I had realized in SPb that I maybe wasn't well prepared for the rainier and cooler climate I could expect in Belfast and Dublin. I had decent rain gear, but my "conference wardrobe" was potentially inadequate. Kim also had a few items she wanted to pick up, so we headed to the H&M for a little shopping Russian-style. I found some pants and a cardigan, but not without frustration. I thought clothing sizes in Canada were annoying. Here it's a whole other story. First off, the corresponding North American sizes were not useful. And secondly, I must be larger than the average Russian and shaped quite differently, as it was a nightmare to find a pair of pants. After this I was definitely ready to be a plain old tourist again.
Kim was a good sport and accompanied me to the Arctic and Antarctic museum. Unfortunately everything was only in Russian, so we just enjoyed looking at the artifacts, photos, paintings, and maps and forgot about trying to decipher the write-ups.
Then we made our way over to a couple of parks we hadn't seen yet. Most impressive was the Summer Garden, a former garden of the Russian monarchs. It was full of statues and fountains.
After taking a break at a nice little cafe, we were on our way to the Museum of Erotica. This made the list for the humour factor and because apparently you can see Rasputin's penis. (Oh and it was free.) Except we didn't find the museum. Or at least not really. We found a sign and an alley, but no real entrance. And because the museum is actually part of a VD clinic, we weren't too keen on investigating further. We admitted defeat and will have to leave without this experience. Neither of us are too torn up.
On the looooong slow stroll back to the hotel, we walked by a very interesting building, one that looked quite out of place. It was square and regular concrete coloured and had an eerie feel to it. Kim remembered right away reading about the Bolshoy Dom, the former KGB headquarters, and how it was architecturally unique (and not necessarily in the beautiful kind of way). This building is a little like the ugly duckling of SPb. Happening upon it like this was a stroke of luck, as we'd crossed it off our list that morning thinking we wouldn't have time. Point! You'd almost think we knew what we were doing. :-)
That evening we took the overnight train to Moscow, departing at 12 am and arriving at 8 am. We killed time in the train station by playing 20 questions, then headed to the platform to hop aboard the Red Arrow, the most well known Moscow-SPb train. We'd sprung for the first class tickets for our solo train journey, and we instantly felt like we'd fallen into the lap of luxury compared to our previous overnight train experience. The attendants were waiting by the doors, done up in fancy grey suits and red felt hats. The inside of the train had red and cream curtains and rugs. Our compartment was bigger than before, the beds a little softer (or less hard, I should say), and of course it was just the two of us in the cabin. (The washrooms weren't much nicer. The smell of urine was still overwhelming.) We tried to stay awake and enjoy the train and the sights out our window, but fatigue got the best of us. I slept quite well, especially compared to last time. We arrived in Moscow, took the metro back to Godzillas, dropped our bags and prepared to redo Moscow.
Photos below are:
Me by the Neva
I love Russia (complete with umbrella)
Me and Kim at St. Issac's
Two of me and Kim at the polar museum
Me at the Summer Garden
Up next - our last days in Russia.
TTFN
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