Day 13 Moscow/Kremlin

We started the day with a trip to the Kremlin, which refers to the walled area of the old city. It encompasses 70 acres. Within it are several churches and many government buildings, including Putin’s office. Since he lives in the suburbs, he comes to work by helicopter. We visited churches and heard about hundreds of icons ad nauseam. After the tour, we left the group and visited the famous department store “GUM”. Most people just go in there to look at the opulent stores and beautiful architecture, but hardly anybody shops. We had lunch in the famous Stalovaya #57, a Soviet-style (nostaligic for the Russians) cafeteria, which was full of both Russians and foreigners. Then we walked Moscow neighborhood for several hours. We came across the biggest and most famous Russian banya (Russian baths) – Sandunovskiye Bani. From the front, it is a huge, elegant building that takes the entire block, but from the back you can see the baths. When we were passing by the side entrance, we saw a naked (only with a towel round his waist) man with a wool hat on his head (a must for banya) smoking a cigarette. There is probably no smoking inside. Tomorrow is Russia Day, a holiday commemorating the dissolution of the Soviet Union and establishment of Russia as a separate country. There are festivities everywhere in Moscow and crowds in restaurants, cafes, parks, streets, everywhere, maybe except for the metro.

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