Moscow

There it was: St. Basil's cathedral. No other building represents Moscow more than this church with its famous, colourful domes, next to the Kremlin. Like Paris has the Eifel Tower, like London has the Tower Bridge, Moscow has St. Basil's cathedral. While I'm usually not fond on there touristic, mostly overrated landmarks, seeing this in the distance on our way to a travel agent was a great moment. We were really in Moscow, and our Transsiberian journey had really begun. Wow. Moscow actually looked rather modern than I expected. My only Russian experience so far was a visit to St. Petersburg a couple of years before. Although a wonderful city, it was very run-down: buildings in a bad state, roads filled with pot-holes and a lot of Lada's on the streets. Moscow turned out to be quite different: a modern, vibrant metropolis. Never before I've seen so many expensive cars on the roads.
VDNKh VDNKh is an ironic place in Moscow. It used to be an permanent exhibition to show all the advantages and wonders of the Soviet Union. Nowadays, it's a derelict place filled with markets and shops. Capitalism surrounded by symbols of communism. Lenin is still showing the way to a glorious future for Russia, although that future may look a little different than he imagined. Consumers of all countries, unite!