See below for more comments! As I found, present day Russia isn’t so far from Soviet Russia as I would have thought

Sunday/Monday
I arrived in Moscow with the DIS group of about twenty students, we stayed at the Hotel Ukraine which was sweet because you could see it pretty much anywhere in the city, because it was absolutely massive (30ish floors). The hotel was adorned with some quality communist propaganda murals inside, and stone a “hammer and sickle” outside!.

Moscow is verry different from what I’ve been used to, its a massive sprawling city of 10-15million people. It’s a rather surreal combination of flashing Las Vegas style flourecent lights, and classic Soviet architecture and statues. The city feels like it is being held together by a thread, a sort of unorganized free-for-all. Cars park wherever there is space, traffic lights are rarely observed, the feeling the city it being governed by general guidelines, typical of most cities, is strangely absent. I get the feeling that things could change overnight, and everyone’s out for themselves. Our bus sideswiped a parked car and the driver didn’t even flinch. This is only fitting in one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where the most dangerous person you can run into on the street is a police officer!

Tuesday
Me and a few others went to the outskirts of the city to try and find a market, which we never ended up finding. We ended up where they filmed the movie ‘Hostel’ ….or some place where they at least could have filmed it. Heck, the people were even in character. The entire place felt dead and creepy, and people walked around glumly and casted mistrusting glances at us. I don’t think they liked outsiders much…

We had tickets to a nice Russian ballet, which was really a collection of three different ballets. The first two were a bit artsy, but the third was a bit more eye candy with a fun plot. Definatly nice that they don’t speak so there is no language barrier. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a ballet before. I definatly caught myself thinking “what should I be thinking about right now” while watching hah! Should I be interperting the meaning of the whole thing? Enjoying it like TV? Clearly I’m not very cultured… On the way out of the ballet it started snowing! Very fitting for being in Moscow!

Wednesday
Skipped the schedualed tour to the art gallery so I could get a chance to see Lenin’s 82 year old corpse (yay..). Typical of Soviet…err…the Russian Federation, the Red Square(where Lenin is) was occupied by a military parade. I was still able to see inside the Kremln and the Armoury Museum which was filled with famous Russian history from Ivan the Terrible’s throne to Catherine the Great’s carriages. Cool stuff! Later on me, Nicole, and Matt went over to the Church of Christ the Redemer. Absolutely gorgeous church! I love Russian Orthodox Churches. I prefer the way they don’t have pews, which seem rather impersonal to me. Renaissance and Gothic churches seem so dark and hard to relate to(though I guess thats the point). Russia churches are colorful and full of elaborate paintings and murals.(I’m in the picture because I wasn’t suppose to take pictures…so I was being sneaky)

Can’t ignore the nighttrain from Moscow to St Petersburg. It was a great way to save travel time…if it was used for sleep
We decided to have a toga party, fueled with 4 dollar liters of vodka… Despite the train guards were pulled it off and arrived safely in St Pete’s.

Wednesday
We arrived and I was damn tired from the night before on the train. We had a bus tour which I really wanted to pay attention for, but I ended up sleeping for most of it. I usually hate bus tours because I prefer to experience the city, but the weather really was shitty with slushy snow and such.

The Russian museum was not on our itinerary but I headed over with Nicole in our free time. Definatly worth the trip! Very suprising. I really like alot of paintings there. Russian art isn’t exactly as well known as Italian, French…ect. One of my favorite museums, possibly due to my very low expectations given that I figured the Hemitage had most of the good stuff.

Thursday
The day I’ve been waiting for, the Hermitage! One of the biggest museums in the world. A whopping 6 buildings including the Winter Palace. I had huge expectations which weren’t totally fulfilled. Possibly because I was a bit rushed, but also because I disliked our tour guide. She sounded bored and forced, and it made me bored. I did love the Napoleon painting which I was not expecting, its my favorite of his famous ones. If anyone knows me at all they know I’m a bit of a Napoleon nerd

The definate plus of this museum was its history. It’s not just random buildings, so its like visiting a museum and a palace at the same time. It’s all European art though, so I’m glad I saw some Russian stuff elsewhere.

That night me and Nicole found this Viking style restaurant. I couldn’t resist having the filet mignon, I mean where are you going to get a good filet mignon for 15dollars? Looks like it was worth it right? The Baltika #8 beer was surpsingly good too, a great wheat beer.

Friday
Not much exciting here. By this point I’m about ready to kill most of the people I’ve been traveling here with. They have constantly been quoting Borat for the whole week, and saying ‘500′ in the Kazak ascent. I got home pretty early, got a bit of the returning home blues, back to classwork(and lots of it!) until I leave in December! I noticed when I was in the grocery store that day that I had been rude, and never said thank you ect. Must have been in Russia too long, hah!