Moscow - October 2, 2005

It's very surreal being here after so many years and all the pictures of this place that I've always seen. I think that the most spectacular time to be in Red Square is at night. It is lit up almost as bright as a Stadium at night. Not to mention that on a Saturday night there are TONS of people walking around.

I was able to get a few pictures with my camera. Although the memory card that I had went bad on me. It is not longer working so I had to go buy a new memory card. I lost an entire days worth of pictures. I went out to the Moscow State University. The Huge Monstrocity (sp?) of the Lenin era style architecture. I walked for miles just getting there. Then I stumbled on to this place that is a view point over looking thier Olympic stadium. The view is quite amazing. There are a couple of ski jumping towers that are very near by as well.

As I left the city over view I walked along this huge boulevard. It felt more like a freeway but it was'nt. There were several very large houses. Something there are very few of....houses, in Moscow. I had no idea who's they were. But they were very nice. I finally ended up down by the Moscow river again and walked for what seemed like an eternity. I found a metro station and decided to take the metro back into the city center. I was too tired to walk the rest of the way.

So, last night (Saturday), I walked up a huge street called Tverskaya street. It has many restaurants, coffee shops and casinos. Tons of security everywhere you go. I got stopped by Militsia (Militia) 3 times in a matter of an hour while I was walking. Two of the guys saluted me and all three asked for my passport. The first guy that asked for my passport I was a little nervious. I did not say a word. The second guy that stopped me asked me where I was from before he asked me for my passport. He then asked me why I was alone in Moscow. I told him that I was travelling on holiday for a few weeks. He wished me a good journey and smiled and saluted me. The Third request for my passport; I saw it coming. I was on my way back to my hotel basically and there were three military guys standing in my path of where I wanted to go. There was no avoiding them. One of the guys asked me for my passport right away. I complied and he smiled and asked me where I was gonig. This took me a second to figure out. At that point the other two guys that he was with come over and they all started talking to me it seemed, at once. I instantly told them that I spoke Russian with difficulty and they slowed thier talking a little bit. We talked about the basics: Where are you from, What do you do for work, Why are you here, etc. I was a little more comfortable by the third time ! :) Still a bit nerve racking.

I should mention...If I have not already done so that my storage space is maxed out. So the pictures will only be on my blog page until I can spend a little more time trying to get another account set up. So it may be a few days until there are more pictures available. I have been uploading my pictures for storage. A friend from work gave me space on her web hosting sight. But I have not figured out how to link the pictures up yet so that I can place them on pages. Hopefully later. Thanks for all the responses to my blog. It's been fun to communicate while travelling.

Until later !