Hell, thy name is Moscow

Moscow was oppressive. Not in a Politburo-know-your-every-thought kind of way, but in a Dante's Inferno kind of way. I knew that Moscow could get hot in summer, but I must admit to being completely unprepared for the level of heat that was on offer - even after the very, very warm weather we'd been encountering as we travelled east, Russia's capital was just something else. As Jen and I waited for the train out on Tuesday night, the station information board kindly informed us that it was nudging 41 degrees Celsius at 7 in the evening, and one night whilst walking home from a bar a street sign gave us the comforting news that the mercury was still sitting on 36 degrees - at 11pm. Even as a born and bred Queenslander I was struggling to remember experiencing anything quite like it.

Notwithstanding the fact that we were clearly sitting somewhere between the fourth and fifth circles of Hell, Moscow of course had its appeal. The Kremlin is a hell of a place to seat your government, no matter what their particular leanings, while Red Square - crowned by the wonderfully colourful St Basil's Cathedral - is very impressive, particularly when lit up at night.

The Stalin-era skyscrapers - seven of which are still scattered around the city - give the place a Gotham-esque feel while an evening walk along the river is also quite lovely. And, despite its status as the Most Expensive City In The World, cheap beer can still be found if you look for it. Which we did, of course.

Jen and I also managed a brush with the Hollywood A-List. Walking back to our hostel we passed a movie theatre with a huge crowd gathered outside it. Wondering what the fuss was about, we manoeuvred our way to near the front of the crowd just in time to watch Angelina Jolie pull up and stroll the red carpet for the premiere of her new film (it's called Salt, for those who care) from a distance of about one metre away - and have some great pics to show for it. Brad wasn't there, presumably to save himself the rare embarrassment of being only the second hottest man in any given location.

Incidentally, as I'm sure those of you blessed with sight are now aware, we can now upload photos - look back through previous posts to catch up. Keep in mind that we may not be able to upload photos in our initial posts, but we'll always catch up eventually.

BT5_Moscow 24-27 July 2010