Day 2

Hello again,

Busy day yesterday but here are some of the highlights:

Returning to Red Square, all got the opportunity to enter Lenin's Mausoleum, which all thought was spectacular yet creepy. Lying in a glass coffin, at 16 degrees celsius, some questioned whether it was actually his body as he looked quite wax like. Going back onto Red Square, our tour guide, Natasha, told us a bit more about its history, which involved many mass protests, stapling of some testicles to the ground in protest, mass church services and army parades.

The other side of Red Square (opposite the Kremlin), hosted the famous Goom shopping centre, which during the time of the communists was meant to be a symbol of equality but ended up split into the levels of hierarchy of Russia at that time. Sam Grants attempts at buying a hot chocolate failed as he peered over te counter and saw a pot of chocolate sludge in a cup. Whilst Robin Franklin's keen eye spotted a rather fetching and aesthetically questionable Russian hat whilst there, which we thought made him look a bit like some sort of communist dictator.

Next was a trip to the gravestones of the most famous Russian artists, generals, musicians, politicians, clowns, and others. Shown in the pictures are the gravestone of a heart surgeon, with hands holding a red crystal to symbolise his life's work. Also the black and white gravestones shows the different sides to a morally questionable politician (kruschev).

Finally, the circus was probably the most interesting, thrilling, almostwatchingsomeonedyingandtryingnottojumpoutofyourseating experience of the day.

It entailed watching many amazing tricks, and by the end of the show about 8 tigers and 3 lions were on stage (although heavily drugged) doing some pretty awesome stuff. Oh, and the teachers got their faces painted during the interval #cokewoodsarmy.

See you tomorrow!