Day 26: Suzdal to Moscow

If I had to choose one word to describe Russia it would be: slippery.  The past three weeks I have been walking around on nothing but thick black sheets of ice.  On top of it all I'm a huge klutz so everywhere I go, I go slowly and carefully.  

Today, I went sledding.  Not down snow, down ice.  All the cool kids were doing it.  I bought myself a little plastic sled for a dollar and went to the ice hill that people were sledding down.  There were two boys who dared ride their bikes down this icy mountain of terror.  It wasn't graceful.

I lent my sled to three young girls whose own sled was too intimidating for the journey.  They kept thanking me.  A poor stray dog made the mistake of walking/sliding/falling down the hill.  He slid.  A lot.  He could barely make it back up.  Basically, the sledding became a series of all of us helping each other back up the hill.  It was so slippery.

I decided after that that I'm just going to sled to everywhere I need to go.  It's much easier than walking.  If there is even the slightest decline in my path, I'm just gonna sled.  Why not?  It'll be hilarious.  And fun.  It's happening.

I arrived in Moscow and the second I got to my hostel I met an Aussie.  He suggested we take a walk.  What an interesting guy.  He has been traveling almost a year.  All over South American, Europe, even Syria.  He interviewed a refugee, illegally, in the back of a van.  It's an incredible story, and now he's looking for a news source to publish his video.  His story really needs coverage.  I think this world is very desperate for some true journalism.

We went to St. Basil's Cathedral.  It was around 1am, so it was closed.  After a lot of begging, I convinced my friend that we should enter the gates anyhow, not thinking much of it.  All of the sudden we hear a big booming voice over a loud speaker and a car with flashing lights is driving towards us.  The Russian police.  Perhaps, the KGB.  (That's me being dramatic).  They were yelling things in Russian which I assume meant some variation of "get the heck out."  Oops.  I'm that traveler now, the one that breaks and enters and gets in trouble with the po-lice.  It's out of my system now?