Day Two, from Moscow

Bright and early just out of the train station. That looks like one of Stalin's skyscrapers.

The sky is bright this early in the morning. I was awake for two hours before the train arrived at 6:45, and I think I'm not fully awake yet.

A quick picture of the Leningradsky train station we left. We're tired but happy to be in Moscow.

Metro building in the back.

View up the long escalator.

View down the long escalator.

Outside the theater district station.

A carousel at a park?

On our way to drop luggage off at the hotel we accidentally wandered to Red Square, lol.

Me at the "gate" by the State Historical Museum.

The Zhukov monument by State Historical Museum.

Park between Red Square and Theater District.

Monument to Marx at the same park. On the left is some engraving mentioning Engels and the right mentions Lenin.

The Imperial Theater across the street from the park.

After dropping stuff off at the hotel and getting cash at an ATM machine, Albert squats on the street with the Kremlin in the background.

State Duma building.

A panorama shot I took nice and early in the morning. The square fills up with more and more people later in the day.

Another panorama shot after we visited the souvenir shop.

Walking along Red Square, this is taking a picture looking back at the entrance to the Kremlin and the State Historical Museum.

There were intermittent periods of sun. Time for me to take a selfie!

Albert is squatting in front of the Lenin Mausoleum.

A nicer picture of the Lenin Mausoleum.

This is GUM, the up-scale shopping center. It's very pretty there, and it's Moscow's version of the Champs d'Elysee.

Yet another panorama I took at the Red Square.

Albert and me, take 1

Albert and me, take 2

My tray at the stolovaya. By this point, we were absolutely famished, because of all the walking we had done.

Albert's selection of items at the stolovaya. After eating, we decided to take the metro to hit up a military surplus store...

Albert bought this tanker helmet for Girls und Panzer at AX17.

And he was able to find this old military backpack for around $3!

Afterward, we checked in at the hotel and napped from 3pm until 8pm. We were tired from all the walking, since we had walked 10 kilometers on foot! After 8pm, we bought breakfast for the next day from a supermarket near our hotel, and then went out to look for a nice restaurant for dinner.

This is a monument to Pushkin we passed by, and the street we were wandering along was called Pushkinskaya, after all.

We found a nice restaurant named Jonjoli with outside seating. We first got lemonade to drink.

This was a mutton and Uzbek noodle stew called Lapman, which is now the best stew I've had thus far in Russia.

This is a spicy beef stew called Harcho, which Albert had.

I ordered Uzbek pilaf, which is fragrant and loaded with very tender mutton.

Albert's mutton and noodle stir-fry...

...which he finished off in no time at all! We think this was our best meal in Russia yet, and the bill was only 1950 rubles! We tipped, so it ended up costing more, but it was totally worth the price!

First day in Russia, in St. Petersburg

This is the view from the airplane at 10PM, approaching St. Petersburg, Russia.

The sunset from the airplane.

View of the river and the sunset.

The next morning, we started off at 9AM to stroll along Nevsky Prospect. There are multiple bridges over the canals.

Singer House, corner view. Is that an Albert in bottom left corner?

Singer House view from the side, over some shrubs.

The Kazan Cathedral opposite of Singer House.

A statue by the cathedral.

Albert, my brother, trying his first gopnik squat in front of the fountain at Kazan Cathedral Square.

A more classy picture of Albert in full Adidas track suit and in front of the fountain.

Front view of Kazan Cathedral.

A selfie I took there.

This is a fountain nearby on an adjacent street.

And the squat.

This is Albert at the Griboyedov Canal.

The view of an old church from the canal.

This is me over there.

And a picture of Albert, same place.

Eye catching display at a souvenir shop.

Albert thinks this used to be a real wolf.

Dinner at a Soviet-styled cafe. This is an Azerbaijani dish with chicken, bread, and rice pilaf with some kind of green onion concoction to go with the dish.

Russian dumplings with a spicy beef filling. It was salty so I let Albert eat most of it.

Albert ordered pike cutlets with mashed potatoes. He let me try some. The pike was very tasty!

I liked their Soviet themed place mats!

A monument dedicated to Alexander Pushkin at a park close to the central Metro station.

Here we wait at the train station for 2 hours for our overnight train headed to Moscow. Albert is squatting, gopnik style.

Second picture of Albert squatting. He was actually approached by a railway station employee in a suit who recognized him as a gopnik and told him "good choice" of attire. Later, we heard a girl heading out of the train station saying "suka blyat", which made Albert's day complete. He learned both gopnik style and "suka blyat" from the Life of Boris Youtube channel.