China post 5#

First day in Moscow was wet and miserable and we were reminded that it was actually Monday! Went for a big buffet lunch and ended up in a quiet and wet Arbat - the bohemian district, I suppose in Moscow it would be seen as the right-wing alternative barrio? Anyway, not much happening so we sought refuge from the downpour in the Hard Rock Cafe.

Took a boat trip on the river and passed by the Kremlin. Agnes got very excited when we drew opposite the Red October chocolate factory, but alas, there was no disembarkment nearby. Ended up at a czech restaurant where they served us great pilsner with a potent chili floating around (do they know about this in the purist beer homeland?).

So finally, on to Red Square and the GUM shopping centre for the day. Red square is big and pretty asthetically pleasing as well, despite the totalitarian conutations it must conjure up in peoples minds .... Anyway, that's me outside Lenin's tomb in my new, ed commie trousers. GUM is spelt rym in cyrillic script and that's Agnes, literally on Red Square.

Pretty hard to find internet in this town, same as SP, so we wasted more time on that ...

Overall the Russians don't seem that interested in the internet, we later had a 20 year old as a guide and when we asked him for his e-mail to send him photos he said he didn't have one! Then again this guy hasn't been on a train in 7 years and has never been outside Russia.