Moscow - day 4

The weather was a little better today (Friday, 11 August) so I went around to some of the places/sites I had seen before and took some better photos. It was nice not to be walking around in the rain. I also got to see a bit more of the city and generally just took it easy.

I'm really ready to be out of the big cities. Moscow is a tough nut to crack. Its a great place to visit, but I know I definitely couldn't live here! Russia can wear you down pretty quickly if you let it get to you. Its so many things but the smog/noise/traffic (completely 'offensive' driving habits) and the lack of being able to read signs/labels/anything (because they are in Cyrillic) are my two main headaches. Also it seems like nobody is happy here - and I admit I wouldn't be if I lived here either - and no body ever smiles or is polite. Of course there are exceptions but rudeness seems to prevail. I've been to countries that are much worse off than Russia and the people there are warm, friendly, and happy there so I really don't know why Russia is the way it is. Perhaps these are just my impressions from the 2 largest cities and hopefully things will be different in the smaller towns.