If everything else fails I could always make a mean impersonation of Baba Yaga

Putin on top of a bear, with an assault rifle or how to win the award for the most badass merchandising

Love him or hate him, Putin is a household brand name. Judging by the amount of times we encounter his face, he must be pretty popular with a certain type of tourists. Maybe deep down in Kremlin he has the last laugh. Late at night, after a busy day at the office, wearing his favorite badass t-shirt. The one where he rides a bear while sporting an assault rifle and sunglasses. 

Last train to Moscow center

As my trip comes to an end and the days counting down on my visa, I take the last rides on the underground.  

Drinking Monasterian Kvas

Northeast of Moscow and about 70 away is the infamous Golden Ring (Золото́е кольцо́). An area surrounding by old Russian cities full of cultural heritage. You have a selection of sights ranging from the birthplace of Aleksandr Nevsky, UNESCO class monasteries, a white-stone kremlin on top of Lake Nero and old cities founded by Tsars and princes.

Finally some пирожки!

This is a post where I shouldn’t write, and you shouldn’t read, while hungry. That said it is but a small glimpse of some of the things we tasted during that trip in Russia, many more managed to escape documentation but take my word for it, they were delicious.

Cosmonauts

From afar it looks like an abandoned spaceship, thick slabs of concrete adorned with intricate copper-gold details. Walking through the internal courtyard you feel like the whole building is levitating above the rest of the city. Leaving the Russian Academy of Sciences we encounter a familiar super-hero. Yuri Gagarin, the first human to break the barriers of outer-space.

Rainy Kremlin

We booked the ticket to visit the Kremlin complex without checking the daily torrential downpour the likes of which Moscow has not seen for 140 years. Persistent tourists brave the weather, I wonder if they also share a sunk cost feeling. I guess having travelled from far away, after spending a lot of money and with the clock ticking your unpleasantness threshold increases.

Glimpses of Moscow 2

Ze and He day