a big fan of champagne anyway. It was a nice gesture though, but I have no idea what we're going to do with the rest of the bottle still sitting next to me now.
We stayed up for a while after that watching the few channels that have English programs on the TV, but getting bored quickly we drifted off thankfully at a vaguely reasonable time for the first time in this trip.
We also woke up this morning at a reasonable time, so with any luck our sleeping patterns will be vaguely back to normal now, however Mon also woke up sick this morning, perhaps a reaction to a lot of things like my sickness was, or perhaps just the lunch we had yesterday, but she's currently sleeping it off and we hope to be back up to health again tomorrow.
I also got an email from Masha this morning sending me all the Russian photoshopped artwork that she was mentioning from the Gallery this other day. Here are a few of my favourites:
This picture originally has the guy on the right holding something which Mon and I decided was the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
This is very similar to the original painting, except of course for the lightsaber
Hope you're all well!
There does seem to be something about the different time that it gets dark and the times we've been eating which has really thrown us out for when we're actually hungry. I have no doubt I've already lost a little weight here due to the sickness on the first day and not quite regaining my full appetite back yet, so as such I was very much looking forward to chowing down on a full buffet breakfast.
When we got down there I proceeded to fill my tray up with a wide assortment of pastries, cereal, toast, fruit, yoghurt and the like. I think I ate only just over half of what I put on my plate though as I don't know whether it's the different country or just the quality of hotel buffet food, but a lot of it wasn't really what I was expecting. Everything was fine of course, just nothing what really good, certainly not what I'd expect for the price, plus it's surprisingly disconcerting to find things like bread and milk taste so different to what you're used to. Anyway I ate enough of what was there despite giving up on a few items halfway through and then we headed back upstairs to get ready for our day.
We met Masha and the two Jens yet again as Masha had offered to show us the Kremlin, so after another quick train ride we were walking right back into Red Square. We had to go all the way around to get to the entrance of the Kremlin but it certainly didn't disappoint, the place is huge.
The tickets were expensive but very well worth it as we quickly discovered. We had to wander around to the other side to see the Armoury area, which was the majority of the cost, and after struggling with the door for a bit we were directed to go through the staff entrance and they let us check out coats and go inside.
The Armoury is really fantastic and highly recommended, it's a beautiful building filled with rooms of antique items that get better and better as you go through. There are old icons, gold plates and tableware through to suits of armour, thrones, swords, rifles, saddle pistols, medals, gowns, and even ornate carriages. It was definitely worth the cost (which was twice everything else in the Kremlin), and the English audio guide was amusing if only for the mispronunciations of words.
We then moved out to explore the rest of the grounds, there were multiple churches, I think 4-6 at least that we saw, and each was different and interesting in it's own way, though I'm certain we'll be experts on churches by the end of this trip. But there were also several other areas which housed other items including one which had royal outfits, medals and awards. Unfortunately you can't take photos inside most of the buildings, but Mon took plenty outside which was still impressive. I'm sure she'll post them all on her journal when she gets the chance.
One thing I did take a picture of though was something that continues to capture my attention as well as seemingly everyone else in the immediate vicinity, snow being thrown from a roof. It's like fire, there's this natural human reaction to just stand and watch something be thrown from a great height just to see it fall and hit the ground.
This was in the Kremlin grounds, they'd sectioned off an area underneath so they could shovel the snow off the roof either side of the doorway, of course this meant that if you wanted to enter the church (like we did) that you got hit with a spray of snow every time it hit the ground, so it was kind of like being snowed on, except someone way throwing it with a wooden shovel way up above. Still, strangely hypnotic to watch.
Anyway we made our way around everything which the Kremlin grounds had to offer and the plan at that point was to go see the Novodevichy Convent and Cemetary. At this point however I decided it was time for some lunch, I think it would have been 2pm by this point and my back pain had come back terribly while lugging our water and such around the grounds. We were going to check out the Russian McDonalds across from Red Square (I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of this, but I'm sure it won't be the last change), but we ended up going to Sbarro next door instead. This turned out to be more of a Pizza Hut style place rather than an actually Pizza and Pasta restaurant that I assumed it was going to be. Still, it was food and we were able to load up and find somewhere for all of us to relax and just eat and talk.
By the time we finished eating I decided my back wasn't really up to the task of another few hours of walking, so we just stayed and chatted there instead. It was really nice actually to just sit back and talk about stuff with the girls, thankfully their English is all very good despite their claims to the contrary and we were able to talk about music, movies, anime, dolls and lots of other stuff to pass a few hours until Masha's mother decided that NOW IS THE TIME TO PANIC.
So with the sun having already set we trudged our way back to the Metro station past a very large regiment of police/guards. They are certainly not joking when they say security is high now, there are visible police absolutely everywhere at the moment.
Walking back to the hotel it dawned on me what I like about the way that Russians get around. Everyone seems to have a mutually understood system of where you walk on the footpath, I mess it up sometimes because I'm used to driving on the left, but since they drive on the right, they walk to the right to get past each other and so long as you follow that rule you don't get that thing where two people end up almost running into each other, and then can't work out how to get around the other. It's all very efficient and makes very busy places like the Metro very easy to get around. This is the complete opposite to Melbourne which makes me want to punch people in the back of the head every time I walk from Flinders Street to basically anywhere.
So we got back to the hotel and just before we were about to drift off to sleep the phone rings. We just sat there for a few moments wondering who would be actually calling our room. I answered the phone in English as I knew if I answered in Russian I'd probably not understand the next thing said and the guy on the phone asked to speak to Simone. I assumed it was some kind of call from home or something but it seems instead the hotel had given us a free bottle of champagne for her birthday. They sent it up with a nice little note and I managed to take a quick blurry picture before I popped the cork.
We only drank about half a glass each as being Russian champagne it wasn't at all what we were used to, and honestly I'm not a big fan of champagne anyway. It was a nice gesture though, but I have no idea what we're going to do with the rest of the bottle still sitting next to me now.
We stayed up for a while after that watching the few channels that have English programs on the TV, but getting bored quickly we drifted off thankfully at a vaguely reasonable time for the first time in this trip.
We also woke up this morning at a reasonable time, so with any luck our sleeping patterns will be vaguely back to normal now, however Mon also woke up sick this morning, perhaps a reaction to a lot of things like my sickness was, or perhaps just the lunch we had yesterday, but she's currently sleeping it off and we hope to be back up to health again tomorrow.
I also got an email from Masha this morning sending me all the Russian photoshopped artwork that she was mentioning from the Gallery this other day. Here are a few of my favourites:
This picture originally has the guy on the right holding something which Mon and I decided was the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
This is very similar to the original painting, except of course for the lightsaber
Hope you're all well!