The last time I was in Moscow I had mislaid something and didn't see much of the city. The first time I was in Moscow I had lost something and probably saw more of the city than the rest of my fellow students. This time I hadn't lost or mislaid anything ..
As far as you know.
... and was determined to revisit Красная Площадь, Krasnaya Ploschad, Red Square.
Are you going to give three versions of every place name?
No. It was only two stops on the Metro and we soon emerged from the subterranean palace which is the **** station, gazed at the Bolshoi Theatre and walked past a Winter Market to the square dominated by the statue of Marshal Zhukov. Behind his statue is the entrance to Krasnaya Ploschad, past the brass star set into the ground which marks the centre of the city. Iraida wanted to take a photo of me standing on this spot, but I was far too polite to push in as did most others waiting to do the same thing. Eventually I made it and had my photo taken for the first of many times in the next few days. Then we walked through the beautifully decorated archway into the street which leads up to the square itself. On the right was the Museum of Russian History, and outside of one of the entrances were two or three characters from that history, dressed in splendid costumes. The idea is that you can go and stand beside them and take their photographs or have a photograph taken with them.
Haven't they heard of an 30x optical zoom lens?
It seems not. Having taken the photos like the cheap-skate I am we moved further up towards Red Square itself. There was something wrong. The Square wasn't the vast empty space that I expected and remembered. But this is December and New Year isn't too far away. A Winter Fair, complete with a temporary outdoor skating rink, carousels and a village of stalls selling everything for the New Year Celebrations took up most of the square on the side next to ГУМ, the massive shop which used to be the Gosudarstveniye Universiye Magazin - its much easier to say ГУМ (pronounced 'Goom'). At the right of the square was the Kremlin, the Spasskaya Bashniya clock tower and the Mausoleum of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Unchanged. And at the far end of the square was the iconic cathedral of St. Basil - Василиевскии Собор - with its amazing cupolas.
This is tourist Russia but with good reason. Visually stunning, historically significant and thus somewhat awe-inspiring.
There were photos to be taken. Lots of photos. (And these will be added when Internet access allows it ) For the first time I walked around the back of Vasilievski Sobor - the views were just as stunning from every angle.
Having walked through the Winter Village, admiring the items for sale we then entered ГУМ itself. In Soviet days this was the flagship store. Now it is an amazing collection of very high end shops representing the highest quality and prices to be found around the world. At this time of year the 'store' is beautifully decorated with this year's theme being based on retro style greetings cards and parcels. Apart from a selection of shops selling Russian delicacies, confectionery, pâtisserie etc, one could have been in Paris, London or New York with all of the top names on show. Nevertheless it was spectacular. Finding our way out of the maze of galleries and malls took longer than expected, and by the time we entered the Zhukov Metro Station we had less than thirty minutes to get back to Paveletski, collect our luggage and then get to the platform to board the train to Volgograd, which was due to leave at 13.42.
I gave bad memories of missing one train from Paveletski last year, the express out to Domodyedovo Airport. As we waited in the overheated corridor outside the superheated left - luggage department it seemed that the heat was affecting the young guy on duty there. He appeared to be in something of a daze as he eventually searched for our baggage. This was going to be a close thing. I don't like close things. The baggage retrieved, we then began a sprint along corridors, up escalators and stairs.
Sprint? Did you say sprint?
Well it was as near as an overdressed, overheated and over laden seventy year old could get to a sprint I assure you!
Not to mention overweight.
I didn't miss that out for any other reason than it didn't fit into the carefully constructed sentence which used the list of three to build the sense of meaning.
As we emerged from the station on to Platform 1, the station announcer was advising passengers for the train to Volgograd to board as quickly as possible. The train stretched out into the distance. There were 14 coaches I think. The highest numbers were at the rear. Our berths were in Coach 5. Each coach took about ten seconds to pass, 13. 12. 11.Would we make it? 10, 9, 8, 7. Do they have cardiac resuscitation equipment on Russian platforms. 6......5.......Where's your passport? Not my ticket? No, your passport. Attendant searches passport for passport. No 5 that's your migration card No that's your visa. Ah that's your passport. Check. Right, on you get.
The passageway through the sleeping car in third class isn't very wide. There was probably about a cm on each side as I followed Iraida to berths 17 and 19. I couldn't really walk straight.
"It's alright," explained Iraida, "we've made it with four minutes to spare."
I can't remember saying anything.
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