moscow, 1

we took an overnight train to moscow from petersburg
it was a pretty good trip
though none of the windows opened, so it was ungodly hot
we got to our hotel, the izmajlogo, at about 7 in the morning
much to everyone's surprise [dr merrill's too], our rooms were ready
so we dropped our luggage off and hit the city

our first stop was the eternally famous krasnaya ploschad'
or, as we americans know it, red square
i was expecting it to be much bigger than it was
regardless, it was incredibly imposing, and breathtaking
we walked up next to the istoricheskij muzej, the history museum
and as we crested the slight hill, there, in all its beauty,
stood st basil's cathedral, with the kremlin wall and lenin's mausoleum to the right
i'm surprised i couldn't hear the red army singing in the background
we toured around the square for a while
looked around at all gigantic buildings

then, because we got there just at the right time
we walked around back to the entrance, and got in this somewhat long line
we checked our bags, and got checked by the okhrana and metal detectors
we took a walk down the kremlin walls, passed by some placards
and came to this stark building, with two large metal front doors
we went inside, passed by the guards who were stationed at every corner
walked inside... and there, for god and the world to see,
lay the body of lenin
perfectly lit, laying entombed in his glass sarcophagus
i couldn't even begin to describe the feeling of being in there
it truly was a one-of-a-kind experience

from there, we exited back into the square along the kremlin wall
there, in a long line stretching quite a ways
were the graves of all the soviet general secretaries
followed by a litany of soviet demagogues, all bearing headstones [and some busts]
stalin, brezhnev, andropov, chernenko, they were all there
i didn't see khruschyov; i dunno if he was buried somewhere else or not
but yuri gagarin was there, by god
along will all sorts of other important soviets [like kalinin and molotov]
and i was arm's length away from all of them
it was ridiculously cool
makes me wonder if gorbachyov will get buried there when he kicks the bucket

after that little trip, we took a trek inside the kremlin walls
we visited a few of the cathedrals inside [i forget the names of them]
but we did see the tsar's cannon
it was a giant cannon made for ivan groznyj [i think]
it never fired, but it wasn't supposed to; it was all about size and imposition
we also saw the tsar's bell
again, never rung, it was just there to be huge and russian
apparently they had some issues getting it out of the mold
and a piece of it fell off
the piece was about the size of a small car
and it was completely dwarfed by the rest of this bell
that's how huge it was

after we left krasnaya ploschad'
we headed off to yet another art museum
our destination this time was the tretyakovskaya galereya
the tretyakov gallery, basically moscow's version of the russkij muzej
almost all of the art was collected by a man named tretyakov
it was a gigantic gallery, it seemed to stretch on forever
virtually all of the art in there was from russian artists
it was really interesting to compare their art to their european contemporaries
it covered the same time spans as the ermitazh and the russkij muzej
and there were at least half a dozen wall sized paintings
depicting everything from jesus to the strelniki pyotr I had executed
it was sweet

after our trip around the square, we went to the arbat
it's a famous trading street in the heart of downtown moscow
they had virtually every souvenir anyone could want
i even saw steelers' matryoshka dolls
i didn't get them though; they were expensive beyond necessity
we tooled around the arbat for a while, and then took off back to the hotel