Moscow

One of the first thing that strikes in Moscow is that the city is booming. The airport is flashy, many buildings are being built, the traffic is nightmarish, historical sites are being restored, huge advertisment boards flourish and people wear the latest design clothes. Moscow is actually not in Europe, but in a new continent. Russians are proud of their past, their culture, their strenghts, their religion to the point that they feel they are the reference point. They do not need to be part of Europe.

We were of course in Moscow to visit the main highlights. The red square of course. On the first evening, we were stunned at the colours and the beauty of the St. Basile church. In the neighbourhood, there is the Lenine tomb and the big shopping center, Gum. Behind the high red walls, where Staline, Brejnez and co waved at the Russian troops, is the Kremlin. Some buildings are modern, like the one that used to host the meetings of the Communist party. But most are churches financed by tsars. They were competing to build the best one, with the biggest bell or the highest tower.

This mixture is present also on top of the towers, with communist (the red star) and tsarist (the double eagle) symbols. Further, the Douma, the Russian parliament, the Boltchoi theatre and a statue of Marx.

On the last day, we visited "Star City", the place where the Russians (and Europeans) astronauts train to fly into space. It was quite a mission, and an expansive one, to organise this visit. Indeed, the doors have opened to tourists only three years ago. I was then expecting to see very modern buildings and the latest technology gadgets. What a disappointment! The 7000 inhabitants live in exactly the same appartment blocks. Worse, the technology used seems so old. The centrifugal machine and the pool used to practice work on the spaceships looked so old. For a potential space traveller (who wants to give me a million??), this visit did not boost my confidence. Apparently, modern Russia is not investing much in this domain.