World Russia Moskva Moscow

Jen and Johnny's Excellent Adventure

Moscow Dec 12, 2005

Moscow! The capital of Russia, and one of the most expensive cities in the world! This city is great, but it's not cheap and right now Jen and I definitely are. We're puttering back home on fumes at the moment and Moscow can be quite a shock to the wallet. I suppose it's probably a good shock for us since we have been living quite well on next to nothing for the last 5 months and the Western World is obviously not that way. We saw Red Square and St. Basil's we also shelled out the $25 a piece it costs to visit the Kremlin (which while nice, isn't nearly as nice when you learn that Russians enter free of charge). It really is a little frustrating, it certainly would be nice if the major parks and attractions in the States were free or even discounted for residents, largely because we already help pay for them with our taxes. Okay, my apologies, enough of that, moving on... It has been snowing ever since we arrived and it really is beautiful here. It is quite a bit warmer than ever Yekaterinburg. It's only about -4 or -5 C, which puts the temperature somewhere in the 20's F. We've managed to get by only having to wear one pair of long underwear per day. Along with Red Square and the Kremlin area, we've spent some time in the Arbat area of town. This is the hipper area with lots of old traditional style wooden buildings and tons of interesting pubs and restaurants. Our last night before we had to catch our train to St. Petersburg we met up with our friends from the train. Taking the world's longest train ride really is an experience by itself and it was really nice to catch up and say goodbye to our cohorts in crime. Darren, Karen, Steve, Ben, Jen, and I had all figured we would be in Moscow the night of the 12th so we decided to hang out one last time. To our Trans-Siberian Friends: Guys it really was a great trip and I'm sure it wouldn't have been half the adventure without having you all to share it with. You are all welcome to visit us in Hong Kong whenever you like. In the end I think both Jen and I would have liked to spend more time here in Moscow, but on the other hand with the amount of money it costs per day to be here, it's probably a good thing that we had to leave when we did. Only a couple more stops to go... Until St. Pete's... - Johnny

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