Must admit my first impression of Moscow wasn’t very good. I had arrived at 6:30 on thursday morning after sleeping very little in the night train. It was dark and rainy and I couldn’t check into my room until much later that day. So I just dropped my bag and started exploring the city. I must say that it was pretty miserable. I was nauseous from lack of sleep and visiting the Gulag museum wasn’t necessarily the best idea to start with…

However, the weather cleared up yesterday and the last couple of days have been wonderful (and not cold at all!)

Moscow is nowhere like St Petersburg: no-where, but it has its own assets…. Starting with the Kremlin.

So today I’ve experienced one of what I call my “aesthetics shocks” while visiting it. It was magnificent. The sun was shining on the ensemble of churches. I sat on the wall opposite the Dormition Cathedral and just stared at it for a long while. I was thinking about the times where Tsars where walking these grounds and trying to imagine what it was like to have lived there and how people thought. My mind wandered into a happy state of imagination and dream. Then this came onto my i-pod and I started crying tears of joy. It was perfect (although anachronic). I felt so blessed to be there and to be able to see these treasures which had been kept away from people’s eyes for so many centuries and until not so long ago.

Interestingly, I always thought I could never see a church as incredible as St Peter’s in Rome, but the inside of the Dormition Cathedral is equally breathtaking. It has nothing to envy to the Sistine Chapel either – it even has an extra element of mystery and even, doom. I suspect the presence of Ivan the Terrible’s throne might have something to do with it…

Afterwards I walked about Alexandrovski gardens and watched children playing with the autumn leaves in the afternoon light.

It’s been a good day.

Kudrinskaya Place just downstairs as I step out / The building where I’m staying (on the 9th floor) / Workers everywhere / Guarding the eternal flame / Queuing outside of the Kremlin / Dormition Cathedral / inside / dark skinned Jesus icon /  medals / military school parade / Palace of Congresses / My reflection in it / Views on the city from the Kremlin / Don’t eat these! / The famous Elisieev shop / Café Pushkin / The Metro / Beautiful scupture near Kievskaya / Discovering georgian food / Kate