Back, finally!
I have finally returned from my european adventures. (I promise, I will only refer to them as 'my european adventures' this once). IO've been back a coupl of days, but then luckily, horrible illness struck, so I was unable to do anything but run to the toilet! Yay! TMI?
Yeah, so it's good to be back, though I do seem to have brought the bad weather back here with me. Having said that, it's still bloody hot. Which conviently brings me to the first part of my trip!
Moscow!
Right, the important thing you've got to remember, the main bullet point that you need to take away from this, is that Moscow is cold. Really, really cold. It remained pretty steady at about -5 degrees for pretty much the entire time I was there (which is, by the by, pretty much the coldest I've ever been in my life.) -5 isn't really that bad. You have to wear gloves and stay bundled up pretty much the entire time, but you're able to walk around the city without too much discomfort. However, in the last week, the temperature started to drop. The day we left, it was -17. Now, as someone who's lived in Sydney for most of his life, I've got to say this - I consider temperatures a good 30 degrees warmer than -17 cold. -17 is the sort of temperature where you spend your entire time running from one heated place to another heated place as fast as possible. I now hold a firm belief that the chronic alchoholism of Russians (average age of death for females, 72, men, 55. Due more or less to alchohol only) is related more to the fact that they need to do something to feel warm while getting around.
The Moscow Metro can best be described through a single experience. You go down 200 metres deep (so the nukes can't get you) to a platform which is covered in mosiacs of Lenin and russian workers, which scream 'Soviet Supermen are your Superiors'. You then wait 2 minutes (2 minutes! Never more! I already miss European public transport...) for a train. Onve you get on this train, you MUST NOT SMILE. My brother kept on yelling at me for the first couple of days because I was smiling to myself (after all, I was in Moscow, after all...), but so apparently smiling to yourself is the equivalent of muttering to yourself about how the 'dem guv'mint stole mah teef'.
And yet, still better, sometimes the metro suprises you. I saw one train which was completely painted in flowers, and had inside it paintings. I'm not even kidding here, they were using a metro for a goddamm musuem. It was awesome. It was also great watching the Moscovites walk in, and seeing how they attempted to keep a straight face. Most could pull it off, but some failed miserably, which did a lot to assure my thoughts that they were in fact actually human.
Lenin's Tomb! It's just Lenin! I mean, that's history lying there! It is very, very cool. Also bizarre. Disturbing fact! We went, by chance, on what we later realized was Stalin's birthday. Stalin's grave was literally covered with flowers. Like, a pile of flowers up to my waist. Bit of a mind-fuck, that.
Well, that covers Moscow, more or less - the things that made a big impression, anyway. I'll try and write up everything else tomorrow.
Yeah, so it's good to be back, though I do seem to have brought the bad weather back here with me. Having said that, it's still bloody hot. Which conviently brings me to the first part of my trip!
Moscow!
Right, the important thing you've got to remember, the main bullet point that you need to take away from this, is that Moscow is cold. Really, really cold. It remained pretty steady at about -5 degrees for pretty much the entire time I was there (which is, by the by, pretty much the coldest I've ever been in my life.) -5 isn't really that bad. You have to wear gloves and stay bundled up pretty much the entire time, but you're able to walk around the city without too much discomfort. However, in the last week, the temperature started to drop. The day we left, it was -17. Now, as someone who's lived in Sydney for most of his life, I've got to say this - I consider temperatures a good 30 degrees warmer than -17 cold. -17 is the sort of temperature where you spend your entire time running from one heated place to another heated place as fast as possible. I now hold a firm belief that the chronic alchoholism of Russians (average age of death for females, 72, men, 55. Due more or less to alchohol only) is related more to the fact that they need to do something to feel warm while getting around.
The Moscow Metro can best be described through a single experience. You go down 200 metres deep (so the nukes can't get you) to a platform which is covered in mosiacs of Lenin and russian workers, which scream 'Soviet Supermen are your Superiors'. You then wait 2 minutes (2 minutes! Never more! I already miss European public transport...) for a train. Onve you get on this train, you MUST NOT SMILE. My brother kept on yelling at me for the first couple of days because I was smiling to myself (after all, I was in Moscow, after all...), but so apparently smiling to yourself is the equivalent of muttering to yourself about how the 'dem guv'mint stole mah teef'.
And yet, still better, sometimes the metro suprises you. I saw one train which was completely painted in flowers, and had inside it paintings. I'm not even kidding here, they were using a metro for a goddamm musuem. It was awesome. It was also great watching the Moscovites walk in, and seeing how they attempted to keep a straight face. Most could pull it off, but some failed miserably, which did a lot to assure my thoughts that they were in fact actually human.
Lenin's Tomb! It's just Lenin! I mean, that's history lying there! It is very, very cool. Also bizarre. Disturbing fact! We went, by chance, on what we later realized was Stalin's birthday. Stalin's grave was literally covered with flowers. Like, a pile of flowers up to my waist. Bit of a mind-fuck, that.
Well, that covers Moscow, more or less - the things that made a big impression, anyway. I'll try and write up everything else tomorrow.