Hi Comrades,
The temperature when we arrived at the hostel was -28 deg C!
We
checked into a refreshingly good hostel called Godzillas only about 1km
from the Kremlin and grabbed a few more hours of sleep.
So when
we got up and had our breakfast it was nice to see that the temperature
had improved slightly to -24 Deg C. We put more layers of clothing on
that we wore at Velikiy Novgorod and headed out for a walk to Red
square. The locals looked cold and we were also starting to feel the
cold by the time we arrived at the square. The fact that we could see
our exhaled breath forming a mist of crystals that dissipated into the
air we each breath was a sure sign that it was cold.We watched a bit of
ice
skating before heading to St Basils church for some photographs then
decided that it was time to retreated to the GUM shopping arcade to
warm up and defrost our eyelashes which were starting to become a
frosted . After scanning the very expensive array of shops in the
arcade we decided that it was time to venture out again and decided
to
visit the Lenin mausoleum which has displayed the embalmed Lenin in a
cabinet since 1924.
Visiting is a no nonsense event with Russian
guards on each corner. So when we got inside and the first guard raised
his hand to his hat I thought 'very friendly' then when I got to the
second guard and he did the same I realised that I needed to take off
my beanie. Vanessa claims that she said that she told me the same
(Strike 1). Then we got to the viewing position and I momentarily
stopped and said to Vanessa 'he is smaller than I expected' (strike 2 -
no talking) then a guard gave me an encouraging shove to get moving
(strike 3 - no stopping to stare at Lenin). I hope it wasn't interpeted
as disrespectful as it was just surprise and morbid curiosity to see
the person who led the revolution that caused the downfall of the
tzarist empire 80+ years after his death.
We went back into the GUM shopping arcade again to warm up before heading back to the hostel.
Just
doing a bit of reading on Russian and we have discovered that we missed
a display in St Petersburg. Perhaps the secret to Rasputins success and
ultimate demise. Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasputin%27s_penis
Better known as Rasputin's Cucumber ;-)
Bye,
David and Vanessa
