Москва at Large

Moscow is one beautiful and busy city. The people are very nice, and smile as you pass. We woke up in our most comfortable Marriot Renaissance hotel, and headed down for our, rather American, breakfast. Both the service and food was great, consisting of a spread of fresh fruit, assorted meats, fish and cheeses, as well as other favorites like hash browns, bacon, sausage, backed tomatoes, yoghurt and eggs. The food was decadent.

After our wonderful dining experience, we and our new friends from the American School of Taiwan, headed off to the grand and most famous Red Square in front of the Kremlin. The square was surrounded by impressive buildings and the crimson red brick Kremlin wall. Not only does the term red refer to the color of the square, it also refers to it’s beauty. In addition it was much larger than I expected. The ground was pathed with an opal colored brick, which paired very well with the Kremlin wall. We walked through the most frigid -7oC weather until we got to GUM, the former state department store, where we were able to warm up and take pictures. Again, we headed back out into the bitter cold weather, and off we went to St. Basil’s Cathedral. The building was massive, and had beautiful onion shaped, mosaic tile domes; it was truly a traditional and remarkable structure. The paintings of religious figures and icons were so colorful, even though some of them where a bit white washed from the their restoration process. The church was filled with numerous and rather small chapels, where, in the past, ceremonies occurred.

Who ever thought of a metro station as being so culturally sophisticated? Not me, the Moscow metro stations are like walking into Union Station, in Washington, DC. No, I’m not talking about just one station; I’m talking about every single station. The stations are filled with bronze statues from the Stalin era. One statue in particular that stood out most was one with a soldier and his dog. Many passengers and tourists have been encouraged to rub the dog’s nose for good luck, making it the reason why the dog has a cold and sparkly nose. Not only were the statues magnificent, so was architecture of the walls, some made of mosaic tiles with images of working Russians, as well as images of Soviet leader Vladimir. Our tour guide, Olga, did a wonderful job in leading our group of 20 students around Moscow’s busy and ornate train system.

After our lunch at a Georgian restaurant, we made our way to the Kremlin, the massive walled fortress and house of the Russian government. I was expecting to see mostly political buildings; however, we mostly saw church after church, after church. Later we went to see another church, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour but this church was different. It was the biggest of all, with immense golden, onion shaped domes, with a white exterior. The church was not the original however. During the Stalin era it was demolished, and the rebuilding process began but after World War II, the rebuilding ceased and the foundation was used as a pool for the next 40 years. After the Soviet Union fell, the replica construction began again, and now stands as “The” church of Moscow.
We learned so much in this one day. The day came to a close, and ended with me here, in our hotel lobby blogging. I leave here now, as I would like to have a little more fun before my curfew. до свидания!!!!!!!!!!