Pompey to Moscow....how hard can it be?: Moscow Day!

Happy Moscow day!

Graeme had been warned by his Russian work colleague that Moscow day was not as fun as it sounds and guess what...it's true! Heh, I sound like a stick in the mud but to tell you the truth I think the amount of stairs i'm climbing to get anywhere is giving me a high sense of expectation - and when it's not delivered then heh...I'm not impressed! Actually it was okay - I think most of the exciting stuff happens at night so being with baby and all doesn't really lead to through the looking glass experiences. Check me out, a few days in Moscow and I'm expecting fireworks and Russian dancing - as I said, that comes at night fall...damn. So, we started our day at breakfast - a weird experience in itself this morning as there was an oligarch having breakfast when we entered - you're thinking so? Well, let me tell you, it's quite an affair because he has many body guards - we enter breakfast room and realise when we sit down that there are three men standing very close to us with ear pieces in and whispering in secretive ways. Graeme then informed me that this had happened in the Ukrainian restaurant he'd been in the night before with his boss and they had told him that when an Oligarch is present then you know all about it as there are 2500 body guards watching your every move. The Oligarch himself was sat there with 5 waitresses around him and large amounts of food (that he didn't eat) he looked slightly like toad of toad hall, smoking in a non smoking restaurant - surrounded by flunkies bowing and curtseying. He then went to the toilet and the outside door was then surrounded by about 7 men in a row not allowing anyone to enter-! Amazing to witness that kind of madness and that was just breakfast! We of course sat right in the middle of their operation action man and so paid havoc to their security plans.

So we travelled into Red Square again as Graeme hadn't seen it - we found Lenin's Mausoleum -

Lenin and Graeme

So then we moved on to try and find out where all the fun was at.....but we soon realised that the police had cordoned off large areas of the city so it was very hard to get anywhere but they did shut some of the main streets -

10 lanes on a normal road in Moscow - mental.

It was weird seeing the usually hectic car ridden streets all quiet and SAFE! The only thing at this point that we could find was a lot of people shouting and holding flags -

As you can see, not that thrilling - although we did doubt at one point whether we were actually at the right end of town as we couldn't understand any of the chants it could have been an anti-government march for all we knew but we were there shouting 'happy Moscow day!' So we continued on - seriously people, there is a lot of walking to do in this town - me being not so fond of moving my legs is getting a wee bit of a shock but heh - if I want to look like one of these 6ft Slavic cheeked beauties then I've got to put my time in. I shall now proceed with some shots of architecture that we encountered -

An entrance - to somewhere mysterious (means I don't know)

The gates exiting Red Square

Who indeed is the man on the horse? I haven't found out yet so don't ask.

An old building

An Icon on the Gates of a cathedral

The Bolsheviks supposedly used this for target practice but never hit it - some could say that God was protecting it...I just say that the Bolsheviks were too drunk to aim straight.

Yet again it was lunch time so we ventured into a Russian Restaurant called Moo Moo - or My My written in Cyrillic. As you would expect from a place called moo moo everything was Frisian cow themed - black and white everywhere. Anyway, I pulled the short straw and had to go up to the buffet thing and order - well, it was a point and hope for the best extravaganza - but, to our surprise we ended up with some very tasty dishes - beef with cheese and onions melted on the top and a pork schnitzel. I also pointed at these triangular samosa looking things and ordered two PIVO's - yes people, word of the day - PIVO! Pivo is beer in Russian - always learn the alcohol first. Sadly the two triangles turned out to be pudding - they were pancakes with berries and chocolate in - I know, sounds good but not when you've mixed it into your beef and cheese - we live and learn.

Even a Frisian Balloon for Arthur

Sign for Ladies on Loo - took me a long time to work this out.

So finally after lunch we found some entertainment. Now, I don;'t want you all to get too excited about the following videos, the first is one for the ladies -

Well, after this fine display of singing we were spurred on to enjoy more of Moscow day's treats which included men weight lifting to the mission impossible soundtrack, people running round a small race track for no apparent reason - definitely not signing up to that one, and other such wonders like the odd appearance of something like the equivalent of our boy scouts-

We even found something for the gentlemen to enjoy -

We certainly managed to enjoy the rest of the day and see some more incredible buildings -