DAY 42 - Moscow, Russia

Back on the road again. Flew to Moscow yesterday. The hotel we're staying in is one of five large tower blocks which formed the athletes village for the 1980 Olympics. They're outside the centre of the city and I'd expected them to be cheap and rubbish, but they're surprisingly decent, only lacking air con. It's over 30 degrees here during the day and not much less during the night, but last winter it got down to -30 apparently, so i suppose it's not worth installing air con in most places.

 

The first thing you notice here is that some people have a lot of money. The second thing you notice is that they clearly flaunt it everywhere they go, so much so that (to me at least) it comes across as really crass. (There is no jealousy involved, honest.) It's as if all the bin men from Basildon suddenly won the pools - it doesn't seem to matter if you need it: if it's in, you've got to have it. Witness the huge cars blocking the streets, endless Apple iPhones littering the tables like disregarded crisp packets and the in-yer-face designer labels (I swear some of the D&G sunglasses are bigger than the heads wearing them). I've also decided to promote Muscovites above Tanzanians in the really bad taste shoes league (although some of the pairs i saw outside Bank tube station when i was on secondment were much worse, this was generally a localised effect caused by too many bankers). I shall say no more.

 

I know all this this doesn't sound much different to some parts of London, but most people here don't have anywhere near as much, including those we would term as "the middle classes". Apparently, the gap between the rich 1% and the rest is so great, other Russians are not allowed to come to Moscow without written permission as the authorities are worried it'll flood the place with beggars, make the place look untidy and getting in the way of their 4x4s.

 

On arrival we immediately got the metro into the city centre. Approaching Red Square is one of those moments where you suddenly realise you're going to see something in the flesh which you've seen countless times before on telly. As I approached the arch at the edge of the square and took my first sight of St Basil's Cathedral it was quite a moment. Of course it's never as big as you expected.

 

This morning we had a walking tour and picked up some interesting tit-bits from the guide. We paid a visit to Lenin who, owing to being pumped full of formaldehyde and dipped in wax, didn't have much to say. I got moved on by an overly (in my opinion) officious soldier for walking too slow. It's completely true that people don't smile here - particularly the waiters in the restaurants who seem to think they're doing you a favour by turning up for work. Anyway, Lenin was pretty creepy. You can't help but imagine the cleaner wiping him down one day and accidentally catching his face with the duster causing his nose to fall off. He can't possibly stay like that forever.

 

We saw a small bunch of old folk parading to Red Square with old USSR flags. Apparently there are plenty of people here who still hanker after the "good old days" of rationing, lack of ability to travel and general living-on-the-edge-of-war stuff. They're mostly old though. The young just seem to want a new iPod.

 

St Basil's is the most interesting church i've ever seen. It's made up of nine chapels, each separate but joined together so none is very large and most of the inside of the structure is wall. Each has it's own alter but the maximum number of people you could get into most of them would be about 15. Nice turnip shaped domes though.

 

Anyway, i need to go and evaporate a bit more. Getting on the trans-siberian for four days tomorrow. Will officially stink by Irkutsk.

 

Rich.