22 September

As I had no need to be up at any particular time, I woke at 0730 and eventually forced myself up at 0800, performed the usual, and was down for breakfast at 0830. I shared the table with a South African, who had lived in England, here with business – I met him in the lobby yesterday when I arrived at my early hour.
After finishing breakfast (toast – yeah! – cornflakes, egg and bacon and vegetables washed down with cold orange juice and hot sweet black tea) I walked down to the Kremlin. This took twenty-five minutes at a very slow strolling pace. Suddenly I found myself in Red Square, in a spot where I had been before in drizzle and cold conditions – but now it was sunny and (relatively) warm. I went to take some photos there and then went to walk around the outer walls of the Kremlin. Before I stated, I ran into three girls from the US studying at Stanford in Russia (one each from Reno, Nevada, Maryland and Wisconsin). We had a chat and were going to see Lenin’s tomb except – it’s not open on Mondays! I’ll try again tomorrow. I walked around the paths outside the Kremlin, starting with the Alexander Gardens which were once a river. They are beautiful, and here also is an eternal flame with an honour guard. I wonder if, like other countries, the chance to stand outside in all weathers and enduring all comments and looks from tourists is highly fought for? Further around I ran into a party of Orthodox clergy who were also tourists. Back at St Basil’s I was taking photos close-up of each dome and took a photo for two girls from Russia. They asked me if I thought it was cold (once they knew I was from Australia) and I said no – I should have said, do yard duty on the oval at Werribee and you’ll know what cold is!
After that I headed into the GUM because there are FREE toilets there (third floor, just near the coffee shop) and, unlike the ones in the street, they don’t smell.
I had walked slowly and so was no ready to continue on. This consisted of a stroll around the Metropole Hotel and then a walk through an historic neighbourhood. Interesting things there were the traffic (thick and slow), the parking (but nowhere near as unordered as Italy), Moscow souvenirs made in China being unpacked from delivery trucks wall-to-wall. While on the walk I ran into a couple from Australia who had just arrived and were finding their bearings. At the end of the walk I entered a subway station past parts of old town walls and photographed the marker there, while a street vendor with gold teeth bent out of the way. All the subway walks are lined with small vendors, either transitory or permanent.
I caught the Metro back and came out up at the corner at the northern end of “my” street, called into the Macca’s for a late lunch/early tea (no drive-through here, just a walk-through on the street level) and got back to my hotel about 1430.
Here I found a note about the arrangement and travel (and my train ticket for tomorrow night (car 7 berth 4) had arrived – good news – but my key card didn’t open my door – bad news. However the girl on the dsk spoke English – good news – but was a trainee and couldn’t reprogram the card – bad news. In a few minutes the other receptionist arrived and I was in business.
Upstairs in my room and I downloaded and processed the photos, wrote part of today’s blog and then uploaded the photos for today to-date.
After, I headed out onto the subway to look at and photograph some subway stations. I had a city cultural map which outlined those which were better, so I visited those but chose to photograph only three. Once I had done that, I caught the subway back to the local station and experienced my only delay on the system – the train was stopped for over two minutes. Considering there is a train every two minutes and they spend about half a minute in the station, this was a considerable delay but wouldn’t even rate a mention at home. Even so, many got off because the delay was unacceptable to them. However I was back at my station and then back in the hotel in a fairly short time. Then it was the mundane thing of washing clothes (so they will be dry when I pack in the morning), trimming hair and beard (they grow quickly when away, probably because I have the time to notice I look different from my passport photo), processing new photos (it never ends!) and then finishing writing up this blog as I’m going to watch a movie and then go to sleep. Tomorrow I plan to pack, visit some museums and then return here by 1830 and then rest and send emails post blog (and perhaps post photos)before getting picked up at 1930 to get to the station and wait for … the train to VLADIVOSTOK!
So, dear reader, tomorrow, one way or another will be the last you will hear of me until I reach Beijing and post a series of blogs and a lot (yes, a lot!) of photos. This should be the evening of 1 October, most likely late Australian time.