Next day was Saturday. I had class from the long ass weekend and went to class while my sister did her own thing. After class I went to meet her at the hostel and we laid around until we went to Kafe Mart. Kafe Mart is classy restaurant that serves Georgian food among other things. She got dumplings while I had lamb stew with a martini. Georgian food puts sooo much pepper in your food that I was crying a little. Some of my friends came and we just talked about Moscow. Then we went back to the hostel and chilled out. We talked to this Romanian chick who was sooo stupid. She was born in Romania but lives in the UK. She told us how she went to the opera at the BOLSHOI TEATER wearing jeans and flip flops. I wanted to slap her.
Sunday we went to Izmailovsky Park. This basically a huge market where you can buy cheap souvenirs. They have everything you could think of there. I bought some awesome USSR cosmonaut propaganda posters, gifts, I'm going to go back and buy more shit. They have old USSR kopecks that I have my eye on. After that we went to a bar to talk, then went back to my place. My host made borsht, salad, baklazhan, a meat pie with egg and cabbage, then coffee and ice cream. Then to top it all off she made an apple strudel type thing for dessert after we were so full we couldn't do anything.
Monday we kinda walked around Red Square, didn't really do much of anything. I found a Kill Bill themed sushi place (I REALLY want to go). Tuesday I skipped class to play tour guide in the Kremlin. I guess I should explain the Kremlin some more because everyone, including me had this problem. Kremlin and Red Square are two separate things. The Kremlin is a fortress that's still around from ancient times and all ancient Russian cities have a Kremlin. Inside the Moscow Kremlin is where Putin works along with a bunch of churches from ancient times, the Armory, and palaces. Outside of the Kremlin in Red Square is where Lenin's mausoleum and St. Basil's is. They're not the same place like it sounds in our history books. We then went to see the Sound of Music (Звуки Музыки). I've had the soundtrack for the English move stuck in my head this entire trip and I knew I had to see it. It was really good. I absolutely loved it, and I bought a program which included a CD! I totally didn't put that on my Ipod as soon as I went home... I understood most of it, the only part I didn't understand were the musical numbers not in the movie. There was one where the village people came out with their faces painted red and danced around with Nazi's. I immediately looked at Alaina and said "I'm just as lost as you are." I thought it was interesting how they changed 'Do-Ray-Mi' to fit their language. For example it's not "Doe, a deer, a female deer." It's "Дом, наш дом, наш милый дом." Which literally translates into "House, our house, our sweet house." Afterwards we went to Pizza Express by her hostel and talked and I went home before the metro closed.
Wednesday afternoon we went to the GULAG museum. GULAG was a system of forced labor camps all across the Soviet Union. In 1940 there were 53 camps and 423 labor colonies. It was established in 1930, and with Stalin's death in 1953 most prisoners were freed in the decade. During this period 1,053,829 people died. It was finally liquidated in 1960. Many people were sent there by the NKVD (KGB). In the museum there were two floors. The top floor had artwork by/about GULAG victims and many items found in the labor camps. This excursion was also in Russian so I was zoning. On the bottom floor was a barrack that prisoners of the GULAG lived in, and also an exhibition about how the USSR would erase people from pictures on Stalin's whim. When Stalin didn't like you, you stopped existing and were erased from pictures. That was really interesting.
I met up with my sister and since it was her last day I told her to pick the absolute one thing she wanted to see and she picked the Statue park. So we went there and to Sparrow hills and then I went to THE CIRCUS. Yes, I did in fact see bears riding bicycles and motorcycles, but no unicycles. When the bears came out they looked like people in bear suits, but they were bears. It was so weird. I felt really bad for them. And the thought of a bear being able to ride a motorcycle with a Russian flag trailing behind it just scares me for some reason. There were also acrobats, jugglers, trapeze artists, and a horse show called Zorro. It was like a play with horses. It wasn't nearly as good as the first half. Then I took my sister to her train to St. Petersburg and nearly cried leaving her on the train. I was so sad to see her go.
Friday I went to see Cinderella (Золушка) the ballet. I was super excited about it and we all got dressed up fancy for the occasion. I am shamed to admit it, but I feel asleep for about three minutes during the first act. The music was so good, and I hadn't slept all week that I feel asleep for a bit. I couldn't help it! Thank god the man next to me coughed really loudly to wake me when the fairy godmother gave Cinderella her shoes. It was really good. There were dancing teapots, a hilarious king riding a giant golden tricycle, and the prince had an insane amount of glitter in his hair. The costumes and decorations were gorgeous, and the music and dancing was phenomenal. Cinderella was absolutely gorgeous. Dear God I want to go back.
Well next week we go to St. Petersburg. Until then, do svendanya bitches.
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