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!