Russian Banya

We started our day off today by getting up earlier than we ever have...awesome. We went as a group to see the Kremlin and we had to leave early to avoid the long lines. Naturally it rained only once yesterday and that was while we were in line. And to top it all off, by the time I got to the front of the line the security gaurd motions to me that I can't take my bag in cause it looks like "luggage." So I had to walk all the way back to the other side of the Kremlin grounds to put my bag in a locker and then come back to the security point...luckily we had a guide with us so we could cut right to the front of the line.

The Kremlin really didn't have much to do. It's not a very big area....felt like maybe five square city blocks. Within the wall (which has 2o individual towers) there are several churches and the government buildings, like the senate and congress. But then thing about the churches is that they all look the same, inside an out. They were beautiful, but I had the feeling that if I had been in one, I had been in the them all. The grounds were pretty nice though...very beautiful. Reminded me of a few other places I've traveled.

A feel like I'm writing like a fifth grader today. We saw the Kremlin. It was good. I liked it a lot.

Alright, so next up was the Russian Banya. AMAZING! Probably the coolest, most Russian feeling thing I've done so far. There were only five of us total that went...all dudes. Marianna was gracious enough to take us to the Banya, though she did add what felt like a few miles to the walk as we traveled around in a complete circle at one point. But alas, we arrived at the Banya.

Ok, so the Banya is this incredible Russian bath house...this was the most famous one of them all where Stanislavsky and other famous actors used to come every saturday. We bought the historical Banya ticket, which is the most old and beautiful but also it's most expensive. You come into the first room which is this exotic change room/restaurant. You put your clothes on hooks behind these tall leather benches where you get butt naked in front of a bunch of sweaty, old, hairy dudes. But this is also the space where you can have a beer or eat a meal and just relax watching TV or chatting.

So you're naked, but then you rent a sheet from them and wrap it around like a towel. Next, off to the actually bath house room which has a giant sauna, showers, tubs of cold water, a massage area, and a swimming pool. We did the sauna thing first to work up a good sweat. Went in, disrobed, and sat there with a bunch of naked Russian men.

Yeah, lots of swingin' dicks in the banya, but it doesn't matter. It quickly becomes locker room mentality...everyone's naked but who cares. So you work up a sweat and then you can either have a giant bucket of cold water dumped on you, sit in a tub of cold water, or jump in the swimming pool. I pretty much stuck with the swimming pool, though I treated it as a swimming pool and swam around, whereas the Russians just pretty much wade around. What're ya gonna do?

We repeated that about four or five times. The sauna was easily the hottest places I've ever been in. I remember doing saunas with my dad when I was young, but this time it seemed excruciating! Just when i couldn't bear it any longer a Russia would come by, open up the furnace and throw water on the coals. I thought my hair was gonna burn off....I didn't buy one of those crazy hats to protect it.

The rest of our time was spent relaxing with one of the best beers I've ever had. Everything just felt so luxurious...you paid for it, but you felt like a million bucks afterwards. One of the best experiences ever!