russia: moscow in april

As with February and March, I didn't spend too much weekend time in Moscow during April.

On Easter Sunday I met up with Claire and Caroline, we wanted to get outside and enjoy the city. The weather was amazing that day, which meant the entire city was out walking with us. Not only was the weather great, it was the first great weather in quite a while.

The three of us met at Mayakovskaya station, one of the best stations in the Moscow metro system. On the green line platform, we looked up at the ceiling, there are a number of mini cupolas, each with a different mosaic design. Love it.

We went up to street level, and found sets of adult sized swings on a platz. Too bad all of them were being used at the moment.

We walked to an area called Patriarch's Ponds, a nice area of Moscow. All around the pond are restaurants and cafes, and more expensive apartments. I still haven't figured out what makes these ponds so important, but it was nice to walk around them.

After the ponds we kept walking, stopping for a quick treat from a French bakery along the way. We walked up a street that took us to Pushkin Square, which I think of as Pushkin Platz. Since it was Easter weekend, we saw decorations, including giant eggs. 

There were trees decorated with mini eggs too.

Not long after we got to Pushkin Platz Caroline had to leave, so Claire and I walked down Tverskaya street to Manezhnaya Square. Like everywhere else, it was covered in Easter/spring decorations. It was also covered in people taking photos.

We ended up leaving because we were annoyed with people trying to take photos everywhere, and went to dinner at a Korean restaurant. Yum.

The next day Claire was sick, so I met up with Caroline at a metro station and we walked to Red Square. 

We joined the queue for the Lenin mausoleum. Even though we got there before the time it opened there was a queue, nearly all of Chinese tourists.

Once the mausoleum opened, the queue started moving, and moved quickly. When I visited the mausoleum in 2003 I remember you weren't allowed to bring anything in with you. You're now allowed to bring your purse, but you're still not allowed to take photos. There are soldiers stationed approximately every 2 meters, you're not going to be able to sneak photos.

As we walked through, one of the soldiers shushed a group of people who were speaking. 

It is a place where total silence is demanded. It's a dark room, except for the body, which is lit up. Intense. I wonder how long they'll keep him there. I read somewhere that he is re-embalmed every 18 months or so, and the scientists in charge of him check on him every 2-3 days.

After exiting the mausoleum we looked at all the memorials along the walls of the Kremlin. Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space is among the people buried there.

We walked out the other side of Red Square to see a 'new' park, Zaryadye Park. There isn't a lot of green space exactly, but it is a park. 

There is also a walkway that goes out over the river, it is the defining part of the park. Nice view over the river and back toward the Kremlin.

After enjoying the views for a while, we started walking again, our next stop was at a candy store. I have a hard time saying no in this kind of store, ooops. I ended up buying gummies with chili spice, gummy strawberries, and ginger infused chocolate. (The chocolate turned out to be the spiciest.)

We meandered along a bunch of streets, going whicheva way struck our fancy. We saw the so called Clean Ponds, which didn't look so great at that time of year. 

April isn't a pretty month in Moscow, it's the end of winter more than spring.

We stopped at a place that called itself a french bakery, though the items for sale didn't seem terribly French. Oh well, it was nice to try a new place. Our next 'sight' was just an architecturally interesting building, called the Egg House. It really does look like a giant egg. I think it's an apartment building, but I don't know.

We went to the nearest metro station, and made our way out to a part of town called VDNKh. I'm pretty sure I've described it previously, or at least tried to do so. Like other parts of the city, it was under massive renovation, hopefully to be done in time before the World Cup football tournament starts. We walked all the way through the area, the entire middle looked like the apocolypse had just happened. Construction mess everywhere.

Even though April isn't a pretty month here, everything got a little better day by day as the month went on. May is bound to be gorgeous!!