This is the day that we've been waiting for. It's to be a full day spent at the Kremlin with its top draw of the Armoury Palace.

Thong Mei and I had came yesterday evening, by chance to the ticketing booth (we stumbled upon alot of things and we were getting lost in the Metro all the time) and had worked out which session we wanted to take for the Armoury Palace. Admissions times are staggered in 3 periods and it is closed on Thursdays.

The plan was for us to see the surroundings of Kremlin first before proceeding to the Armoury Palace tour for the 1pm session. Off we go to get the tickets. Man, I can tell you there is no such thing as customer service in Russia. So we bought the tickets for the Kremlin and the Armoury. We were told "Armoury, now, now in 5 minutes", "But we want the 1 pm session". "No! No! Go now, 5 minutes!!". Ok so we had to relent, it is obvious that there is still a very prevalent Soviet mentality still in practice. Do as you are told and don't ask too much (or at all).

The Armoury is probably the highlight of the entire Kremlin for me. There were treasures upon treasures collected over the years, these being gifts from foreign counterparts to the Tzars and Tzarinas in the olden days. Most of the treasures were collected from the time of Catherine the Great and Tzar Nikolas.

One of the highlights of the Armoury itself is of course the Faberge eggs. To be exact, 7 of them with 7 different themes. These Faberge eggs were commissioned as Easter gifts for the Tzars, hence were made in the shape of eggs and a must which comes with any Faberge egg would be a surprise hidden inside the egg.

There were tens of thousands of treasures, from armours to horse carriages, costumes and made in the highest degree of craftsmanship. It really does make you wonder how people in the olden days do it. As we progress with further technological advancement, we have fallen into a state of craftlessness.

If you are reading the guidebooks and wondering how it is that you may visit the Diamond Fund featuring a vast collection of diamonds and gems including the very impressive Crown Jewels, the Orlov Diamond and the Shah's Diamond, fret not. The tickets can be bought just as you exit the Armoury.

After the armoury, we walked around the Kremlin which is still only 1/3 opened to the public.

TIP: You could enter the Kremlin grounds without an admission ticket but not the churches. So you would save alot of money by doing this.

It is still a working Russian government centre and this is evidenced from the fleet of black Mercs parked in the Kremlin.

Here are some photos:-

Inside the Kremlin

Inside the Kremlin 2

Inside the Kremlin 3

Inside the Kremlin 4

Churches inside the Kremlin at the oldest square in Russia

Church inside the Kremlin

In the evening, we had bought tickets to see the Bolshoi Ballet, one of the world's finest and we chose a comedy ballet for want to anything better. We had to go the the New Stage as the 17th century Main Stage Bolshoi Theatre is currently closed for some serious restoration.

The Russians do take their ballet very seriously, all dressed up and binoculars in toe. It was a new experience for me watching the ballet and I must say that it wasn't so bad although paying 320 Roubles got us seats at the highest tier, so the view wasn't absolutely fantastic. Sounds cliche, watching the ballet but we would have kicked ourselves if we didn't.

To a fitting end of our 2 weeks in Russia, a place when I'm now back home and reminiscing, still seems a little surreal to me, we stood in the middle of the Red Square admiring the St. Basil's Cathedral. It was sad having to leave for home now despite us being a little tired and a little homesick. I don't know what to think of Russia after this, eccentric and misunderstood are probably the words that I'll use to describe the country and its people.

03/30/07 by puiyee
Tags: trans-siberia, trans-mongolia, moscow, kremlin