I'm Leaving!

September 18th

Of course the sun came out on the day I was leaving. Moscow can look almost pretty with the blue sky as a backdrop.

This is the Kievskaya Train (and metro) station and the brand new mall directly behind it. These were located next to the hotel, which was convenient for travel. There was also a regular grocery store in the basement of the mall and I made sure to stock up on a few bottles of vodka for the road. (Really good brands cost about $4.) The rest of the shops were high end designer shit. I wonder how Muscovites afford any of that stuff.

Elizabeth wanted to swing back up to Red Square to take photos with the sun out and I wanted to see if this watercolor guy happened to be out painting again, so I tagged along. We were pleased to find Lenin's tomb open to the public now that the military band show was completed. Overall it was a creepy experience with a lot of scary military guys yelling at you to be quiet and not take photos. Lenin's body looked like a wax figure wearing a lot of make-up laying in a glass box. They attest that it's still his real body and that scientists pump chemicals into it on a regular basis, but I think it's a sham.

And seriously, what a difference a blue sky makes, no?

We also took a quick walk through GUM, the old communist department store turned high end shopping mall.

While all this was fun, I was mostly glad because I knew I was leaving. I contemplated using my middle finger in the photo below, but I actually really loved St. Basil's.

What's up with my boobs in this photo?

So the bus picked us up around 1pm and we began our long journey to Bilbao. 40 minutes into the drive through horrendous Moscow traffic, the customs officer accompanying our convoy realized that he "forgot some necessary paperwork" back at the office. Are you fricking kidding me? That meant that we were stuck on the side of the road for at least an hour. So what did we do?

Drank huge Russian tall boys and ate McDonald's with our Finnish truck drivers...

on some disgusting mushroom covered logs...

While breathing in the lovely clean Moscow air.

And shit, wouldn't you know that even out here on the side of the highway on the outskirts of town, I was still able to catch a Stray Dog of The Day? We threw this guy some fries, which he declined! I guess Russian beggars CAN be choosers.