Red Square at night

So this weekend, they were doing Formula One racing around the Kremlin..Saturday night as we left Red Square, some of the cars were showing off doing crazy things.... Going really fast then turning - thankfully traffic was blocked. I still continue to be shocked nearly every day here.... And Saturday was no exception... So, I'll go backwards again.

For the Formula One - they set up this makeshift party house behind St. Basil's - see the pink and purple lights.. Here you can see GUM - lit up like Christmas, and part of the Kremlin.

GUM
St. Basil's... I know, not the best picture, but oh well.

State Historical Museum - keep in mind it was like 11:00 pm when I took this picture...

Another view of the museum. I really need to actually go inside and see what is there.

This is now an exhibition hall. It used to be horse stables.

View of part of the Kremlin from where we were sitting.

Ok, to one of the shocking things from Saturday... Now, I guess I am over the shock that people get in the fountains here, but I was shocked to see them JUMPING from up high into the water - and shocked to see them strip down to their underwear in front of tons of people.

And shocked that they would get in this water and no one would say a word about it... I wonder how they knew how deep it was...

GUM in the daytime.

Another shot of Red Square/St. Basil's. It is really nice how empty Moscow is on the weekends. Some people from Atlanta are here, and one night we were talking about the population here and about how roughly the size of Atlanta commutes into Moscow from the outer regions each day.

Rush hour on the metro is so unpleasant...

Another shock - at the souvenier market, they now have bears chained up outside.... quite a disturbing site. Moscow is hot in the summer, and these bears were panting and trying to get their collars off.. It was so horrible that I did not take a picture.

So, I bought 3 bootleg dvd's, for $10 and got one for free... I did not notice the bag until later - Bear Beer? Really?

Here is a link to some interesting reading on corruption....http://ftp.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/ruscrime.htm

Despite it all, I feel safe here, and have had no issues..Really the most dangerous thing here are the sidewalks... uneven, holes. The other night, my heel got caught in a crack.. and the heels I wear are MUCH lower than most of the ladies here...