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This is the third time I've tried to send this - hopes it works this time.
It's Saturday evening, 19.13 and I've been at work since 10.00 - some things never change. Ah well, nevermind.
As I am too mean and miserly to actually send a postcard from work, this will have to do.
Right, postcard stuff over - postcards are really easy!
Haven't had a chance to see a whole lot of Moscow yet - done the Kremlin, Red Square, St Basil's (if you get the chance you have to see St Basil's, a wonderful building). Each weekend I am going to more places.
As my apartment is in the middle of Moscow, I walk past the Kremlin to get into the main areas - what a wonderful sight it is too.
What can I say about Moscow? It's very big for a start - more than twice the population of Ireland! Everything is on a huge scale - as Pat probably has said. The language barrier is still pretty high but is very slowly coming down.
There are some weird things - in quite a few shops you queue to select your goods, queue again at another till to pay for them (often the same person moves from counter to till to take your money and give you a receipt) then you queue again at the first counter to give them a receipt and collect your goods. (This isn't too bad, unless you started queing at the wrong counter or need things from more than one counter - nightmare).
They are big into hand-shaking over here - fortunately it isn't too bad at the office, but in the warehouse you have to greet everyone in the morning and shake his hand otherwise they get upset (not the women, for some reason). Even in bars if someone starts talking to you they shake your hand first - very odd.
What else is there?
Moscow compares to Dublin pricewise, but doesn't have the same goods available, even now. This is a pain sometimes but never mind.
There are bars and nightclubs everywhere - bars open until the small hours, nightclubs until 0600. Some are pretty boring - Sally O'Briens is an Irish bar I occasionally go to but not very often - others are good for dancing - Bells is across the road from my apartment and is very good, no dance floor to speak of but that does not stop them. (One of these days I'll go there when I am not a zombie and will actually be able to dance rather than veg out on a stool - maybe I'll go at the weekend after having some sleep rather than in the week after work.) I've been to a couple of other clubs but am trying to ration myself to the weekend and once or twice a week otherwise I'll be good for nothing. Anyway, I've got a couple of months to try them out.
I've never known a place for having attractive women as Moscow - for the first two weeks I was walking around with my eyes on stalks! As a small-town chap, I'm not used to that sort of thing! Still, they are very friendly which makes a difference. Now all I need to do is to find out what you do with them!!
Well, I am starting to ramble so I'll head off.
If I have missed anyone out, please send me their email address and I'll add them to my list. If you could dig out Louise's email address I might drop her a line - tell her what she missed by leaving WW.
Well, that's all.
Drop me a line sometime so I know that you still exist.
