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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

russian trip - moscow 7th apr

we alighted from the train and met up at the train station. went onto a tour bus for a 3hr tour when all everyone wants to do is to get to the hotel..bathe..and lie on some real bed. anyways..here are some photos from the tour that i managed to take without having the dirt on the bus window or some reflection inside the photo.

first photo in moscow..at the train station

everyone's hurrying in to get away from the biting cold

the statue of lenin inside the station

inside

look at how grey everything is

the older buildings..

newer ones

the first in the infinite policemen/army personnel we would see on the roads every 100m

almost all the cars on the streets are this dirty. i swear.

nice view of the monastery + nunnery

the university

the first thing that struck me about moscow is the tension all around. the moment we got off from the train..it was as if a thick coat of tension enveloped us. it was scary. and there was miliary personnel and policeman everywhere. like really EVERYWHERE. every 100m or less u go..u see not one but a few. and the air is so dirty it LOOKS dirty. and the cars..we figured that the reason why all the cars are so dirty is cos even if they clean it..it would revert back to the way it is within a day so why bother.

we got down at the red square to take a look around the red square and inside GUM (pronounced GOOM) which is this huge luxurious high end shopping mall in moscow. it is coupled by TSUM (SOOM) on the other side. the red square was gorgeous. it is one of the most beautiful places i've seen and needless to say the most beautiful in moscow. this is even when it is set against the dark clouds and grey skies. suddenly i didn't feel like i'm in hostile moscow anymore.

this is GUM

behind this building is where the kremlin is

the cathedral with the 9 domes forming 3 triangles

inside GUM

pretty pretty

prettyy

i wish im rich

wish im really rich

restaurant we ate at that was really good and really cheap

happy that we've food!

outside GUM

still nice

i still like this a lot

back on the bus..going to our HOTEL COSMOS

tired

turn around!

casino in the entrance of hotel kocmoc (cosmos in russian)

there was some confusion about our room cards cos we need to hand in our passports to the hotel for some registration and passport control stuff. yes. russia is such a stickler and oh-so-paranoid about foreigners and christien got screamed at. 1st time in moscow day 1.

our beds

toilet

not-so-nice view

arthur and christien in christien's room

some facts about moscow. there are 12 million people living in this bustling city and there are 5 million cars on the roads here. yes. more than the entire population of singapore. and this is only in the capital of a country. there are statues of people everywhere and the most celebrated person in the nation is not so much putin but lenin. the air here is horrible. the entire hotel corridor reeks of smoke and even our room reeks of smoke. everyone can smoke can indoors and outdoors. factories are situated in the city and we can see the emissions from those chimneys all the time. i could feel my skin dying.

we then went to the 24hr supermarket nearby to get water since we cannot drink from the tap here. and before long we realized that russians do not smile. they just stare. and stare. and stare. and they do not speak english. and it's gonna be hard for us to get around cos everything is in russian and they are using a different alphabet from us. the supermarket is amazing. alcohol takes up 1/2 of the store and 80% of it is hard liquor. this is how cheap alcohol is in russia and a testament of how much the nation drinks.

we put our stuff back in our rooms and went for a walk in the park opposite our hotel. yet another statue celebrating the launch of a rocket/whatever that looks like it. very very commuist. this was when christien got shouted at a 2nd time cos she went 2 steps up the stope of the monument even though there were footprints all over. there was a guard. guarding the monument. my goodness. can u believe it. this is russia. they have guards and police and army people everywhere. perhaps only russians can step on it because otherwise we would be stepping onto their pride or something. but anyways..christien was O_O 2nd time in moscow day 1. and the people are so cute. while waiting for buses at the bus stop..they actually queue up in 1 single file and wait..when there isn't any bars or queue lines stipulated. where in the world can u see this if not in moscow?

cute car..one that's clean for a change

the billboard outside our hotel

the sky was clear

our horseshoe shaped hotel

the statue of a frenchman..was it some president or something..outside our hotel

hotel kocmoc

the rocket monument

then we went back to the hotel..had the buffet dinner cos we were too lazy to go outside and find some stuff and it's not safe to leave the hotel without our passport and card cos any police can stop u and ask to check ur passport and visa. if you don't have them..u're in big trouble. and the thing about our hotel is..everytime we wanna take the lift up to our rooms..we have to show the guard our hotel card. yes. there's actually a guard whose job is to stand in front of the elevators and check the cards of the people going up. so we had our dinner and then i went to use the internet room to check my mail a bit to see if there's any important stuff..and we got our passports back..and we decided to go see the beautifull red square at night.

it was damn scary. it was the first time taking the metro by ourselves and we were armed with a metro map..a moscow map..and zero russian knowledge. went to the metro station and tried to buy a 10-ticket metro card. we were confronted with drunk guys who wanted to sell us some weird tickets and even though we ignored them they kept approaching us and even nudged us and poked me. omg i was DAMN SCARED. and we hurriedly bought our tickets and held onto our bags for dear life and went through the gates and finally went into the station. and we noticed people who jumped behind other people when going into the metro becuase they don't have a ticket and they try to get through before the gates close. and it worked. amazing russia. at the escalator..i realized that the platform is so so so deep underground. it takes about 5mins to get from 1 end of the escalator to another end and there were soooooooooooooooooooooo many people that the escalators were full and packed with people from 1 end to the other end. and we cannot see the bottom from the top even though it was pretty steep. cool. we managed to figure out which station we're at and which station to alight and so on without knowing russian.

we got out of the metro in the wrong exit and tried to cross the road. jaywalk. that was before we realized that moscow main streets are about 6 lanes wide and everyone drives as though they're on f1 track. i'm not kidding. we tried to cross and this car just zoomed past us as though we were on the highway or something. so we decided to carry on walking. anyways after much difficulty..we managed to find our way to the red square. and..oh my god. it is so so so picturesque and so..magical. i thought i was in fairytale or disneyland. it was pretty in the day..but at night..the only word was MAGIC.