On Wednesday, July 13, we woke up to go eat breakfast at our hotel. You may recall from yesterday's post that the weather in Moscow was HOT. This went for our overnight in the hotel, as well. There was no a/c in the hotel, and the only thing we could do was to open our window to let a little air in. It didn't help a lot. So neither Carrie nor I got a good night of sleep as we roasted in the sweltering heat.
However, breakfast was really good. I was hungry, so I filled up. And it was at breakfast that we heard perhaps the best quote by anyone in our group the whole time we were in Russia. Jon, the missionary who would be taking us around, was asked how he slept. His reply: I slept like a baby. I woke up every hour and cried. That is about the best way to sum up the night of sleep that we all endured.
After breakfast, it was back to Red Square. We went and took a few more pictures, and then we walked through Lenin's tomb. Yes, he is still laid out for everyone to walk through and see. He looked rather waxy, and it was rather interesting to think that he is still revered by many in Russia (I'll share a few thoughts on this after I've gone through and described everything we did).
Next, we had a tour of the Kremlin lined up for us. We crossed over the bridge that used to span over a river (the river now runs through a pipe underground), and entered the fortress (kremlin means fortress in Russian, I was told). We saw quite a few large buildings, many of which are still in use by the Russian government. Our guide also took us through a few of the cathedrals located inside the Kremlin. These are all Orthodox, which means that icons and paintings are found throughout, practically on every inch of surface inside. All in all, I thought it was neat, though I have to admit that I don't understand the rationale behind icons.
It was lunchtime then, and we went to a local mall for food. I decided to go for the full Russian experience: bliny. In particular, caviar bliny and sweetened condensed milk bliny. Blinys are a lot like crepes, filled with a variety of things to give them some substance. Let's just say that I don't think I'll make my regular lunch one filled with caviar bliny.
We then went down to tour the armory. Not only did we get to see a lot of cool weapons and armor from medieval times, but they also had clothing, carriages, books, and other similar things. I was really impressed with the ornate, gold-plated, three foot tall altar books that had been used in some of the Orthodox churches in the past.
At this point in the day, everyone was getting really tired. So we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a little place for dinner. Then, we learned a trick from one of the members of our group. If you would put the chain on in the door, and then prop the door open with a shoe or something like that, you got a nice flow of air through the hotel room. So we tried it that night, and it made a big difference in cooling off our room. We got a better night of sleep.
So now, day four (Thursday, July 14). We had arranged this as a somewhat unplanned day, so we slept in. We went down to breakfast around 10:15 and met with our group. We had to check out of our hotel by noon, since we would be leaving for St. Petersburg that night via overnight train. We had to pay about $1.75 for the hotel to hold each bag that we left there, and then we headed out. First stop, Our Savior cathedral. This large building was destroyed during the Soviet times, and had an interesting story. It seems that the communists tried to blow it up, but on the first try, it didn't fall in. All the elderly ladies who were watching proclaimed that it was a miracle from God! The communists, in their typical style, said it was simply because they didn't use enough TNT. So, on attempt number 2, they loaded up, and down it went. They turned it into a large swimming pool. It has since been rebuilt, and our group went to take a tour of it.
That's when we discovered some of the interesting Orthodox rules. One other member of the group and I were wearing shorts, and they wouldn't let us in to see the cathedral. Women had to have shoulders and, in many cases, head coverings in order to come into the cathedral. So the other guy and I went and looked around the gardens all around the cathedral. I experimented taking some pictures with our little camera, and we mostly sat around and talked while the rest of the group toured.
When the rest of the group came out, I discovered that Carrie had purchased a small icon for me, as well as some cards with icons printed on them (she cutely described these as icon trading cards). From there, we went to a bridge over the Moscow river which looked back over the Kremlin and took some pictures. After that, we enjoyed the view, and then began to walk to our next destination, a cemetery named Novodivici, where many famous Russians are buried.
One of the interesting things of this particular Russian cemetery is that there were many faces inscribed of the person buried there. At this particular cemetery, you had to be somewhat famous or influential to be buried there (for example, we saw where Boris Yeltsin was buried). It was interesting to see how many people there had been killed during the communist times, and yet were being hailed as people to look up to.
Dinner that night was Georgian (not the state, but the nation along the border of Russia). We tried a number of dishes of Georgian style. One in particular that was really delicious is a bread which has cheese and egg sort of mixed and cooked on top. You tear off a piece of the bread, dip it into the cheese and egg mixture, and then eat it. Oh, it was so good. And then, after dinner, it was time to head back to our hotel.
We arrived back at the hotel around 9:00. We had a 10:00 shuttle arranged to take us to the train station for our departure to St. Petersburg. So we got our luggage and then sat in the lobby, talking, while we waited. Once the shuttle arrived and we got loaded up, we headed out for the station. It was only about 45 minutes away, so we got there in plenty of time for our train. We waited a bit outside the train station, and various members of our group got some food and a beer or two while we waited. Then, it was time to load up the train for our overnight journey north. So tune in tomorrow to hear about the train and our first couple of days in St. Petersburg!
However, breakfast was really good. I was hungry, so I filled up. And it was at breakfast that we heard perhaps the best quote by anyone in our group the whole time we were in Russia. Jon, the missionary who would be taking us around, was asked how he slept. His reply: I slept like a baby. I woke up every hour and cried. That is about the best way to sum up the night of sleep that we all endured.
After breakfast, it was back to Red Square. We went and took a few more pictures, and then we walked through Lenin's tomb. Yes, he is still laid out for everyone to walk through and see. He looked rather waxy, and it was rather interesting to think that he is still revered by many in Russia (I'll share a few thoughts on this after I've gone through and described everything we did).
Next, we had a tour of the Kremlin lined up for us. We crossed over the bridge that used to span over a river (the river now runs through a pipe underground), and entered the fortress (kremlin means fortress in Russian, I was told). We saw quite a few large buildings, many of which are still in use by the Russian government. Our guide also took us through a few of the cathedrals located inside the Kremlin. These are all Orthodox, which means that icons and paintings are found throughout, practically on every inch of surface inside. All in all, I thought it was neat, though I have to admit that I don't understand the rationale behind icons.
It was lunchtime then, and we went to a local mall for food. I decided to go for the full Russian experience: bliny. In particular, caviar bliny and sweetened condensed milk bliny. Blinys are a lot like crepes, filled with a variety of things to give them some substance. Let's just say that I don't think I'll make my regular lunch one filled with caviar bliny.
We then went down to tour the armory. Not only did we get to see a lot of cool weapons and armor from medieval times, but they also had clothing, carriages, books, and other similar things. I was really impressed with the ornate, gold-plated, three foot tall altar books that had been used in some of the Orthodox churches in the past.
At this point in the day, everyone was getting really tired. So we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a little place for dinner. Then, we learned a trick from one of the members of our group. If you would put the chain on in the door, and then prop the door open with a shoe or something like that, you got a nice flow of air through the hotel room. So we tried it that night, and it made a big difference in cooling off our room. We got a better night of sleep.
So now, day four (Thursday, July 14). We had arranged this as a somewhat unplanned day, so we slept in. We went down to breakfast around 10:15 and met with our group. We had to check out of our hotel by noon, since we would be leaving for St. Petersburg that night via overnight train. We had to pay about $1.75 for the hotel to hold each bag that we left there, and then we headed out. First stop, Our Savior cathedral. This large building was destroyed during the Soviet times, and had an interesting story. It seems that the communists tried to blow it up, but on the first try, it didn't fall in. All the elderly ladies who were watching proclaimed that it was a miracle from God! The communists, in their typical style, said it was simply because they didn't use enough TNT. So, on attempt number 2, they loaded up, and down it went. They turned it into a large swimming pool. It has since been rebuilt, and our group went to take a tour of it.
That's when we discovered some of the interesting Orthodox rules. One other member of the group and I were wearing shorts, and they wouldn't let us in to see the cathedral. Women had to have shoulders and, in many cases, head coverings in order to come into the cathedral. So the other guy and I went and looked around the gardens all around the cathedral. I experimented taking some pictures with our little camera, and we mostly sat around and talked while the rest of the group toured.
When the rest of the group came out, I discovered that Carrie had purchased a small icon for me, as well as some cards with icons printed on them (she cutely described these as icon trading cards). From there, we went to a bridge over the Moscow river which looked back over the Kremlin and took some pictures. After that, we enjoyed the view, and then began to walk to our next destination, a cemetery named Novodivici, where many famous Russians are buried.
One of the interesting things of this particular Russian cemetery is that there were many faces inscribed of the person buried there. At this particular cemetery, you had to be somewhat famous or influential to be buried there (for example, we saw where Boris Yeltsin was buried). It was interesting to see how many people there had been killed during the communist times, and yet were being hailed as people to look up to.
Dinner that night was Georgian (not the state, but the nation along the border of Russia). We tried a number of dishes of Georgian style. One in particular that was really delicious is a bread which has cheese and egg sort of mixed and cooked on top. You tear off a piece of the bread, dip it into the cheese and egg mixture, and then eat it. Oh, it was so good. And then, after dinner, it was time to head back to our hotel.
We arrived back at the hotel around 9:00. We had a 10:00 shuttle arranged to take us to the train station for our departure to St. Petersburg. So we got our luggage and then sat in the lobby, talking, while we waited. Once the shuttle arrived and we got loaded up, we headed out for the station. It was only about 45 minutes away, so we got there in plenty of time for our train. We waited a bit outside the train station, and various members of our group got some food and a beer or two while we waited. Then, it was time to load up the train for our overnight journey north. So tune in tomorrow to hear about the train and our first couple of days in St. Petersburg!
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