Moscow

My roommate, Alaine, and I took an overnight train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. We took the overnight train because the trip is about 7-8 hours in duration. We were not sure whether we were in line for the correct train, so I asked the girl behind me if she spoke English. She responded by saying, "No. Deutsch." I took 4 years of German in high school, so I was able to brokenly talk to her. Once we got on the train (because we were in line for the correct one), she sat in our area. She took out her iPad mini and started Google translating questions back and forth to us. The older couple that was with us was fascinated to learn why we were going to Moscow, as well as how we got there (their expressions when we wrote that we were on a 115 day voyage around the world was priceless!). After our Google conversation back and forth (which abruptly ended because she lost her 3G internet), the German-Russian girl showed us pictures of her trip with her family to the area where Saint Isaac's granite came from -- the pictures were stunning! I feel like this whole exchange of cultures and languages (me speaking German to her, and her speaking Russian to our cabin mates) was really worth the venture to Moscow!

Moscow's main sights are all in the same general area, near the Red Square. The Red Square is located in the center of Moscow, which we walked to from the train station, which was located across town. We walked past one of Stalin's Sky scrapers on our way to the town center. We saw St. Basil's Cathedral, but were not able to walk up to it from the front, so we decided to go to the Kremlin Museums first because we would have to pass them on the way to the cathedral.
                                                                   
We toured the once town center and bell tower. From the top of the bell tower, you get a panoramic view of much of Moscow. We were able to see five of Stalin's Skyscrapers from up there! It was really quite fascinating. Also, we were able to see how far we walked, because one of the skyscrapers is right next to the train station. We went inside the churches in the square, and they really were quite lovely. One of the churches houses many of the deceased Tsars of Russia, and the other was the church where Russian princes were crowned. The inside walls of both churches were made of hand-carved wood, and were painted up to and including the ceiling! It was very amazing!

After we exited the Kremlin Museums, we walked past Lenin's Mausoleum to the festival that was going on. Later on we had found out that Vladamir Putin was there hours before practicing his speech -- very cool! We ate waffles on a stick, and I had mine with strawberry sauce. We also ate Russian sausage, and it tasted very similar to a lightly smoked kielbasa.
                                                                   
Once we finished checking out the festival, we went to take pictures in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. It was a very lovely church, but much smaller than I had anticipated (especially in comparison to the Spilled Blood Church). We then went into the GUM, which is a very large mall. It is three floors with four different parallel corridors; it is huge! After the mall, we started making out way back to the train station, and then stopped into Sephora for Alaine. When we got out of the store, it had started downpouring. Needless to say, by the time we got back to the train station, we were freezing and soaked. I must say that Moscow was quite an adventure. Moscow is very different from Saint Petersburg because Saint Petersburg reflects more of European culture than Russian culture. In addition, Saint Petersburg is less serious than Moscow, where it is more of a tourist location than Moscow. Overall, I had a very interesting trip!