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.