Moskva river

The first day we got in we joined Bryan's group of students and hitchhiked their tour of the Kremlin. It was in Russian, so Bryan had to translate and added his own bits of color here and there-- like the fact that the designers of the fortress walls were actually Italian (imported for their handiwork), but have been claimed by the Russians because they stayed.

Bryan and I had a long discussion about how Russian girls (22 and younger) tend to have extremely thin figures and are generally pretty attractive-- but there is not much of an in-between period--and the older women tend to be these block-like hulks. Bryan has a theory that most young Russian girls are functionally anorexic until they get married, and then the mayonnaise kicks in.

Our second day in Moscow Alison and I took off from the group of students and ventured out on the metro alone for a few hours. We went to a metro stop that is situated over the Moskva river, encased in glass, and went for a mini-hike up and around Moscow University. The area is called Sparrow Hill and there were some amazing views of the city that could not be properly captured on an iPhone. It was a great day, and I liked tooling around the on the train without a guide. It feels extra-special to arrive to your intended destination when you can't read the signs or ask for help.

Many parts of Moscow are extremely beautiful, and you get a sense of "something about this system really worked", although most of what I found the most interesting is in general disrepair now-- and so there is a sadness mixed with the beauty and fascination.

None of my iPhone pictures really do any justice to what we saw. We will post a Flickr set when we can.