moscow day 3

waking to rush to the kremlin, we found out that lenin was taking a rest, as he was tired of seeing all the damn tourists circling round him, as he lay motionless in a glass case, like an exhibit. so we didn't get to see the plasticised, embalmed, stiff grey and of course, great, lenin.

we got to the ticketing office of the kremlin and got greeted by a gremlin (more on that later). the old lady was really strict, even though my student card said "student" and "2010". good thing xinying had an isic card, so we got 2 student priced tickets (50 roubles), while we got fined with an adult, non-subsidised, 300 rouble adult ticket.

we saw a drill parade rehearsal as well a really big gun, i mean, cannon. the tsar's cannon has a 89cm bore that has never fired, but it really is very big. the drill parade was pretty impressive, with the horses prancing about in varying patterns (i caught one pooping while performing!! looks like it wasn't just us who got the shits). i was half laughing as i imagined myself as the guest of honour, who has probably seen so many of these parades, just wanting to get the parade over and done with and get to the food!

we saw the giant tsar's bell, weighing at an intense 202 tonne. it never rang, since an 11 tonne piece chipped off while it was cooling in the foundry casting pit in 1737. the bell was intricately carved. a remarked that he would be surely pissed if he was the one who did the carving on the bell. all that work and someone's mistake of letting the cooling bell get into contact with water... surely someone's head rolled.

after a while, you get sick of seeing all the churches. it's dark, it's intricately decorated with gold and deep reds and many saints painted on the walls and ceilings, and beams of sunligh cutting through the tangibly thick atmosphere. and after a while, we got pretty tired and sat out on a bench, talking about funny army experiences and what not. eventually, hunger got the better of us and we gladly found our favourite store, tepemok, which sells blinys (delicious to me, but probably not to the bliny connesieur). i had a coarsely textured goose liver pate (bet it was more chicken than goose liver) bliny with pickles. there wasn't much to do, so we headed back and now i am typing this out.

-l
next article: reported sightings in russia.