Day 3 - The Galactic Metro Market Circus Comes To Town!

Hi all.
First things first - HAPPY EASTER! Hope you got loads of chocolate. Personally, I've just enjoyed a huge chunk of my brother's industrial-sized Toblerone in front of the second viewing of Doctor Who! Does life get any better? Well, yeah. It does. But not by much. ANYWAY, back on the tracks today, literally I suppose, I bring you Day 3 of my Russia diary...

After a good night's rest, I woke in the morning and headed straight down to breakfast. I didn't see anyone in the breakfast hall, so I guess they were all having a lie in! After a short meal, I headed back to the room to get my things packed. After doing this, I had plenty of time spare, so I checked my money to make sure I still had enough roubles for the rest of the week.
At about half ten, we met in the lobby and left for our first destination - the space monument! I'm not quite sure what its real name was; I only knew it as "the space monument". The accompanying museum wasn't open, but I still had an opportunity to bend the laws of physics and take some great photos. I also learnt some important dates, such as 1957, the year Sputnik was launched (and co-incidentally the year Indy 4 was set in), and 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
Armed with this knowledge, we moved on to a nearby park, which still retained many of its Soviet architechture and emblems. The park was surrounded by several pavillions, each celebrating a different part of the USSR. These are now shopping areas similar to those in Singapore, only not as big or busy, and after a quick browse in "Armenia", we headed into the biggest building. Whilst inside, I looked around for a CD shop, and eventually located a small stall. In my poor Russian, I asked the lady what was Number 1 in Russia at the moment, but evidently something must have been lost in translation, because she gave me folk music instead! Ah well, better than nothing.
After this we headed briefly back to the hotel to meet up with Irina, who then took us on a tour of the Metro! It's totally different to other Metros I've used - The stations were all decorated as though they were actual historical buildings - mosaics, gold leaf and chandeliers adorned every hallway! I still got to play the number game in the carriages, but I'm not convinced anyone else wanted to join in! The Metro routes are much tidier here as well - There's an almost circular track and thena load of straight tracks which bisect it at various angles. I wanted to pick up a map, like you can do in London, but sadly I couldn't find any available. Maybe Russians have the Metro map saved to their brain or something.
Anyway, once we had experienced the Metro, we returned to the coach and drove on to a good shopping street. I ended up having lunch in a Russian Starbucks! It was really surreal! The ambience and people-watching were, however, just as good as back home. After my speedy lunch, I went for a stroll down the prospekt, as they call the streets here (Kind of a "Prospekt March", I suppose), and bought some presents for my friends at school. Just some little Russian dolls. So time passed, and eventually we met up again and drove on to a restaurant where we could have dinner.
Dinner time proved to be less than enjoyable. Not because the food was bad - it was perfectly adequate, in my opinion. But, just my luck, I ended up sat at a table full of "The Lads" again. They were always so negative and immature about everything that was put in front of them. It was only salad, soup, steak and ice-cream, foor goodness sake! How much more generic do you want? There was quite a funny incident, however, when some of the guys put salt in the sugar, because they assumed no-one would use it again, and then the teachers borrowed it for their tea! Oops!!!
So then we headed out to see the Moscow State Circus. It was amazing! Some of the ways the acrobats contorted themselves were mind-boggling, and the lights and sounds made things really dramatic. The pit band sounded like they were having a whale of a time! The only downside was the animals. It looked horriffic, the way they were caged up and whipped like that. And it wasn't even serving a purpose. It was almost as though they were saying, "How badly can we treat these animals? How low can we bring them?" At least in most zoos they can live in some semblance of their true habitat. But here, all they do is go between a 2-metre-square box, sometimes not even that, and an arena where they are stripped of their dignity in front of hordes of jeering spectators. The lion is supposed to be the King of the Beasts, but here I saw him reduced to a tame house-cat. If I was supposed to be impressed, I was a disappointment. I refused to clap.
But other than that, it was brilliant! So afterwards, we got back on the coach and drove to the station, through the glimmering streets of Moscow at midnight. Inevitably, all the good lights were on the other side of the bus, so I didn't take any photos. Eventually we reached the station and waited to board the night train. A short while passed, as I busied myself with people-watching and keeping hold of my belongings at all times, and then we were shepherded into our compartments.
The compartment is... not huge. But definitely suitable for one night. I doubt I could spend a week on it, as you would if you were on the Trans-Siberian, but for just the short journey it was perfect. So I bunked down and, after completing my diary, got some much-needed rest. Once again I was clueless as to what tomorrow morning would bring.

Well well well, three holes in the ground. That was another action-packed day in Moscow. I feel sorry for the bus driver - He probably had to do it all again the day after! So, I won't waffle any longer, Stay tuned for the first day in St Petersburg! Actually, you probably won't miss much tomorrow, we were too worn-out to get up to much. But there were a few interesting things. So until then, I will ride off into the sunset, in which direction my old log cabin just happens to be.

It must be pretty depressing, living in a log cabin...

See ya 'round!

Jack