Moscow and More - Part B

So, as I was kindly reminded the other day, my last post's title suggests a multi-part post. This shows to you I had good intentions when posting it, and have, yet again, not lived up to my own expectations. However, that ends here with this post, which picks up where the other left off. I know I left you all with a real cliffhanger...so here is my conclusion. (Kate Jones, the Home Alone style counting in the title was especially for you.)

We spent the first half of the second day shopping at a huge market. The market really did look like a Russian Disneyland. It was super rad! But, I was so distracted by all of the matrushka dolls that I forgot to take a picture of it. So the pictures pick up with us going to Red Square at night, which is one of the best ways to first acquaint yourself with this somewhat eerie Russian fortress.

The Russian History Museum.
 I think this building helps a person visualize the red in Red Square.

Saint Basil's Cathedral.
We were hanging out for quite awhile waiting for all the lights to turn on, and we started to get creative with our picture taking.

It was definitely worth the wait.

We came back to Red Square early the next morning to see our comrade Lenin, but were sorely disappointed. The timing of our visit happened to between two major Russian holidays: May 1 and Victory Day, on May 9. Consequently, we had a few surprises when we tried to get into the area that day. The first surprise was the unexpected police presence lining the streets and entrances to the Kremlin. The next surprise was, after finally getting through the scary Russian police officers, we found ourselves in the middle of a military training. I admit a Russian voice over a loud speaker and the return unison shouting from the crowd had a pretty creepy feeling. The most disappointing surprise was that because of these two holidays we didn't get to see Lenin. This picture is the display they were setting up in front of his mausoleum. 

I had a little confusion about what exactly the Kremlin and Red Square were. So, for those of you much smarter than me or already bored by this commentary you can tune out on this next part. Red Square is a literal square that holds Lenin's tomb, the Russian History Museum, and St. Basil's cathedral. It sits right next to the wall that contains the Kremlin. The Kremlin is an area of land that is blocked off by the famous red wall and it is equivalent to our Washington DC White House area. Within the Kremlin is an area called Cathedral Square which contains a lot of historical cathedrals and this is a picture of that area. 

The Triumphal Arch in Moscow.
Moscow ripped off France's triumphal arch, but it was a worthy structure to steal at least.

After three very long days of non-stop "fun" we were back on our favorite train home.  All-in-all it was a great experience and I really enjoyed the charms of Moscow.