Russia Travelogue day 5: the capital

June 20th, 6 am
I only got 3 hours of sleep in the train, instead my brain decided to just go on random journeys of fancy. So, it has been a kind of slog the whole first day in Moscow.  One silver line to being awake most of the morning was that I was able to see the train enter Moscow.  It’s always fascinating to see the city emerge from surrounding landscape to industry and then to a maze of populated building as you enter the station. It kind of reminded me of entering New Delhi for the first time. This resemblance kept dropping in and out as we glimpsed parts of old Moscow that was being slowly layered over by the New Moscow. 
We dropped our luggage at the hotel since check in was only at 2:00 p.m. Then it was a nice walk to red square. We came across a lot of people going to work. It felt strange to not be lost in that crowd going to my work too. Again, women were stunning. They take their appearance seriously. Shaks was very satisfied with all the fashion display.  Moscow, at least near the main area had beautiful wide streets, lined with landmark looking buildings. Spotless as well. Russia has presented itself in a very pretty light to rest of the world. Everyone I talked to, was impressed with the Russian hospitality. If you forget the rest of politics, it's hard to match the Russia you read about to the Russia that we are seeing here.

Walking towards red Square, we took a detour following a couple who seemed to know where they were going to, also google map suggested that we walk in that direction. It was a good decision. We came up to a few cobble stone steps and then saw a path through a building that gave way to an archway. It reminded me of running through gully's of Varanasi, running under houses that have a room as a bridge connecting two houses on either side of the street. The gully’s in Varanasi used to be cobbled as well although most of them have stone path now. My memories of Varanasi were heightened as we stepped out of the arch to a road with hanging lights. The street was filled with sounds of multiple bells ringing in discordant fashion as if I had just stepped into Shiva temple back home and people in every corner were ringing bells to their own rhythm. I came back to the present when I saw all the bells were on the top of one church and being rung by an old pair of hands holding ropes attached to the bells. I have not thought of temples from my childhood in a long time and it all just floated up from deep recesses of my mind in Moscow, a city so very different from home. Moving forward takes you in some way to past as well.    Taking in the sights of that cobbled street lines with souvenir shops and restaurants, we got to the end and suddenly were thrust straight into the Red square. Red square is a wide expanse flanked on all sides by amazing structures. The colorful cathedral standing proud at the other end of it from where we walked into the square. St. Basil cathedral was as beautiful as it looks in the pictures. After taking pics of every single building surrounding the red square, we got into the long line to walk inside the cathedral. The inside was not as stunning as outside but that is a hard bar to rise to. It definitely doesn’t discount the beauty of the structure. It was good that we got in line to enter the cathedral early as later the line increased at a rapid rate. Once we finished the tour, we entered Gum which is a historic building turned into a huge mall, quite close in scale to mall of America or maybe even bigger, certainly more striking. The one interesting thing I'd like to mention about Gum is that Shaks needed to use the restroom which proclaimed to be a historical restroom. She was then charged 200 rubles for the privilege of using it. Verdict: nothing special. If you ask me, skip that history if you don’t need to answer the natures call. Plus, if it was truly historic, it would be a terrible restroom to use. The plumbing would be atrocious, maybe you would have to do your business in a chamber pot.
We had Russian cuisine today. The salads are great. I love eating the Russian salads while I stay away from American ones. Why you ask? Is it because its exotic that I am showing this hypocrisy? No, it’s because they are not just green leaves thrown together. There is cooked potatoes, veggies and meats with mayo added on in those salads. I am not fan of salads but this type of cooked salad I can get behind. 
Later, in the night, we tried to get to fan fest in red Square to watch the Russia match but unfortunately red square is closed at that hour. Still we saw the rest of the match standing near where the Russian tv has set up their commentary booth. Russia won the match handsomely. The crowd went crazy after that. People packed in to the streets, waving Russian flag. People honking in street, chanting Ru-ss-ia. Today everyone was Russian. On a side note I saw Argentina and Morocco fans the most apart from Russian fans here. It's surprising because I would have expected a large contingent of Portuguese fans but I think I saw one family in all of St. Petersburg. Hope there are more sightings tomorrow. 
The party in the streets kept going but by now my feet were stone, same for Shaks. All the walking is starting to catch up with us. Also, the limited sleep doesn’t help. So even though I wished to breath in the atmosphere, soak up the sweat of jam-packed Russians, Argentinians, and Moroccan supporters, hear the bang of drums and chants in tongues I couldn't fathom, it was time to rest and be ready for my first ever live world cup match! 

Ronaldo here we come to see you and all the strut and all the drama.