I can’t believe I’m finally in Russia! I’ve dreamed about this for such a long time. It’s amazing to think that I planned this trip and actually ‘activated’ it and it just proves that so many things are possible if you tackle them one bit at a time.
I said goodbye to Dina at the station this morning. She looked amazing today, really ‘dolled-up’ in a tight black top, jeans and high boots. I gave her my email address which we both knew was pointless since we can’t speak each other’s language and you can’t draw pictures in an email. I’d like to think there was a certain light in her eyes as we parted today, a light that communicated an affection for me but perhaps it was just the low autumn sun slanting in through the transparent roof of the station. As I walked away from her and the friends who’d come to meet her I felt weird but also I knew that this is how things will be from now on.
The Youth Hostel is fine. I took a taxi across the city after getting a girl from a shop to help me orient myself- there is a definite pattern emerging here already and I’ve only been travelling for three days! I withdrew some cash from a ‘bankomat’ and was somehow amazed that I could actually do that so far from home. A primitive part of my brain was wondering how my money had managed to follow me here to Russia. I met Livio, my room-mate at the hostel. It’s in a pretty rough looking part of town on the tenth floor of a massive grey tower block, identical to all the other massive grey tower blocks around. It’s old and tatty but clean enough. I took a nap and had a lovely shower, a real treat after three days with minimal ablutions.
I went to a supermarket and then took the subway to the centre of the city. I asked another pretty girl (they seem to be everywhere!) the way to the Kremlin and she ended up by walking with me and acting as a kind of guide for a few hours. Her name was Mary and she’d lived in New York for five years so her English was excellent. I had guessed her age at about 25 but when I casually asked her she told me she was 16! I was shocked and suddenly a little uncomfortable, going over our conversation in my head to decide how much I’d flirted with her. I made my escape and gave her my email address too, why, I don’t know.
I wandered around Red Square again alone taking in St Basil’s Church (sometimes called the Pineapple because of its exotic appearance), Lenin’s modernist, red marble tomb and the Kremlin behind. I met Lenin, Marx and Engels (three actors) who seemed quite jolly and apparently not at all bothered by the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other side of the Kremlin I found a large park with soldiers (wearing over-sized flat caps) guarding some sort of eternal flame.
I had a wander about and something to eat – fish as there was no veggie option. It’s been some time since I’ve eaten fish but that’s OK, I decided before I left that for health and convenience I would eat fish again while travelling. Anyway, fish are not hairy so they can’t have feelings.
In Red Square I saw people sitting outside a bar or café drinking and wearing blue blankets over their knees to keep warm. There are stray dogs everywhere here too like I saw in Rome and I can’t bear to watch them in the road.
My plan tonight is to make some friends in the hostel, (there’s a kind of common room where people tend to hang out), then I’ll have a read and a decent sleep. Having said that, if something else comes up maybe I’ll go along for the ride. As I wandered round today a phrase entered my mind and it became a refrain, a mantra: ‘whatever happens now, no one can take this day away from me.’
I said goodbye to Dina at the station this morning. She looked amazing today, really ‘dolled-up’ in a tight black top, jeans and high boots. I gave her my email address which we both knew was pointless since we can’t speak each other’s language and you can’t draw pictures in an email. I’d like to think there was a certain light in her eyes as we parted today, a light that communicated an affection for me but perhaps it was just the low autumn sun slanting in through the transparent roof of the station. As I walked away from her and the friends who’d come to meet her I felt weird but also I knew that this is how things will be from now on.
The Youth Hostel is fine. I took a taxi across the city after getting a girl from a shop to help me orient myself- there is a definite pattern emerging here already and I’ve only been travelling for three days! I withdrew some cash from a ‘bankomat’ and was somehow amazed that I could actually do that so far from home. A primitive part of my brain was wondering how my money had managed to follow me here to Russia. I met Livio, my room-mate at the hostel. It’s in a pretty rough looking part of town on the tenth floor of a massive grey tower block, identical to all the other massive grey tower blocks around. It’s old and tatty but clean enough. I took a nap and had a lovely shower, a real treat after three days with minimal ablutions.
I went to a supermarket and then took the subway to the centre of the city. I asked another pretty girl (they seem to be everywhere!) the way to the Kremlin and she ended up by walking with me and acting as a kind of guide for a few hours. Her name was Mary and she’d lived in New York for five years so her English was excellent. I had guessed her age at about 25 but when I casually asked her she told me she was 16! I was shocked and suddenly a little uncomfortable, going over our conversation in my head to decide how much I’d flirted with her. I made my escape and gave her my email address too, why, I don’t know.
I wandered around Red Square again alone taking in St Basil’s Church (sometimes called the Pineapple because of its exotic appearance), Lenin’s modernist, red marble tomb and the Kremlin behind. I met Lenin, Marx and Engels (three actors) who seemed quite jolly and apparently not at all bothered by the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other side of the Kremlin I found a large park with soldiers (wearing over-sized flat caps) guarding some sort of eternal flame.
I had a wander about and something to eat – fish as there was no veggie option. It’s been some time since I’ve eaten fish but that’s OK, I decided before I left that for health and convenience I would eat fish again while travelling. Anyway, fish are not hairy so they can’t have feelings.
In Red Square I saw people sitting outside a bar or café drinking and wearing blue blankets over their knees to keep warm. There are stray dogs everywhere here too like I saw in Rome and I can’t bear to watch them in the road.
My plan tonight is to make some friends in the hostel, (there’s a kind of common room where people tend to hang out), then I’ll have a read and a decent sleep. Having said that, if something else comes up maybe I’ll go along for the ride. As I wandered round today a phrase entered my mind and it became a refrain, a mantra: ‘whatever happens now, no one can take this day away from me.’
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