Many Kremlins Ago...

This week we had The Big Event...our tour of the Kremlin.

Well, the Moscow Kremlin. The one that currently exists. Because "kremlin" really just means fortress (so every town has one) and also the Moscow Kremlin has been iterated several times over. The first few were made of wood (and were also white) so they were destroyed a bunch of times in a variety of exciting ways. When the Russians finally gave up and asked the Italians to build them a brick Kremlin, the Russians didn't like the color (red), so they painted it white for like...a long time. (For a more "accurate" and "factual" version of this history, please see Wikipedia.)

A quick rundown of the Kremlin's contents:

• 4 churches (or possibly more, counting is hard)
• a bunch of offices, including Putin's
• a museum
• lots and lots of whistle-blowing police officers
• some gardens
• two helipads (because how else would you commute to the office)

Church #1

Churches #2 & 3

Church #2 again

Church #4

Church #2

Church #2 all close-up like

whoa I exist

And there miiiight be a 5th undocumented church that I'm forgetting... Basically, the Russian royals had a church for every occasion (literally - each church was used for something different, like burials, coronations, actual services, etc.).

After we played I-spy with golden domes, we went to the Armory, which is a museum of Russian historical artifacts and almost completely lacks weapons. No pictures allowed. But I have never seen so many carriages. 

Later that evening I went up to Sparrow Hills (home of Moscow State University) for a nice view of the city.

Then today I went to this rad market thing and had the most delicious shashlik (basically kebab (basically barbeque)). And pickled tomatoes. Let me tell you about pickled tomatoes. They are great. And I have never had one before. But wow. 

probs my favorite meal so far

Some other highlights of the week:

• Khinkalnaya. Um. Great Georgian food. And they have this cheese bread thing that kind of looks like a quesadilla and is probably the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. 
• Russia Day! Yeah. Did not get to celebrate this so much since we still had class...
• Anti-cafes are pretty cool. You pay by the hour and the tea/coffee/snacks are unlimited self-serve. I made my first americano and it was pretty awful. Newfound respect for the people who work at Coffeehouse.

This was pretty much the Week of Good Food, so I'm counting that as a win.