The McCooey's of London: Moscow, Russia

Hello Moscow, the 7th largest city in the world! The McCooey's have arrived!

We arrived at the Moscow airport, got in the hired car with a driver that probably knew 10 words of English and us 1 word of Russian and 1.5 hours later we arrived at the Hilton Leningradskaya. Dropped our bags off and off to the Red Square.

Hello from the Red Square (the central square of Moscow)! Directly behind me is the Historical State Museum, to the right is a bit of the Kremlin, to the left is the Iberian Gate..

My eyes have seen the Kremlin. Something I've seen in text books and saw on the news, but now I have seen it with my very own eyes. It's built like a fortress, consists of approximately 85 acres and is used as the home of the Russian President. However, currently I don't believe his wife wanted to live there and choose to live in another part of the city at least that's what our tour guide told us.

Here are a few pictures of the Kremlin:

Mike with Lenins Mausoleum, Kremlin and St. Bails' Cathedral

Kremlin...It was so cold, foggy and rainy while we were there.

Kremlin near the WWII memorial.

Me and the Spasskaya Clocktower attached to the Kremlin Walls

Russia is the largest country in the world. It is bigger than the USA and Canada combined.
The population of Moscow alone is around 12-14 million per our tour guide. The average temperature in Moscow is 2.3 degrees celcius (burr!) and can expect snow from September-end of June! Average life expectancy is 65 years old. As of today, more people are dying than being born. Health care is very expensive in Russia and approximately 25% of its population is in/under the poverty level. It would help if they stopped smoking! Geez, that was the smokiest city that I have EVER visited. Even at the airport they had smoking lounge after smoking lounge and ALL THE DOORS WERE OPEN TO THEM! That made absolutely no sense. You could even smoke in the airport restaurants. People were smoking in the bathrooms. Everywhere!

Anyways... Russia made a great sacrifice during the war against the Nazi's. Our tour guide said they took out 87% of the Nazi's, but I'm not so sure I believe that number. Nonetheless, Russia had winter on their side. When Napoleon tried to conquer Russia he started with 700,000 men and left with less than 20,000. Moral of that tidbit, "DON'T MESS WITH A RUSSIAN WINTER" Burrr... This is a country that sees around 55 days of sunshine...

Ok, back to the site seeing...
The Metro Station where I quickly learned that you are not allowed to take pictures (Sorry, officer): By the way, This is the world's second busiest metro system.

Trains were very old school...I was looking around for 1930-40 style outfits


It took us a while to learn how to read Russian. Their alphabet is very different.


Ahh...learning our way around the city...

Longest escalator we have ever been on. 700+ steps.

St. Basil's Cathedral and it's colorful onion style domes is amazing. It's really hard to take your eyes off it once you see it for the first time.

St. Basil's Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century. It was the tallest building of Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600

St. Basil's Cathedral

The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture: "It is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century but has never been reproduced directly.
We also had to check out the GUM Department Store:

Before dark


Dark! Love the lights!

Old Arabat Street:

Next up: Victory Park where the WWII monument and museum is:

When we exited the Metro station for Victory Park we were met by the Triumphal Arch (located on Kutuzov Avenue)

Then you turn the corner and there you see the world's largest obelisk in memory of WWII. The Goddess of Nike is hanging from it and color me impressed because that thing is pretty badass. Behind that is the museum.

Speaking of the museum....

The Museum of the Great Patriotic War:
It was only like $3 per person to enter so Mike just had to go in. Even after I told him that from the reviews I read said we weren't missing anything by skipping it... Anyways... Mike got his way and in we go. We were met with the biggest dioramas that we have ever seen:

a glimpse of one of the dioramas.

There were approximately 6 of these dioramas in a building the size of a small city. It was weird. Very very weird. Then we checked out the Hall of Glory and were met by a statue that reminded me of Superman. They have graduation ceremonies for military schools in the Hall of Glory and I find that to be pretty cool.

Near the Kremlin/St. Basils Cathedral there was this fountain/well thing and everyone was throwing tons of coins in it. I have no idea what this is so if someone will tell me that'd be great: