Our train ride was an event. We got to the station on time, but stood in line way too long to get a pizza. But it was 11pm and we hadn't had dinner. Knowing that the food options on the train were not going to be attractive, we waited until 10:50 for the pizza. We got to our train car and the conductor was nice, joking that he wanted our pizza in addition to seeing our passports & tickets.
Our compartment was easily twice the size of the one SO & I had on the way to Seattle last year. As there was only one aisle in the car and a single row of compartments, there was more room to make them larger. The ceiling was high, one could easily sit up in the upper bunks. We'd bought lower bunks, so we stowed our backpacks in the steel bins under the bunks and started in on our pizza. It wasn't too long until a woman came along who was going to share our compartment and wanted to put her stuff under our bunks. That wasn't going to happen, and she wasn't happy about it. Then she wanted a lower bunk. Well. Sorry lady, this is Russia. You're a native, and you know darn well that if you don't ask for a lower bunk, you don't get one. We weren't moving. Besides, she was really giving us some passive-aggressive attitude, complaining in the hallway to the other woman who was going to be in our compartment, and even complaining to the conductor! She wasn't that old, probably had 5 years on me, if that. If she'd been nice at all, we'd have moved to the the upper bunks, it was darker up there.
So, crabby woman and her friend went off somewhere and we watched the forest roll by and the ruined dachas. The conductor came by to take our ticket stubs and he gave us the rules of the road: don't stand on the table, close the door whenever you want, and don't let anything bother you, indicating with his head that he was talking about crabby woman. That was funny.
Eventually we fell asleep, though I woke up every hour for some reason. The bunk was more comfy than the Amtrak bunk. We arrived in Moscow at 7am and started for the crush of the metro (17 руб, as opposed to 14 in St. Pete). They have larger and newer trains. We took the long way around to our stop near old Arbat. We found the hostel, stowed our backpacks, and set off to find breakfast. We located coffee and juice that didn't bankrupt us and bought some babkas from a woman selling them on the street. Yum. We wandered Arbat for awhile and then decided more food was necessary. We found some of that expensive Moscow food (~$5 for a tablespoon of cappuccino), but their breakfast menu was pretty cheap. We had eggs!
After actually checking into the hostel, we started wandering. There are dozens of souvenir booths all up and down Arbat. Some are dreadfully overpriced. We found the Kremlin, decided that it was something that would be best saved for tomorrow, then walked through Red Square, and set off on our traditional get lost in the new city thing. We went north this time. The camera ran out of batteries and there was no way I was going to pay $10 for new ones (in the camera & phone store). I finally found some in a perekhod for $3.
Speaking of perekhods, Moscow's have St. Pete's beat by a mile or 2. There was an entire underground mall, on the order of Mall of America, two levels under the ground. And the mall was went down 3 more stories!
Finally, after hours & hours of walking, we decided we needed food. We gave into homesickness and went to Hard Rock Cafe across the street from the hostel. We got fries and nachos. The jalapeños were just tangy, not spicy, but we were happy. Then to the hostel to make a plan with the guidebook. But we were sleepy. So we took a nap. Now it's nearly 9 and I'm blogging and downloading pictures to my USB drive so that we can take 841 more.
little boy goes to camp tomorrow. I hope he has a great trip! I haven't gotten to call home at all because the calling card I got doesn't work. We've emailed, though. And I've sent text messages, but haven't gotten any replies.
I have noticed that the Russians in Moscow are not as given to staring at foreigners as they are in St. Pete. They seem friendlier, too. Well, off to make a plan and get those pix off the camera!
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