On a Floating Bridge

I decided to acclimatise myself to Moscow overland, walking a mile to the centre on a beautifully clear and warm morning. I stopped to buy a map then located a coffee shop to organise my day.
Moscow’s wide fast roads were dusty, as were the buildings that although showed evidence of grandiose Soviet ugliness, had a surprising abundance of more European style architecture.
The subways under major roads were filled with enclosed market stalls. Built into the structure, they were little glass bricks with a hatch and the stall keepers were stuck inside and the shop’s wares were plastered around the brick for punters to view. These little pods weren’t just for magazines, tobacco and refreshments, but clothes, underwear, CDs and more. All of which were ordered from the cashier, and sold through the hatch.

I paused outside Pokrovsky (St. Basil’s) and drew one of the spires, pissed off that my camera was in my bag, in storage.
Leaving Pokrovsky, I walked back towards the Kremlin’s entrance. I needed to make a decision, Lenin’s tomb or naked saunas with other Russian women. It was an easy choice.

The women at the sauna reception desk nearly doubled the cost of the experience with “optional” extras like towels! When I was ready to go in, the women asked incredulously “Slippers? Slippers?”. At further expense I replied well whatever “Niet Nada??” they said at me as I wandered in. I made the most of the warm showers inside, washing my hair through twice – not knowing when my next chance would be. I walked through the sauna door and up the steps which turned out to be scolding hot. I quickly hopped onto the table and lay down for 5 minutes. Running down to cooler ground I threw cold water over myself, as was customary, before going back to get the slippers.
I only went back and forth twice, much less than the repetition of up to 10 times Banya experts recommend. Once finished lying down in the sauna, the women who were wearing funny pointed pixie hats and variously coloured plastic slippers stood up in the sauna and threw their towels around their head, over and over. A wonderfully odd sight, these wobbling bodies lassoing with their towels in little pixie hats in the dark and ornately tiled cave-interior of the sauna.
I moved on to conquer my last task for the day – understanding the Moscow metro. It was surprisingly easy and without my camera pack, easier to blend in. My Cyrillic has reached about 80% comprehension reading very slowly, which is certainly helping me to get by.
I arrived around 2 hours early and sat in the waiting hall of a station built to look like a reproduction of a traditional fort. As I moved to the platform, 20 minutes before departure, I spotted some girls with enormous backpacks just like mine and asked if they were taking my train. They were, 2 Australians, Liz and Jane, and an American, Amanda. Their carriage was 2 in front of mine.