bosnia: mostar

I've never rented a car before in another country, which pretty much guaranteed an adventure no matter what else we saw or did during the rest of the trip.

Our last morning in Sarajevo we packed up and checked out, then put our stuff in the car. We went to a bakery to stock up before hitting the road, because a road trip practically guarantees the need for snacks.

Our end goal for the day was Mostar. Getting out of Sarajevo was the first adventure, as many of the roads in the city center are one way, and I didn't always have much warning about any turns I needed to make. 

Once we got on the highway we were pretty stoked, as the speed limit was fast, and the views were great.

The fast speed limit didn't last long, unfortunately. It turned out we were on a highway requiring a toll, and after getting off that highway, the next one was not so great. The next one was just two lanes, and very twisty.

Since I hadn't driven in a while, and it had been even longer in a country where I couldn't read the signs, and didn't know the rules of the road, I was nervous.

I saw quite a few places where I wanted to pull the car over and take a photo of the scenery, but I only actually did so a handful of times. Bosnia is relatively unknown in the travel world, especially because it is in Europe, but absolutely gorgeous.

As we got closer to Mostar there were people passing me regularly, even on blind curves, which I find to be incredibly stupid, no matter how well you know the roads. They passed while we were in tunnels too, eeeeek. I was mostly terrified there would be a huge crash in front of me, thank goodness that didn't happen.

Once we got to Mostar it took a while to find our accomodation. The way it is labeled on google maps and yandex maps is wrong, and makes it look as if it's on one street, but it isn't. Our room was actually in a guesthouse tucked into the very back of a courtyard. We loved the room though, it even had a skylight. Our landlady spoke German, so Bo was able to do all our communicating, which was awesome.

Mostar is supposed to have been named for the people who guarded its bridges, called mostari.

The Neretva River goes right through the city, (which currently has almost 115,000 residents,) and the bridges over the river have been around as long as the city itself. Like Sarajevo, Mostar is in a valley, though the surrounding hills aren't as big as those around Sarajevo.

There is evidence of human habitation in the area of Mostar even in prehistoric times. Archaeologists have found remains of life from Roman times under the current city. Wikipedia tells me the first written mention of Mostar is in a document from 1474, when the area was under Ottoman rule. 

The bridge that everyone thinks of in Mostar was first built as a wooden bridge, and redone in stone in 1566.

Austria-Hungary took control of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, ruling all the way through the end of WW1, in 1918. At that point it became the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, followed by Yugoslavia. Wikipedia tells me Mostar was the unofficial capital for a while, but it doesn't say why, nor does it say what the official capital was at the time.

Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, which was basically the start of the war in the 1990s. What followed were at least three years of fighting, much of which completely confuses me. There were more than two sides in the war, I'm not sure what all each one of them wanted.

In 1993 the famous bridge was destroyed, it was 400+ years old at the time. It took a three year rebuild before being opened again in 2004. One series of postcards I saw showed how much the bridge changed from the 80s till now, whoa. 

The bridge was one of the first sights we saw in the city, after walking along the river for a bit. The area around the bridge is filled with stalls selling all kinds of tourist knick knacks. I suppose they're just a modern version of the market that once filled the area, but they definitely take away from the atmosphere.

I have to admit that being on the bridge wasn't that amazing, but the view of the bridge from a couple other spots in town was amazing. There are lots of people trying to take photos on the bridge, but I don't think you get a good photo on the bridge. 

Unless you're the only one on the bridge, and your photographer is standing in a place that shows the entire bridge.

Since I wanted photos of the bridge, we figured out how to get to one of the viewpoints of the entire bridge. Getting there meant following a couple very narrow walkways that weren't obvious, but there were plenty of people down closer to the river, so there must be a more obvious way to get there. Anywho. Some of those people had clearly been waiting for quite a while to get their perfect photo. 

One of the things locals like to do is jump off the bridge. Sometimes they stand on the edge for a long while, waiting for a big enough crowd to gather before jumping. We saw two people waiting to jump, but they still hadn't jumped a full ten minutes later, so we stopped waiting and started walking.

Our next stop was another traditional home from the Ottoman era. Called the Katjaz house, it was formerly the home of a judge, so it was quite nice. We were the only visitors at the time, which made us love it even before walking around. 

The owner/manager gave us some of the history of the house and era, then let us wander around on our own.

The intricate wood carving was amazing. The carpets were amazing. The way the second level had so many windows was amazing. The whole thing was amazing. Wow, just wow. The owner told us it used to be twice as big, which made us appreciate it even more, because it still felt quite big. I don't know how many people were in the judge's family, that would make a big difference in how spacious it felt at the time. 

We walked back in the general direction of our accomodation to get to one of the war sights of the city, the so-called Snipers Tower. It was probably going to be an apartment building, but it wasn't finished. The stairs go all the way up I think, but there are no exterior walls. Being anywhere in view of the building during the war was a massive risk.

There is graffiti all over the building, both 'inside' and out. There is a fence all the way around, but if you really wanted to it wouldn't be that hard to get inside and go up to the top. Fascinating, in a morbid way.

We also took a look at two buildings close to the Snipers Tower. One of them had Moorish architecture, I read the sign out front to figure out it was a local school. Really impressive architecture for a school.

The school was right next to the other building, which was fascinating because it was abandoned and falling apart. Trees and vines growing up through the floors, the walls had already collapsed. I love abandoned buildings, but I didn't go much past the front porch because I didn't want to fall into a basement and get stuck.

The next morning we drove out of town to do a day trip around the area.

The second morning we stopped at a spomenik before heading out of town. It was related to WW2, from Italy I think. It was smaller than many of the spomeniks around the country, but it was still worth seeing.

I'd love to go back to Mostar, as it is very pretty. That being said, I'm not sure how much more there would be for me to see.

germany: another layover in frankfurt

When booking my flights between Chicago and Moscow, my return trip got me a daytime layover in Frankfurt. I have to admit that after my last experience with this layover, I was a bit nervous about delays out of Frankfurt, I didn't want to spend another unintended night there.

Frankfurt is big, having almost 750,000 people. Civilization has been there a long time, going all the way back to Roman times; it was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. For a while, the kings and emperors of Germany were crowned in Frankfurt, Wikipedia tells me this stopped in 1792, with the coronation of Franz II who was crowned in St. Bartholomaus Cathedral.

Like much of Germany, much of the city was bombed to smithereens during WW2, most of what exists now has been rebuilt.

My flight arrived in the morning, and it didn't take long to go through passport control. I had ideas for a few things to see in the city, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Getting into the city from the airport is easy and fast, it's just an S-bahn ride. Only 20 or 30 minutes. I had just a personal bag, and my pack for carryon so I put them into a luggage locker in the Frankfurt train station. Much less worrying about my pack getting lost!

I was tired though, so very tired. Jet lag gets worse for me the older I get. Even though my head recognized that it was morning, my body was mostly in a fog. I liked seeing the city before too many people were running around, but I was so tired. 

I knew jet lag was going to be an issue, but I just couldn't keep going, no matter how much I wanted to see in the city. 

I saw a few spots familiar from my layover the year before, then I saw a Starbucks. An organization known for letting people sit in comfortable chairs for long periods of time. 

I admit that I spent the next three hours dozing off in a chair on the second level of the cafe. So tired.

I felt better after the sort of nap, or at least better enough to start walking again.

I wound my way through the old city center to find one of the towers that still stands from the old city walls. It was actually a city gate back in the day, but doesn't look very 'gatey' to me. I also found the opera theater, which is gorgeous. I'd love to attend a performance there sometime, but my layovers never seem to be at the right time for that to happen.

I crossed the river, the bridge was quite photogenic. On the other side of the river I stepped into a church, as I knew I wouldn't be seeing many Catholic or Protestant churches in the near future. I love stained glass, and the feel of belief in the buildings of any faith.

I crossed back over the bridge on a different bridge, this one much more modern. Pretty, but not in the same way the other bridge was. It took me back to the same general area, so I was able to get back to the platz that is featured in many of the photos of Frankfurt. The buildings all around the platz have traditional architecture, so it's beautiful. 

Maybe one day I'll sit in the chairs of all the cafes and have an ice cream.

From there I made my way back to the train station, picked up my bags, and caught the next train back to the airport. This visit to Frankfurt wasn't very long, and not very intense, but it left me something to see the next time I'm there.

usa: road trip from Columbus, IN to Charlotte, NC

The original plan was for John to pick me up on Thursday morning, then we'd take our time driving back to Charlotte. That plan was delayed by a little over two days, but such is life. John picked me up after lunchtime on Saturday, and we started driving.

Our first stop was in Columbus, Indiana, for lunch. The pizza was good, and I saw a business with my last name :) I've done a day trip to Columbus previously, but didn't get to see everything. This quick stop reminded me that I want to come back and see more.

We kept going until we got to Cincinnati, Ohio. I got to drive much of the way, which was fun. Though the U.S. doesn't have a good public transport system, it does have a good network of highways. (Notice that I didn't say that all this infrastructure is in good shape, because it isn't.)

Cincinnati is a city of almost 300,000 people, founded in the late 18^th century. Wikipedia tells me it sits at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers, I only knew it was on the Ohio River. Clearly I need to go back and make sure I see the Licking River, just because it has a fun name.

I grew up going to Cincinnati every summer to watch the Cincinnati Reds play at Riverfront Stadium. The stadium has a different name now, but it will always be Riverfront to me. We parked the car near the riverfront walkway developed by the city, and started walking. We didn't get far before deciding to cross Roebling suspension bridge. Crossing the bridge took us over the state line into Kentucky, a state in which we had zero desire to spend any time.

The water of the Ohio River was not particularly good looking, it was a shade of brown as far as I could see. Yuck. Somehow I doubt it ever looks all that great.

Just after coming off the bridge I realized I was rather dehydrated, and needed water quickly. I'd heard about an ice cream place called Graeter's that was originally from Cincinnati. It has now spread to other cities/states, but the fact that it was originally from Cincinnati made it okay for me. (My general rule being to avoid national chain restaurants.)

I drank a bottle of water really fast, then enjoyed two scoops of black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream. I would most definitely go back for me the next time I'm in Cincinnati.

From there we wandered around a little bit of the city center, enjoying the architecture of the sky scrapers. We didn't wander far, heading back to the car soon enough. I've since checked a couple travel apps and found plenty of things to do and places to see in Cincinnati, I'd like to go back. (With plenty of water.)

We started driving with no end point in mind for the evening. We pulled into a hotel parkplatz a little before midnight, after having crossed state lines into Knoxville, Tennessee.

The next morning we decided to explore a bit of Knoxville, just because we could. I'd been there once before, when I was 18 years old and trying to decide where I would go to university. I don't remember much about that trip, it was nice to go back and basically see the city from scratch.

We found a free parkplatz downtown, near a pedestrian street. The street was nice looking, everything had been developed nicely. This pedestrian street was mostly lined with cafes and restaurants, nothing too extraordinary.

We walked to the end of the street, circling around a few streets down there. One of the buildings we saw was the old county courthouse, it still has a war memorial on the lawn. Another building we saw was one of the most boring government buildings I've ever seen. We also saw a church or two. As it was the middle of summer, flowers were blooming, and everything looked lovely.

Finally we saw something we'd seen while driving into the city center: the tower of the convention center. There is a gold ball at the top of the tower, the whole thing is really eye catching. The rest of the convention center wasn't anything great, which wasn't much of a surprise.

The bottom of the tower was near a small body of water, which had also been redeveloped nicely. There was a splash pad, steps by the water, etc... Not too far away we found a war memorial for the soldiers of east Tennessee. Very nicely done, with maintenance done regularly.

Around that point I realized that yet again I'd let myself get dehydrated. We walked back to the pedestrian street and found a local cafe. The server brought water, which I drank immediately. We asked for a full pitcher of water, she brought another glass for each of us. I drank that fast as well, finally feeling closer to normal again. When she saw how fast I was drinking she realized I had asked for the pitcher of water for a reason, and finally brought it. Our food was fine, and the air conditioning felt good :)

Before leaving town John found a cigar shop to visit, but didn't buy anything because he didn't want to spend that much on rolled up tobacco leaves. I had no idea cigars can cost more than $100!!!

From there we went back to the car and got back on the highway. Our next stop was Asheville, North Carolina, because I was craving ice cream. I found a place listed on a travel app, it was okay, but not as amazing as I wanted it to be.

From there we drove to Charlotte. I'd never been there before, it was completely new to me.

I would definitely return to Columbus, Cincinnati, and Knoxville, as there is always more to see and do :) Road trips are the best.

russia: kaliningrad

12 June is a national holiday in Russia, called Russia Day. This year it fell on a Tuesday, so I was able to have a four day weekend from school. Claire and I took the chance to book flights to Kaliningrad, the region of Russia that is separated from the mainland.

Kaliningrad is a state of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania. Centuries ago (when it was called Konigsberg,) it was part of Prussia, first part of Poland, then part of Germany. During WW2 the area was heavily damaged, and many people left and went back to mainland Germany. 

Russia sent in soldiers and took over the area, (after a siege,) changing the name of the city to Kaliningrad in 1946.

Russia deported many of the remaining Germans, and brought in a bunch of Russians to settle the state. One would think there might still be a lot of German culture and architecture left, but that wasn't what we saw, not for the most part.

I've wanted to go to Kaliningrad for yonks, but since it is part of Russia, that made it hard to do. For most people, you have to get a visa for Russia, and most people have to enter Kaliningrad via mainland Russia. 

Even if there is a direct flight to Kaliningrad from whereva you are, you have to be Russian (or a few other nationalities, but not many,) to take it. Since I'm now living in Russia, it's an easy visit to make.

Our flight was only a couple hours, yay! We flew on a Friday afternoon, it was still light when we landed. For whateva reason, a security guy pulled us aside to ask why we were there. We answered his questions, he seemed surprised that foreigners would be coming before the World Cup started (Kaliningrad was another of the host cities,) and that we lived in Moscow.

We took a taxi to the flat we'd booked, it was the winner in the battle of cheap public transport vs. time involved. It was heaps cheaper than a taxi from the airport from Moscow, of course. Checking in to the flat was easy, it had been renovated fairly recently and came with fish.

After a bit of relaxing and figuring out where to go, we started walking. The first sight was a monument to cosmonauts, I loved the shape. It was big, but didn't otherwise look like a typical Soviet monument.

As we kept walking we realized we were seeing quite a few Spar grocery stores. We noticed a Spar Express, a Spar Euro, and Spar Gourmet as well. We couldn't see a difference between all of them, who knows the reason for the different names?

Close to one of the Spars we found a monument called Mother Russia. I've seen other monuments with that name, they've all been far bigger. This one was considerably smaller, and didn't seem to get much attention from anyone else on the street.

Our walking took us to a street with a series of buildings that looked 'German.' Since I lived in Germany years ago, this seemed somewhat familiar, I'm guessing the whole city had this type of architecture at some point during history. This ended up being the only place in Kaliningrad that had this architecture.

We came to a bridge, crossing Pregolya River. There was an easy pedestrian area to cross, I had no fear of traffic. We got off the bridge onto an island, a fairly small island. Visible from all over the island, is the Konigsberg Cathedral. 

The version everyone can see now is not the original version of the church, as it was burned down in 1944. Rebuilding only started in 1992.

We wanted to go in the church, but we arrived too late. Oh well. Around that point the sun was going down, so we watched the sky change over the river for a bit, then headed back to our flat.

The next morning we walked into the city center again, taking a different route. We found Victory Square easily enough, there is a tall column (dedicated to 750 years of city existence,) in the middle. 

It isn't a clearly defined square, it's more of an open area. On one side of the square is the Chapel of the Blessed Prince Peter and Fevronia. (I feel sorry for anyone named Fevronia, sorry.) It looked new to us, but who knows. There was a large set of stairs in the front of the church, the entire exterior was white, with gold domes.

The inside of the church was awesome. Bright frescoes and a whole lot of gold everywhere. It wasn't wide, but it was tall. I loved it.

Our next planned stop was the Amber Museum.

On the way there we found a 'waterfall' with mosaic decoration. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but it was pretty. The Museum sits on one side of a traffic circle, there was a statue of a military guy (I think) on another side.

The Amber Museum is in a former tower/fortress wall. There were two floors of exhibits, I had no idea so many things could be made of amber. Useful things and decorative things, and totally useless things. Amber is 'just' fossilized tree resin. Nearly 90% of the world's amber comes from the Kaliningrad region. 

You can find it in dark gold, yellow, and green colours. We wanted to see an amber mine during this trip, but that didn't work out.

By the time we walked out of the museum, we were ambered out, but were still glad we'd seen the museum. Not far from the museum was the church of Alexander Nevsky. It was small, and didn't look very exciting from the outside, but we really liked the interior. Everything was painted in bright colours, the iconostasis was shiny gold, and the cupola was awesome.

We had to walk quite a way to our next stop, the Bunker Museum. 

This is what remains of the bunkers used in all the fighting of the seige during WW2. It took us a while to find the entrance of the museum, since it is set behind the buildings on the street. Since it is in an old bunker, it is underground, so you can't see it from far away.

The rooms in the bunker were all off one hallway, each room was set up to show a different aspect of the seige. We saw photos, a diorama of German officers surrendering to the Soviets, propaganda posters, etc... It's a good museum.

We went looking for something listed as a world clock. We finally found it, but it was not at all impressive. More impressive than the clock was the outfit of the lady walking a dog nearby. Hee hee.

Near the clock was a pond, it looked like you could rent rowboats and float around for a while. We knew we didn't have time to do so during this trip, but thought it looked fun for a return visit. From there we walked back to the cathedral, determined to go in. When we got there we discovered there was an entry fee, and several tickets to choose from. 

It wasn't immediately obvious to us which one was the old church, so we walked out. It shouldn't be that confusing to visit a church.

Around the back side of the church was a tomb of world interest: that of Immanuel Kant. The German philosopher was from and lived in Kaliningrad.

We walked across another bridge near the back side of the bridge, heading toward a part of town known as the fishing village. Waaaaay back in the day, this part of town really was a fishing village. Now it's just a long row of 'German' looking buildings, filled with restaurants, cafes, and souvenir shops. 

It's photogenic, but not much else.

More walking brought us to yet another bridge, this one called King's Bridge. As we crossed, we noticed a group taking wedding photos. I must admit, I'm not a fan of any of the bridesmaids' dresses I've seen in Russia. Ick.

We found a huge fountain not too far away, it was full of local citizens playing in the water. I guess you could call it a local splash pad? It looked fun, if we'd brought the right clothes, or at least dry clothes for later.

All that walking brought us back to the first bridge we'd walked, going over the river to the island. We followed it backward this time, all the way to a tram stop. The tram going home didn't take long, and was cheap. Have I mentioned how much I love public transportation?

After arriving back at the train station (from Svetlogorsk,) the next evening, we visited two statues. One was of Mikhail Kalinin, a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet Politician. This is the guy after whom the city and oblast is now named. 

The second statue was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a guy I've mentioned a few times previously.

We laughed as we walked past a pizza place on the way to the tram stop to get home. The place was called Obama Pizza, and had the slogan "yes, we eat."

After returning mid afternoon from Zelenogradsk the next day, we walked into the city center again. Claire was still looking for an amber piece of jewelry, so we stopped into every store we saw. Eventually she found something she liked. I got lucky and found a ring I liked in the first store we visited.

We found a big war memorial on one riverbank, it was Soviet big, which is what I typically expect in a war memorial in this country.

We went to bed early that night, since we had to be up early in the morning. Our landlord called a taxi for us at 0630, the ride back to the airport was quick and easy. We got back to Moscow around noon, into terrible weather, yuck.

I would love to return to the Kaliningrad region, to see more of the city and more of the entire area.

russia: moscow october 2017

October is a beautiful month in Moscow. By the end of September I already had a hint that fall would be very colourful, October proved that right. Unfortunately, October also taught me how very short the colourful part of fall is in Moscow.

The first day of the month was a Sunday, so my flattie and I decided to find a place to have breakfast. After asking around, we settled on a place called I Love Breakfast. The food was okay, though the service was only mediocre.

After eating we walked to Red Square and the areas around, finding a display of squash. Yes, squash. Many of the vegetables were used to create shapes like that of a dragon. Pretty nifty to see, I imagine it took a while to create.

The first Wednesday afternoon I went for a walk after my morning classes were finished. I intended to visit Gorky Park, as it is quite big, and well known. Every now and again I see an article online that says 'this is the most visited place in each country.' It lists Gorky Park for Ukraine, which is wrong, since the park isn't in Ukraine. Also, I doubt Gorky Park is the most visited place in Moscow, but it is visited quite often.

Unfortunately, as I got close to the park the weather turned somewhat rainy. In other words, not weather in which I wanted to be outside. Yuck. I took a couple photos of the HUGE front gates of the park, then kept going.

Just in front of the metro station I wanted was a statue of Lenin. Even though it was cold and drizzling, I took a photo. After growing up in the States, where the Cold War with Russia is still how the country is presented in media, I wanted a photo of Lenin.

At the end of that week I attended a birthday party for one of my coworkers. It was fun, right until a neighbor complained we were being too loud. Sigh.

The first Saturday of the month I made arrangements to meet up with one of my bosses, the guy who is mostly responsible for bringing me to Moscow. He brought his girlfriend, and she brought someone she worked with.

Shawn is originally from the States, Tania is originally from France, and Claire is originally from Wales. We all met up on a metro platform, then kept going.

Kremlin is a Russian word meaning fortress. Most of the time, when people think of the word, they think of The kremlin, the one with red brick walls in Moscow. This is far from the only kremlin in Russia, it isn't even the only one in Moscow. Our destination for the day was a place called Izmailovo, another kremlin in Moscow.

Izmailovo looks like a fortress meets Disney. The outer walls are white, but everything else is a whole lot of colours. There is a small church inside, but everything else is a cafe or shop.

Most people come to Izmailovo because there is a big market just outside the walls. You can find all kinds of souvenirs and trinkets, some of which you'll want, some you'll wonder why they even exist.

We wandered through the area, then had lunch, then went home. We probably would've done more as a group, but it was raining, and it was cold. Since I was still missing some of my stuff, I didn't have any appropriate shoes. My feet were cold and wet, argh.

The next day I walked back to Park Pobedy, approaching from the back side of the park. I got to see all the trees in a variety of shades of yellow. Though the city is beautiful in fall, I didn't get to see the red leaves I love best. 

Walking in fall is always a good thing to do.

The following Wednesday I headed out on a walk from school, walking toward a well known church. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is big, and the gold domes are visible from quite a few places in Moscow. The top of the domes measure 103 meters high, the tallest Orthodox Christian Church in the world.

The modern church is actually pretty new, having been built in the last five years of the 20^th centtury. The first church on the sight was demolished during Stalin's rule, in 1931. (What is the number of religious sights demolished on the orders of this man? The number must be huge!)

It is free to enter the church, but you're not allowed to take photos inside. I took plenty of photos outside, but followed the rules inside. The church wasn't lit inside, so photos wouldn't have turned out well anywho.

From there I kept walking, along the river. I saw what I imagine was once a factory, a giant statue of Peter 1, and the Russian version of the Pentagon: the ministry of defense. Not surprisingly, the building is really big. Really really big.

Close to the ministry building was a pedestrian bridge with what I thought of as a geometric entry. 

I loved the way it looked and I wasn't the only one who felt that way, I had to wait a few minutes for another photographer to leave.

On the other side of the bridge was a small park. I found a rose garden a bit past its prime, and a pond. When I checked a map a bit later, I found out this was all still part of Gorky Park.

I hopped on the metro to go to a big supermarket, stopping on the way to take a photo of a giant sculpture of Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space. (The Russian word for astronaut is cosmonaut.)

During the rest of the month the last of my goods from Ukraine finally arrived, yippee!! I never figured out why I had to pay customs taxes on some of the boxes, and not on others. If customs officers had actually seen what was in the boxes, they would've understood that nothing I own is worth very much. (Except my passport, which is the most important thing I own.)

The following weekend I met up with Claire, we decided to explore the Kremlin. The ticket office is not quite at the entrance, it was a bit confusing to figure out what we needed to do. (I'm sure it was obvious to Russian speakers, but not to us.)

There were lists of the options, we didn't really know which to choose. We found ticket machines which made it a lot easier, thank goodness.

You enter the Kremlin grounds through one of the towers, then cross a small bridge. There is a guard standing at one end of the bridge, I'm sure the men who stand in that position are in millions of photos around the world.

I'm one of the crazy people who didn't love my kremlin visit. As far as I could tell, there were a bunch of churches inside, you're not supposed to take photos inside the churches. 

Each interior was different, my favourite part of each church was the way its ceiling was painted. Always look up, especially in a building of faith.

There were a couple of museums as well. Since Moscow is the capital city, some of the other buildings are active government buildings, you can't just wander around and explore.

Maybe my apathy was due to the weather. It was a bit chilly, and rainy again. I'm soooo over the slightly rainy type of weather. Argh. Either way, I'm glad we saw the Kremlin, given that I live in Moscow.

The last full week in the month was my fall holiday from school, read a different post for those stories. When I came back, my train arrived at a station that led me to Komsomolskaya metro station. Hands down, the brown line platform of Komsomolskaya is one of the most impressive platforms in the world. The ceiling is painted yellow, with huge mosaic decorations. I've now seen the station quite a few times, I still find it impressive.