In which P & K discover that Moscow can get very cold indeed

DAY 10

Got up fairly late, had the usual large breakfast.

Then back to the room for K to do the injection. Poor thing, he really wasn’t looking forward to stabbing me and truthfully, I wasn’t either. He then managed to fall at the first hurdle by cutting his hand when cracking open the glass vials. The nurse had simply snapped off the top – he managed to shatter it. Now I’m thinking am I going to be injected with ground glass and how long would it take to kill me if I was? Fortunately the broken vial was the set powder and so it was easy to see that there was no glass in it. When K finally managed stem the bleeding and set up the syringe, I lay on the bed and gritted my teeth. But it was totally painless, just a little uncomfortable. I asked him to inject slowly as it seemed to be the speed of the injection that caused the pain and that certainly worked.

We decided to make the most of our last day. And it was really, really, really, really cold, with a very nasty bitter wind that swept into your coat and burned into your soul. Well, something like that.

We wanted to see the Pushkin art gallery, but K misread the map and we got to see Pushkin's statue instead. However, I did get to see Rachmaninov’s monument and as he’s my favourite composer, I was pleased to be able to do that.

Back to the tube and saw the beautiful Cathedral of Christ the Saviour - a very famous Moscow landmark. This was just outside our metro stop.
Not to mention these glorious wooden churches scattered all around. And then just beyond it we saw the stunning (and massive) St Peter's Statue in the bay and decide we must walk to see it. It nearly kills me. I have never been so tired and sooooo cold. My hands have lost all feeling and I’m holding them under my arms with 2 pairs of gloves on. Useless. We are hungry & thirsty too, but can’t pluck up the courage to walk into what looks like a posh restaurant in our casual gear. We struggle on and finally get to the Pushkin - it’s warmth is so very very welcoming. And then we find out it’s the WRONG PUSHKIN!! This one just celebrates the author. The damn art gallery is another mile down the road. I need the loo for my next lot of pills and am astonished to find we have to take a sheet of loo roll from the holder outside (and watched by a babushka) before we go to the loo. Had no idea they expected us to steal it. Or worse, use too much.

Warmed, the walk to the Pushkin Art Gallery is not so bad. Still shocked to find we are in the wrong part and that the impressionist gallery is down the road, but so tired and cold I simply don’t care. We stay put. I get told off twice for leaning on exhibits (more collapsing really) and K gets told off for taking photos.
Our last sight of the beautiful Cathedral
Tube back to Galereya Vodolyei. Just outside the ponies were being walked by their young owners - this time was sad though, because as the pony nuzzled me for a stroke, the owner hit it hard and shouted at it. I felt so sad for the poor animal, stuck out there in those brutal conditions with a brutal owner. I hate the helplessness of situations like that.Went into the mall and had really nice meal upstairs at Bar & Grill (bap & rpNAb). Vegetarian lasagne, which was practically what it said on the menu - only in Cyrillic!Really pleased that I can now read all the menus. We are both surprised that so much makes sense. Even Suchi is written as Suchi - just in Cyrillic ie C= S Y=oo W= Sh and backward N= ee bAP = Bar (as in the one above too)


Back to hotel and collapse on bed. Utterly exhausted. More than I’ve ever been in my life. Eventually watch The Big Lebowsky. Not bad.