Cory on Moscow

Most of my preconceived notions about Russia come from Fiddler on the Roof and Chekhov. The former doesn't really apply to Moscow, other than the whole importance of tradition and history thing. First impressions of any city on a diet of sleeplessness and cold rain are bound to be at least a little unfavorable; our hotel was far from centrally located, and the metro station hard to find. I get the feeling that it isn't easy to navigate the city if you're at all removed from the hub.

Once you're in the city proper, though, things are different. Seems there's something to look at around every corner: churches with swirled roofs like chocolate kisses, statues of Lenin, monuments, government buildings. I'd heard vaguely of the Kremlin before but didn't know what it was -- interesting to think that Moscow was once just what was bounded within those red walls.

Stray dogs are abundant, store clerks often impatient with pointing and broken Russian-English hybridizations, and cars don't stop for pedestrians. You have potato, sour cream, dumpling, you make good Russian meal. I think I'm a lot better at reading Cyrillic now.