I left the Belorussian Station at 7:40.

There are some beautiful buildings on the other side of the street and an MTS store, though they are closed until 10. I also saw Alpha Bank, breakfast stores, and Yandex taxis.

I was so tired as I didn't sleep at all last night. I just walked along Тверской street. On the street it's mostly empty, and cars speeding by.

I turned on the Garden Ring (like, "Вот и стало обручальным нам Садовое кольцо" from the song "Alexandra"). There is the statue of Mayakovsky,

Концертный зал имени Чайковского

And here is an ad with our Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova

Кудринской площади

Vk Fest, MTS Live, Avito, and other advertisements are everywhere on the street.

Here is the American consulate with an American flag. In front of the building they wrote "Победа" or something like that.

Hotel Ukraina isn't far from the Belorussian Station and it's not far from the Moscow river.

When you are crossing the street, cars wait for you in Russia. It's like in the west, and not like aggressive people in China.

Новый Арбат

And here is Hotel Ukraina

I went into the hotel and asked for water. They said water is in a bar and the bar is on the other side of the building. When I went the bar, the servant immediately came to me. And then I knew that this place is very expensive. I fell into a trap again, as the water in Hotel Ukraina costs 540 Ruble.

You can hear Chinese in Hotel Ukraina.

I went to exchange some RMB for Ruble to deposit in my card.

The Internet here basically does not work. You have to be a guest, or you have to have a Russian phone number. I asked a man and he pointed me to the front desk worker, and she asked me my room number. I said, "Я буду забронирую номер." And she helped me connect to Internet.

I began looking for hotels around here. I needed to rest. And I found 25, Kievskaya street, 4400 Ruble a day. I began walking there.

When I went along Taras Shevchenko street, there is a street without traffic lights. And I tried to wait for the car, and the car was waiting for me, so we waited for a while. Then I turned around and the car finally drove across.

If it wasn't for the "80 лет Победы" everywhere and all the posters of "Победа за нами" on buses with soldiers, this is actually a pretty normal city.

Памятник П.И. Багратиону:

Улицы чистые (Улица Дунаевского):

But 25, Kievskaya wasn't like a hotel, it was like an apartment. I didn't have Internet so I couldn't do anything. So I went to the hotel Славянская, which is 6000 Ruble a night. I planned to stay there for 2 days. I am so tired. And here is the Kievsky railway station.

Kievsky railway station is Anglicized as "Kievsky", not "Kyiv", when I thought about the KyivnotKiev thing online several years ago. I was terribly tired, and I wanted water. I went to the hotel Radisson Slavyanskaya and I went into the bar again. I asked for soup and it was 600 Ruble. I had the soup, and I slept on the couch for an hour.

I asked for Wi-Fi from the front desk again. She asked me again what is my room number, and I had to say again that I am going to book soon! She helped me get my Internet set up, and I quickly booked a room. (Mastercard works with Yandex Travel somehow). It was noon when I checked in.

There is everything in Moscow - clean streets, Yandex (taxi, music, market, food), Avito, Sber, Wildberries, Ozon, Zvuk (music and podcasts), MTS, Megafon, Gazprom, T-Bank, VTB, electrobus, and Lada. There are many beautiful buildings. Here Yandex works faster than Google, and Vk Video works faster than YouTube. In CHina they work very slowly. But right now a lot of western social media (YouTube, Instagram, X) are blocked. I didn't see many soldiers here though.

Right out of the hotel, near the Kievsky railway station there is a big shopping center. To get into a shopping center, you have to go through a security check. That probably has something to do with Crocus Hall. There are MTS, Megafon, a supermarket, restaurants, and clothing stores inside.

I went to MTS and there are 5 people working there. I got a 50 GB sim card for 1000 Ruble, but the process to activate it is really difficult - you need to follow 4 steps. They want mass surveillance and to connect you with Gosuslugi. So what do you need to do? You have to physically visit these places around the city without Internet. Well, it is what it is, and you can't get any more "help" from the staff.

1. Получите СНИЛС
2. Создайте учётную запись на Госуслугах
3. Зарегистрируйте биометрию в отделении банка
4. Оформите сим-карту в салоне связи

I also bought an adapter for 2000 Ruble, but it turned out that my adapter from Hong Kong was already working.

I ate at Rostics (KFC) for 439 Ruble. I saw that the monthly pay is 90k Ruble a month, which is slightly higher than in Shanghai.

I bought a yogurt and it is really tasty. And I went back to the hotel to sleep.