Happy 864th Birthday Moscow!
Well it was yesterday, but the celebrations occur over 2 days so I'm not sure which of the 4th or 5th is the actual birthday.
We ventured out in the evening to watch the fireworks, sponsored by альфа банк (Alpha Bank) from the massive sports park. The backdrop for the fireworks was the massive мгу (Moscow State University) tower block, which is an enormous gothic building with 3 towers. There was an impressive lightshow with various images of snow, butterflies, rain and other things projected onto the building and afterwards the firework display.
Without a good camera, my Sony does not match up to the SLR Nikon's of my friends, I was unable to get good shots of the fireworks. But then again you kind of need to be there to experience fireworks, pictures don't do it justice! I might be able to nab a photo off Chris, who is in possession of a professional camera, just to prove to you how cool the мгу building is!
The police were out in large force last night which was slightly unsettling. Most of them were standing around chatting or smoking or playing on mobile phones. But they did shut one subway station so as to contain the crowd, not that it helped! As I've mentioned before, Russian's don't have any idea about Health & Safety. In London had such an event occured a large number of tube stations would have been closed or made exit only. Here the tube was open and the trains were stuffed to the gills. Had an accident occured it would have been a massive loss. It appears that they don't have a real care for safety. We were pushed onto trains and squished together, which made it difficult to breathe. When we reached the larger station on the way home where we were going to change lines we were once again pushed out onto the platform. It would have been easy for someone to have been tripped up and then be crushed. That was the only scary thing about last night. On the other hand, there were no menacing groups of youths loitering around, as there might have been in London, so I felt personally safe and Russia had deployed the army to keep the peace around the entrance & exit to the park. So in terms of walking around I felt totally safe!
The police were out in large force last night which was slightly unsettling. Most of them were standing around chatting or smoking or playing on mobile phones. But they did shut one subway station so as to contain the crowd, not that it helped! As I've mentioned before, Russian's don't have any idea about Health & Safety. In London had such an event occured a large number of tube stations would have been closed or made exit only. Here the tube was open and the trains were stuffed to the gills. Had an accident occured it would have been a massive loss. It appears that they don't have a real care for safety. We were pushed onto trains and squished together, which made it difficult to breathe. When we reached the larger station on the way home where we were going to change lines we were once again pushed out onto the platform. It would have been easy for someone to have been tripped up and then be crushed. That was the only scary thing about last night. On the other hand, there were no menacing groups of youths loitering around, as there might have been in London, so I felt personally safe and Russia had deployed the army to keep the peace around the entrance & exit to the park. So in terms of walking around I felt totally safe!
