St. Petersburg is not Russia!! Moscow is Russia!!

My mother always likes to relate the story of her
airplane trip to Spain next to "the big Russian" and
his quote "St. Petersburg is not Russia! Moscow is
Russia" well I guess I’ve officially been to Russia.
We took the night train from St. Pete's to Moscow,
apparently the Russians like to make up for the ice
cold temps outside by creating an oven inside, it must
have been a 90 degrees in the cabin (which put Euro
rail train cars to shame, apparently the soviets
mastered two things: railway cars and subway systems).
of course we couldn't keep the door open because of
the safety concerns. Not only did our guide horrify us
by telling us that last year 25 of 26 people were
robbed on the train ride- even with their doors
locked, her boyfriend informed us of the technique
commonly used: they pump in sleeping gas and then pick
the lock. Needless to say between the heat and fear
little sleep was gotten. We arrive at 6 in the morning
way to early for our hotel to let us in, so... bus
tour time, oh yeah we were chipper. we walk out of the
station having been told that Moscow is currently 5
degrees WARMER than St. Pete's, nope turns out weather
forecasters are full of shit everywhere in the world,
BLIZZARD, maybe the second coldest temp I’ve
experienced in Russia, but of course that doesn't stop
our 6:30 am walk through red square, people were
starting to get upset at this point. However Moscow is
amazing and I don't think I would have wished to
experience it any other way, finally real Russia.
We get to the hotel around eleven which is in the
middle of the most ridiculous market you've ever
seen(unless I’m told you've been to Asia where this
chaos is commonplace) people are flying through the
streets with oh say 50 bales of clothing on their
trolleys, there are trucks being loaded and unloaded
at a chaotic rate, no one speaks English and few speak
Russian either there seems, so you can't even find out
how much a bale of clothing goes for, or what that
might contain. Again or RA's boyfriend informs us that
people often get hustled into the back room (I imagine
things get quite unpleasant there, perhaps a free trip
in the back of a Uhaul van to Hungary??) But I did
manage to find -at the more tame souvenir fair also
located by the hotel- a rather nice new jacket or coat
rather, Soviet pea coat. So the risk was worth it
(although the street food wasn't). The next day we
went to see Lenin, a little over the top, as only the
Russians know how, armed guards hustling you down,
into, past, and out from a rather yellowed Lenin in
the middle of a huge marbled and heavily surveyed
room. Just looks like he's taking a nap.
Moscow is rather expensive (or we are just growing
accustomed to living in St. Pete's we can't tell
which) it seems like it is as expensive as the states,
i paid an outrageous amount for my borsch at one
restaurant (4 dollars) which wasn't even that good.
and it is a little or actually a lot sketchier than
St. Petersburg. As jarrod said "my guard is on high
here, I have a feeling shit could go rogue at any
minute" But fear not because as I write this email I
am in Kiev, safer, cheaper but in my opinion slightly
less interesting (all this will go in the next email,
we're on a tight schedule and I can only talk Moscow
now) the final night we went to the opera, La Boheme
to be exact, which I am willing to admit was pretty
fun and well done, although we had been out touring
all day and had no time to eat until after the opera
(once again sticking me to shaverma i.e. Russian
kebab, which I think is not so good for the digestive
track) But the opera itself was very fun. The next day
we took the 13 hour train ride to Kiev, which will
wait till next time. ell