Camels in Moscow?

This morning, I got up and headed off to see Evgeny’s commute to his office. It’s interesting to see his life and learn about what his routine is. You can only write so much through emails that seeing it in person really solves the mystery. After seeing his office and meeting some of his office mates, we headed to have some breakfast at the Starbucks ‘like’ cafe called ‘ШОКОЛАДНИЦА’ /Shokoladnitsa. If you say it, you might hear the word similar to Chocolate, which means yes, lots of chocolate options here. However, since it was breakfast, I felt I should eat something wholesome, so I opted for the toast and cheese/tomato breakfast. After breakfast, I left Evgeny and headed for Red Square by the metro, to look around. Today was one of the days you can go to visit good ol’ Lenin. He is still preserved despite all the talk about him being finally buried. There was quite a long queue and you have to actually place your bags and packs at a security point, and I had my nice camera with me, so I decided not to drop my bags off. I’ll go back for the viewing another day when I don’t have my nice camera with me.

After stopping at a cafe for an $8 glass of apple juice (Thank you President Bush for making my US$ practically worthless in Russia), I headed off to the Bolshoi Theater to check out any shows that were playing. Wandering around is always the best way of stumbling upon surprises really, so I just continued wandering around the area. Katya then gave me a call and we planned to meet up and head off to a museum. She was near me anyhow, and we were able to meet almost instantly, so we went off to a book store. Suddenly Evgeny called and asked us to meet him to run an errand with his Lada to be serviced ie: get a horn, get a seat belt, and stop the incessant mysterious liquid from leaking into the passenger seat.

Once we arrived back at Evgeny’s office, we drove to the other side of the city toward Moscow State University. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings of Moscow and stands tall and prestigious. The building was built in Stalin fashion, so it looks really gothic and Batman like. The best part was that it was starting to snow, so I was happy to see some snowflakes and feel the ‘real’ cold.

We then headed towards the Moscow Circus to take a look at the building and see if we saw anything interesting, and sure enough, after taking a walk around, interesting is what we found. In the midst of snowflakes in Moscow, a camel was giving a ride to a child! They say Moscow is a city of contrasts, and I have to say, this is one of the most interesting contrasts I’ve encountered!

We then took a drive over to the site of the newest building complexes that are being built in an area that will include buildings going up until about 2016. Federation Tower, Moscow City, and other buildings will house residents, offices, stores, and even have a Hyatt Hotel.