I think I feel another exclamation mark coming on.

 

Spent a leisurely final day in Moscow taking in the ‘Sculpture park’ which I’d hoped would be a Goldeneye-style graveyard of Soviet statues, but was mostly taken over by contemporary Russian pieces, much less interesting. My theorey is all the Soviet pieces have gradually flogged to overseas buyers, and replaced with the local pieces (which are probably far more interesting to the locals). Then on to Gorky Park ((the “park of Culture’ if you insist)) next door, which is a pleasant place to stroll, though the rides are either mediocre new ones or terrifying Soviet-era ones which only the terminally foolhardy would trust – notably a ferris wheel with large rust holes and tired looking bearings.

 

The park also contains what I guess is a full-size mockup of Buran – badly weathered and presented, but still, in all it’s glory, an object designed to boldly go. ((Wikipedia says the airframe in the park is the static-test mockup, which makes sense from its physical condition)). The resemblence to the orbiter is, uh, quite remarkable.

The rest of the day was occupied with excitement such as ‘what food to bring on the train’, and trying to escape the hostel which had been invaded by English girls (of the annoying kind) and Indian women, the latter protesting vocally about, well, pretty much everything. Most notably, having booked to stay in a hostel, they seemed unclear on the notion of shared dormatories. The train was boarded with whole minutes to spare (having navigated the Moscow transport hub arround Yaroslav station, more by luck than judgement).