Posted 11/04/2008 1:21 PM by Jordan Burchette
Filed under: Kremlin, Moscow, Red Square, Russia
Tour the former global seat of communism through the eyes of a cute girl we picked up in a museum.
In the two hours a day between when we woke up and when it was time to go out again for the evening, we looked at memorials, museums and other educational crap. Red Square, the Kremlin, Makaboto's—we hit all of the major landmarks, and you can even see them in the background of photos we took of Irina, the cute Moldovan girl who ended up tagging along with us.
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| First, any day worth waking up for in Moscow starts with a heaping helping of orange scrambled eggs. This photo is 100 percent representative of the hue of the food in the Ritz Carlton hotel, which was delicious, if not color-correct. |
Here's the old broad that Russian Standard assigned us to tour the Kremlin and Red Square. Her knowledge of Russian history and culture proved invaluable until we ditched her for the girl we met wandering the museum by herself. |
You are now looking at Red Square’s iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral, flanked by Spasskaya Tower to the right. St. B’s is actually smaller than you think it’s going to be, unless you’re my Frankenstein of a coworker/travel buddy, for whom the world is little more than a Micro Machines playset.
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| Introducing the lovely Irina, the young Moldovan beauty who would accompany us for the remainder of our tour. We immediately checked for her here upon returning to the States, but as yet no luck. |
Behold the State Historical Museum of Russia, here for no other reason than to round out our photo count. Neat! |
These are two cute young Muscovites that we sneaked a shot of while loitering in Red Square. God, we're creeps...
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| Homeboy No. 1 stands guard at Moscow's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The guy does more idling than a union worker. |
Homeboy No. 2's responsibilities don't differ a whole hell of a lot from Homeboy No. 1's. They stand watch on either side of this... |
Pretty powerful stuff in person. The flowers are most likely those of newlyweds who traditionally lay them in gratitude to the soldiers who've fallen in order to afford them the opportunity to marry.
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| Weighing in at 216 tons, this is the largest bell on earth. Er, maybe we should actually show the bell... |
As you can see, it would take at least 3,500 Irinas to equal the mass of the Tsar Bell. Or roughly six of our managing editor. |
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| Here, Irina snaps a shot of some church. Honestly, I don't know which one; there were about 29 of them and they all looked the same. OK... I'm being told it's the Cathedral of the Dormition. Happy now, Stalin? |
This is the unsung hero of our trip: Ill-Fitting Kremlin Guard. |
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| And it was with that that we bid Irina a fond adieu. But not to worry... |
She came out with us that night, which is a story for a future post... | | |
