Moscow

After the graduation ceremony we all decided to go to Moscow - Repin and I will take a flight back to KL from there and Sarah and her room mate, Zakiah will go for a short trip to St Petersberg, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm, after which they will fly back to Malaysia, tghis time for good, with Bear Bear in tow. Bear-bear's permit and visa had been prepared months ago and he will travel back to KL with Sarah on the plane! I wonder how he will take it, he being so shy and a bit of a scaredy cat.

From Nizhny Novgorod we all boarded the train at around 10.30pm. Sarah had booked two compartments - one for us and the other for Dr Mansor, Zakiah and her sister Zawiah. The train was quite okay - maybe bigger than our KTM and smoother too. It was very punctual and left NN exactly 10 minutes after 10.20, which was the boarding time. We all had sleeping berths so we quickly settled in and soothed by the swaying movement of the train, I nodded off soon after!



a tired looking Repin at the railway station



Before we knew it, it was already dawn. Here in Russia, dawn comes very early in the summer (as early as 3.30am) and dusk is as late as 10.00 pm! I had slept the whole way and soon at 6.00 a.m we could see the outskirts of Moscow already. It was rather like any other large city in the world - buildings that have not much character, industries and manufacturing areas, bits of farm land and by 6.30 we had already reached the station. There are 3 main railway stations in Moscow and this one, where we are is supposed to be one of the largest and the beginning of the Trans-Siberian Railway. As soon as we could we left the train and dragged our bags out. Together our bags numbered 11 - more than our group of six! This was why we took the train anyway - because we could never go on the S7 which had a baggage limit of 15kg.

Sarah then called the apartment but the landlady said we could only go in at 11 am so we decided to stop at the railway station and have our breakfast, which consisted of buns and a cup of coffee each.

view from our bedroom

By the time we could check into the apartment, it was already 12 noon! But the apartment was quite nice - fully furnished with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen which had a stove, an oven, a fridge and a washing machine! Now we were all set! First thing to do was explore the area so after putting away our stuff we all trooped down and took a walk. It seems the train station is just across the river which has a lovely covered walk way. The view from our bedroom is quite fantastic!

Giant Matrushka




Sarah at the walking street



We took a walk across the covered bridge and discovered that there were shops along it. Right across was a huge new shopping centre which had the giant matrushkas ( Russian nesting dolls). Zakiah and Sarah were so excited they ran all over the exhibition area to view the different matrushkas. They were simply gigantic and really beautifully painted.



The Kremlin at the Red Square