I keep having "that wasn't there last time I looked" moments. I'm not talking about obviously modern buildings, or small time changes. This huge church wasn't there 20 years ago. No, really. Or this city gate with the two pointy roofs. Right by Red Square. I'm sure that I wouldn't have missed it in 1987, no matter how much vodka I had had. It's quite disorientating.
General notes to self...
Moscow underground turnstiles are vicious. Andy and I both got some inconvenient bruises and an unshakable tendancy to sidle though them nervously, before we got the hang of them. But the metro is lovely and art nouveau as ever. It is amazingly big and apparently carries more people each day than the London Underground and New York subways combined. Which made it something of a small miracle that we bumped into our host, Anna, at a random station last night on the way home.
Russians like cakes (like they like shoes). Pictures will follow, especially for Nic!
They also like pharmacies, called Apteka (think apothecary). Shop ratios are roughly Shoes:Apteke:Cakes:anything else 10:7:2:1 as far as I can tell.