Today I woke up at 8. I am heading to Red Square. I took line 1 from Sokolniki to the city center.

Александровский сад

A lot of city names: Odessa, Sevastopol, Kyiv, Minsk, Leningrad, Stalingrad, and many others.

Могила Неизвестного Солдата

A lot of Chinese are here.

Красная площадь и Кремль

I left quickly. The prices for water are expensive. And I am walking towards Китай-город.

There is another advertisement for the "SVO" and "5.2 миллиона рублей" a year written there. That's not a lot of money compared to the tech salary. If you don't die, actually get paid, and hopefully don't lose an arm or leg. Russia isn't my homeland, so I better shut up for now.

Китай-город

I went into the metro and I am going to Пушкинский музей. Turned out it's closed until 2 pm. I hadn't checked Yandex map beforehand.

It is literally so hot here. I sweated so much.

There are actually 2 Pushkin Museums here located less than 1 km from each other: Государственный музей изобразительных искусств (имени А. С. Пушкина), and Государственный музей А.С. Пушкина.

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, and it's 1000 Rubles. I asked, "Can I take a picture?" They said yes.

There aren't a lot of people, and it was such a beautiful and pleasant experience here. There are many famous paintings from France and Spain.

Henri Matisse, Pink workshop

Picasso, Girl on a Ball. (I knew this painting from Kamila Valieva's previous short program)

More Picasso

It was so amazing! I fell in love with these paintings and felt a passion like never before. I've never been much interested in drawings.

Maurice Utrillo, The White House

Fernand Léger, Woman with a Bird on a Red Background

Achille Funi. Portrait of Giovanni Scheiwiller

3-й этаж

2-й этаж

It is so beautiful!

I left early because I have to be at Sberbank at 1 pm to get my card. And there is Yekaterina. She was with another client. She looked up and gestured toward me. So I sat and waited.

She asked if my sim card is working? I said yes. She said отлично. Then I gave her my Russian phone number and received an SMS. It was a very pleasant experience. I got my Sberbank card with 4600 Rubles in it. Then you have to download the app from Rustore.

It's 35 degrees today.

Next I will go to Mosfilm. How can I get there from Kievskaya? On electrobus.

I arrived at Mosfilm. It's around 2 pm and it is just so hot.

So this is where "Москва слезам не верит" came from. I liked it so much that I listened to the music 100 times.

There is a big tour here, but I didn't have tickets. A lot of people are waiting outside, and then they went in. I was the only one without tickets and I couldn't buy one.

Shall we come tomorrow or some other time? I saw there are tickets at 3:30, but it's just so hot. And I wanted to go somewhere else.

I walked to дворца Ирины Винер. Russia is the best country in Rhythmic Gymnastics. And Irina Viner is the most famous (though controversial) coach in the world, though Kabaeva is a coach now as well. I walked around дворца Ирины Винер. It's not just a sports facility, but also a hotel. However, it's not cheap, starting at 8000 Rubles a night.

In Luzhniki they are playing the song, "Sugar". There are many other songs in the background, mostly in English.

I was trying to find Ilia Averbukh's company. I saw it on the map and I wanted to go there, so I went into Luzhniki. But I didn't see it anywhere, perhaps it's in that hotel.

And the VK fest is going to take place here after 10 days, where you can see Valya Karnaval, Julia Gavrilina, Mia Boyka, and many Tiktokers. They also feature "patriotic" singers like Lyube and Shaman here I think.

Luzhniki is so big and I was so hot.

It's 4 pm. I haven't eaten anything today and my legs hurt. I've been walking almost all day long. I didn't have time to look around Navka Arena, Gorky Park, МГАХ, or ЦСКА. I don't have much time now and I need to shower. I am going to the ballet at 7 pm today. I went back to my hotel. The Moscow metro runs so fast that I often miss my stops. And I am going to the ballet.

А вот Большой театр. Many people are taking pictures here.

А вот РАМТ.

It is just so beautiful inside the theatre

Bring water with you before entering the theatre. It costs 200 Rubles inside.

It's mostly Russians in here, and mostly women. Wherever you look, the female to male ratio is no less than 3 to 1.

Not that it really matters, but male ballet dancers are sexy too. They have very strong legs and great poise, and you can see the outlines of their lower body. In any case, ballet is the best thing in the world. It's my first time to see a ballet physically and I had never seen a serious ballet performance.

Это "Лебединое озеро".

The performance is 2.5 hours with a 20 minutes break in between.

Two people appeared in the scene, von Rothbart and Prince Siegfried. Von Rothbart wears either a clown costume or in dark, while Prince Siegfried is dressed in black.

Tchaikovsky's music began to play. The curtain opened. We see Rothbart coming and making dramatic leaps. We see four couples dancing. Rothbart performed the leaps, pausing briefly in the air, and landing on both feet.

After this the prince appeared. The prince danced with 2 people. The women rejected Rothbart.

Night fell, and we saw 16 swans on the lake. Sometimes they dance or they gather in groups. It is so beautiful. I had never seen something like this before. Then four swans crossed the lake with 8 arms. And here comes Prince Siegfried. The heroine turned 16 times (I forgot to count, I only counted once, and she spinned 16 times). The prince tried to fire his gun several times but he didn't fire.

Then there was a break.

We see a party, where the queen is at the right hand corner, while various princesses are dancing. They spun around several times, and I believe one of them did 32 turns. I didn't count, but it was incredibly difficult.

Then comes the final act, again at night with swans. But I didn't see the swan die. This is a version with a happy ending. The prince fought Rothbart, and then it was over.

I went back to the hostel. There are always those men cooking in the kitchen. with a terrible smell.

In any case, I'm moving to another hotel tomorrow. It's 1 am and I am sleeping now.