{"id":79,"date":"2009-09-26T00:50:38","date_gmt":"2009-09-26T08:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lebca.wordpress.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2014-08-31T09:29:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T17:29:14","slug":"2nd-weekend-moscow-bus-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/moscow\/2nd-weekend-moscow-bus-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Weekend: Moscow Bus Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday we left the dorm and got into a tour bus to drive around Moscow. Actually, it turned out we were just driving to parking spots and then walking around Moscow, to much disappointment for some of us, who stayed up late and thought we could rest on the bus.<\/p>\n

The first thing we saw was something from America:<\/p>\n

\"nine — I want to see this but since Time Burton partnered with a Russian Director, the only showings are in Russian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Then we saw some remnants of Soviet past, the KGB buildings, which now house the FSB (the new Secret Service).<\/p>\n
$\"One$
One of the KGB buildings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"The$
The one next to it. There’s one more but I didn’t catch the photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then proceeded to Red Square and parked on the side of the road. Upon exiting the bus our driver got arrested. The tour guide swore about how the bribing problem is disgusting here in Moscow and then she went over to talk to them. This is her coming back:<\/p>\n
$\"We$
We were told to leave him and he would discuss a payment amount while we toured the red square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We crossed to St. Basil’s. Apparently, this nickname is after a dude who preached in only chains in Red Square and then eventually died because of coldness and stuff. The church is actually called “Intercession Cathedral” because the multiple domes are actually multiple worship rooms. The largest can hold 5-7 people. So services are small. I don’t think they do them anymore.<\/p>\n
$\"St.$
St. Basil’s from behind with the Kremlin on the left. The sun blocked the picture from the frontside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Note$
Note the (St Basil’s) in parentheses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Since it was the end of Moscow’s Birthday week, men were tearing down the bleachers from the outdoor stadium:<\/p>\n
$\"Reminds$
Reminds me of that famous photo of the men sitting on the metal beam of the Chrysler Building under construction. Not quite as cool though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"The$
The Other Side of the Red Square. I’ll go back to get photos of the actual square when the cleanup is done.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Apparently$
Apparently Communism is alive and kickin’ in Moscow. Unfortunately for the movement, there doesn’t seem to be a future generation for it as one can tell by the photo. Our tour guide told us they get angry when people confront them or take photos so I snuck this one before they got too close. (Oh, by the way, the face on the board belongs to Lenin. That’s what \u041b\u0415\u041d\u0418\u041d says in Cyrillic.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
And right in front of the communists lies the center of Moscow:<\/p>\n
$\"People$
People come here to throw coins over their left shoulder because it’s good luck. The poor wait until valuable coins are thrown and pick them up. The four corners represent the four major different areas of Russia or something like that. One points to St. Petersburg, one to Siberia, one to the southern mountains and I don’t remember the others. I don’t even remember if the third one was actually correct.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Even$
Even Moscow’s Malls are decorated exquisitely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then drove down the street to go inside the Cathedral of Christ \u041eur Savior. But they don’t allow photos so I don’t have any. Here is a photo of a statue across from it though:<\/p>\n
$\"I$
I think this statue is life-size. Alexander II (aka Alexander the Liberator <like W.>, Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, King of Poland) was a giant\u2014metaphorically of course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then drove to Sparrow Hills where Moscow State University stands and a great view of the city can be held. Close to the Hills is the ski jump from the Russian Olympics way back when:<\/p>\n
$\"Our$
Our tour guide says that Russian athletes prefer to live in other countries and train elsewhere so this jump rarely gets used. But it’s still there. Maybe when it snows we’ll sneak out here with some cardboard boxes\u2026 (and helmets)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Moscow$
Moscow State University, the tallest academic building in the world. Probably because of that decoration at the top. Without it, Chris claims his school’s building would be the tallest. He goes to Pittsburg. Just look up “tallest academic buildings” on google. I keep telling him that the big star isn’t 200 ft. tall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"To$
To prove his point, Chris tries to eat the star so his school can be the tallest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Panorama$
Panorama of the city from MSU. In the center is Moscow’s futbol stadium. Soon, I hope, I will go to a game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
At this point our driver and guide dropped us off downtown near the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the 7 towers Stalin created in the Soviet style to represent the USSR, MSU being one of them. It made a lasting impression because the building is still in use.<\/p>\n
$\"Here$
Here ’tis. There are two parts of the building on either side that wouldn’t fit in the picture. And if I scooted back anymore a billboard would have blocked a large part. And I was too lazy to put a panorama together like the one above in Photoshop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"There$
There are two of these on either side of the photo above. Imagine them connected and then you won’t be far from the truth. Note it says 1951 on it; I don’t know why though. Maybe construction date.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The bus tour was over and so we decided to go eat at TGI Fridays because I had been craving a sandwich and hadn’t had one since getting here. (Before Moscow I basically had eaten the same sandwich for lunch everyday since middle school. Don’t fix what ain’t broke I guess) Unless you count some open face peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on tiny pieces of bread.<\/p>\n
$\"Here$
Here is the mall we went into, along with a view of some tall buildings in Moscow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
This ends most everything interesting that happened this weekend. Except that three of us who play soccer found some Russians in the dorm with whom to play. (We met players from the MSU team at the previous weekend BBQ so maybe we’ll get to play with them sometime) I showed them a mini field they had never seen before, basically an indoor field but outdoor; plus the field was made out of dirt\/sand. It was right behind our dorm building too. We were surprised they hadn’t seen it before. Playing soccer for an hour and a half was a great way to end the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday we left the dorm and got into a tour bus to drive around Moscow. Actually, it turned out we were just driving to parking spots and then walking around Moscow, to much disappointment for some of us, who stayed up late and thought we could rest on the bus. The first thing we saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moscow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/1405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

I want to see this but since Time Burton partnered with a Russian Director, the only showings are in Russian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Then we saw some remnants of Soviet past, the KGB buildings, which now house the FSB (the new Secret Service).<\/p>\n
$\"One$
One of the KGB buildings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"The$
The one next to it. There’s one more but I didn’t catch the photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then proceeded to Red Square and parked on the side of the road. Upon exiting the bus our driver got arrested. The tour guide swore about how the bribing problem is disgusting here in Moscow and then she went over to talk to them. This is her coming back:<\/p>\n
$\"We$
We were told to leave him and he would discuss a payment amount while we toured the red square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We crossed to St. Basil’s. Apparently, this nickname is after a dude who preached in only chains in Red Square and then eventually died because of coldness and stuff. The church is actually called “Intercession Cathedral” because the multiple domes are actually multiple worship rooms. The largest can hold 5-7 people. So services are small. I don’t think they do them anymore.<\/p>\n
$\"St.$
St. Basil’s from behind with the Kremlin on the left. The sun blocked the picture from the frontside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Note$
Note the (St Basil’s) in parentheses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Since it was the end of Moscow’s Birthday week, men were tearing down the bleachers from the outdoor stadium:<\/p>\n
$\"Reminds$
Reminds me of that famous photo of the men sitting on the metal beam of the Chrysler Building under construction. Not quite as cool though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"The$
The Other Side of the Red Square. I’ll go back to get photos of the actual square when the cleanup is done.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Apparently$
Apparently Communism is alive and kickin’ in Moscow. Unfortunately for the movement, there doesn’t seem to be a future generation for it as one can tell by the photo. Our tour guide told us they get angry when people confront them or take photos so I snuck this one before they got too close. (Oh, by the way, the face on the board belongs to Lenin. That’s what \u041b\u0415\u041d\u0418\u041d says in Cyrillic.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
And right in front of the communists lies the center of Moscow:<\/p>\n
$\"People$
People come here to throw coins over their left shoulder because it’s good luck. The poor wait until valuable coins are thrown and pick them up. The four corners represent the four major different areas of Russia or something like that. One points to St. Petersburg, one to Siberia, one to the southern mountains and I don’t remember the others. I don’t even remember if the third one was actually correct.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Even$
Even Moscow’s Malls are decorated exquisitely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then drove down the street to go inside the Cathedral of Christ \u041eur Savior. But they don’t allow photos so I don’t have any. Here is a photo of a statue across from it though:<\/p>\n
$\"I$
I think this statue is life-size. Alexander II (aka Alexander the Liberator <like W.>, Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, King of Poland) was a giant\u2014metaphorically of course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We then drove to Sparrow Hills where Moscow State University stands and a great view of the city can be held. Close to the Hills is the ski jump from the Russian Olympics way back when:<\/p>\n
$\"Our$
Our tour guide says that Russian athletes prefer to live in other countries and train elsewhere so this jump rarely gets used. But it’s still there. Maybe when it snows we’ll sneak out here with some cardboard boxes\u2026 (and helmets)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Moscow$
Moscow State University, the tallest academic building in the world. Probably because of that decoration at the top. Without it, Chris claims his school’s building would be the tallest. He goes to Pittsburg. Just look up “tallest academic buildings” on google. I keep telling him that the big star isn’t 200 ft. tall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"To$
To prove his point, Chris tries to eat the star so his school can be the tallest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"Panorama$
Panorama of the city from MSU. In the center is Moscow’s futbol stadium. Soon, I hope, I will go to a game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
At this point our driver and guide dropped us off downtown near the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the 7 towers Stalin created in the Soviet style to represent the USSR, MSU being one of them. It made a lasting impression because the building is still in use.<\/p>\n
$\"Here$
Here ’tis. There are two parts of the building on either side that wouldn’t fit in the picture. And if I scooted back anymore a billboard would have blocked a large part. And I was too lazy to put a panorama together like the one above in Photoshop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"There$
There are two of these on either side of the photo above. Imagine them connected and then you won’t be far from the truth. Note it says 1951 on it; I don’t know why though. Maybe construction date.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The bus tour was over and so we decided to go eat at TGI Fridays because I had been craving a sandwich and hadn’t had one since getting here. (Before Moscow I basically had eaten the same sandwich for lunch everyday since middle school. Don’t fix what ain’t broke I guess) Unless you count some open face peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on tiny pieces of bread.<\/p>\n
$\"Here$
Here is the mall we went into, along with a view of some tall buildings in Moscow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
This ends most everything interesting that happened this weekend. Except that three of us who play soccer found some Russians in the dorm with whom to play. (We met players from the MSU team at the previous weekend BBQ so maybe we’ll get to play with them sometime) I showed them a mini field they had never seen before, basically an indoor field but outdoor; plus the field was made out of dirt\/sand. It was right behind our dorm building too. We were surprised they hadn’t seen it before. Playing soccer for an hour and a half was a great way to end the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday we left the dorm and got into a tour bus to drive around Moscow. Actually, it turned out we were just driving to parking spots and then walking around Moscow, to much disappointment for some of us, who stayed up late and thought we could rest on the bus. The first thing we saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moscow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/1405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}