A Georgia Girl in Germany

A few nights after our original adventure with Erkin, we joined him for dinner again. This time, his colleague Irakli joined us...and drove so we wouldn’t have to contend with the gypsy cabs again. I had to chuckle, though, when Irakli and Erkin simultaneously turned around from the front seat to look at the three of us buckled up in the backseat and said something that I didn’t understand. I’m sure they got a kick out of how us Americans were adamant about using the seatbelts. That said, Irakli’s front seat belts were buckled...behind the seats! I got a kick out of that!

This evening’s dinner choice was an Uzbek restaurant, for traditional Uzbek food. Russia has a variety of ethnicities, and this evening’s dinner was a perfect example of that -- Erkin is of Kyrg decent, and Irakli is Georgian, so combined with the restaurant, we covered three different ethnicities (not counting our own) in one evening.

Again, the food was absolutely delicious. Erkin suggested a lamb and noodle dish that he claimed was “traditional” fare. However, he said I shouldn’t take photos of the restaurant. It was very nicely decorated though...oversized pillows in beautifully upholstered booths, very bright colors throughout.

From there, we headed out on the town, and, despite what the Cyrillic sign above says (“stop”), we kept going.

Our next stop was to the GQ Bar. I don’t think Erkin and Irakli understood why Brian and the colonel were staring off into space for this photo. Silly Americans! It seemed like a perfectly acceptable pose to me!

Inside was very posh and upscale. VERY upscale. Erkin asked if we wanted to sit at the bar or at a table, then quickly added that if we sat at a table, at a minimum, we’d have to purchase a bottle of champagne. We opted for the bar. Even there, it was pricey. We only stayed long enough for one round of drinks...two beers and three glasses of orange juice, which brought our tab to roughly $40! Ouch!!

And, yes, I do have a suntan in this photo. I never imagined I’d get tan in Moscow!

Next stop: Red Square! Words cannot describe how beautiful Red Square is. I was in awe. I was speechless. I was nearly gasping for breath. I stood there, taking it all in...and taking as many photos as I could to help me remember its beauty. I was in utter disbelief that I was actually roaming through Red Square.

Erkin told me that Red Square got its name, not from the color of bricks used in most of the buildings or from the symbolic red of communism, but rather because the color red implies beauty...and Red Square certainly is beautiful! The Russian word “krasnaya” can mean either “red” or “beautiful.” The word was originally applied, with the meaning “beautiful,” to Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and was subsequently transferred to the entire square.


Saint Basil’s Cathedral was absolutely stunning. The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible, built between 1555 and 1561, and consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ, a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.

As we walked further into Red Square, we came to the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, with the Kremlin in the background. The mausoleum is only open a few hours each weekday, and we were not there at the right time to go inside and see Lenin’s preserved body on display.

Opposite Lenin’s Mausoleum is the Main Universal Store or GUM department store, which was built between 1890 and 1893. Apparently, it’s very pricey to purchase anything inside there, but it certainly was beautiful lit up at night.

Directly across from Saint Basil’s Cathedral, on the opposite end of Red Square, is the State Historical Museum. The museum was founded in 1872, built between 1875 and 1881, and officially opened in 1894. Its architecture matches that of the nearby Kremlin Towers.

Kazan Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church on the northeast corner of Red Square (between the State Historical Museum and the GUM department store). The current building is a reconstruction of the original church, which was destroyed at the direction of Joseph Stalin in 1936, when Red Square was being prepared for holding Soviet military parades and cleared of churches. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kazan Cathedral was the first church completely rebuilt, with its 1990-93 restoration based on the detailed measurements and photographs of the original church made before its destruction. (Fortunately, Saint Basil’s Cathedral was spared destruction during this time.)

On several occasions, Erkin would look at us like he was about to ask us if we wanted to go somewhere, then he’d get a look on his face that told me we had no choice -- he was going to show us something whether we wanted him to or not. I didn’t mind at all, since it meant we had a personal tour of the many sides of Red Square. Erkin is blurred in this photo in front of the Resurrection Gate shortly after having one of those looks.

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After following Erkin and his thoughtful look, we walked toward the Resurrection Gate. The gate connects Red Square with Manege Square (or Manezhnaya Square) and adjoins the State Historical Museum with the Moscow City Hall. I liked this mosaic between the two archways on the gate. The gate was also demolished in 1931 to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during military parades, and was rebuilt in the 1990s.

On the other side of the Resurrection Gate is a bronze plaque marking the center of Moscow -- kilometer zero of the Russian highway system. Erkin told us it was good luck to throw money -- kopecks -- over our shoulder while standing on the plaque...so we all did.

Next we walked around the back side of the State Historical Museum through Manege Square to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden. The eternal flame here was brought from the Field of Mars in Leningrad.

From there, we began to wrap up our tour of Red Square, circling around the State Historical Museum back toward Saint Basil’s Cathedral. The Kremlin wall is to the right (not visible).

Here are a few more shots of Saint Basil’s Cathedral from the middle of Red Square. In the photo below, you can see the bronze statue commemorating Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who rallied Russia’s volunteer army against Polish invaders in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The statue was originally constructed in the center of Red Square, but the Soviet government felt it obstructed parades and moved the statue in front of the cathedral in 1936.



Spasskaya Tower is to the left of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and the GUM department store is to the right.

By the end of the evening, Erkin and Irakli were calling me “paparazzi” because of all the photos I kept snapping off. I suppose I did take quite a few, but it was necessary since I don’t know when (or if) I’ll ever return to Moscow.

We also stopped by Saint Basil’s Cathedral during our one free day off, and I snapped this shot of the cathedral by daylight -- it’s just as beautiful by day.

This is the back of the State Historical Museum from Manege Square. The glass cupola in front is actually the top of a four-story underground parking lot that symbolizes the northern hemisphere.

Labels: Russia, Travel