Moscow

Moscow is perhaps one of the most overwhelming cities I have ever visited, which make sense as it is the largest city in Europe, home to somewhere around 15 million people. Additionally, we arrived in Moscow after a night of very little sleep on the night train from St. Petersburg, which might have added to our confusion. Nevertheless, our first day there is somewhat of a blur in my mind. Our first destination was a hill near Moscow University where we got a wonderful panoramic view of the city.

Our second destination was the Novodevichy Cemetery and Convent, which is the final resting place of many famous Russians, including Gorbachev and Yeltsin. We wondered the cemeteries of the convent for quite a while. One thing about this particular cemetery is that there is a tradition of placing an image or statue of the deceased on their tombstone, so the cemetery is really a gallery of the faces of the long dead.

This is Yeltsin's Tomb

This is Khruschev'sTomb

We then visited an enormous post-soviet WWII monument, and then finally, we visited the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which is the largest Orthodox church in the world. It was destroyed in 1931 by the Soviets, and rebuilt by Yeltsin in 2000. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the church, but believe me when I tell you it was absolutely wonderful.