Now for Nizhny Novorgod

                                                   Nizhny Novorgod Trade Fair

                                                 Nizhny Novorgod Kremlin

Nizhny Novorgod is also going to be one of the places I go for a day. Sadly it doesn't posses as many wonders as St. Petersburg or Moscow but when staying in Russia, since it is the largest country in the world, there are not very many choices of where to go on day trips. Nozhny Novorgod is mainly a city of art museums and monuments to famous Russians of the past. This is good because Moscow and St. Petersburg are both very different from Nizhny Novorgod. Of course the fact that Moscow is a booming art established city might make you think that I am wasting my time going to Nizhny Novorgod, but the truth is that Nizhny Novorgod has a far more cultural view of art while Moscow is more in the modern era Nizhny remains to be fascinated with the old pieces of art. The Nizhny Novorgod Kremlin is a place I want to see just so I can compare it to the Kremlin in Moscow. The Nizhny Novorgod Trade Fair is another placve of interest due to its old yet kind of modern looking architecture. I mainly want the go to Nizhny Novorgod because it is a city of many many contrasts and has no defined old or new part of town but is more mixed if anything. Also another reason I want to go is because it is Russia's center of industry and art and is also the third largest city of the “Modern Russia.”

Off to St. Petersburg

                                                     A Palace of the Tsars

                                                       St. Petersburg Cathedral


Well now that I've already addressed everything you need to know about Moscow I'm going to tell you about a couple of other places I am planning on going to for a day trip. St. Petersburg is a place I have thought about going to visit for a long time because it is home to over 500 bridges that are both wide and narrow, and long and short. The main thing that is different about st. Petersburg and Moscow is the fact that they are basically polar opposites due to the fact  that they have been competing with each other for over 300 years. This rivalry can be compared to that of Edinburgh and Glasgow or Washington and New York which have both been going on for a couple of centuries. It would take about 36 hours to get to St. Petersburg by car due to the constant traffic jams. But if you go by train like I am then it should take around 5 hours and there are a whole lot of options as to what train company you wish to ride with. The main site I want to go see is the St. Petersburg Cathedral because of its exquisite beauty and amazing architecture. I would also love to get the opportunity to see some of the palaces of the Tsars because it interests me to see what it would have been like to be royalty. Plus I like the film Anastasia and she lived in one of the palaces so that is another reason I would like to go there. St. Petersburg will definitely be a major highlight of my trip.  

10 Things You Need To Know About Moscow

                                                         The Square of Europe

                                                            Kremlin Square



When in Moscow you have many places you can go, but one of the coolest ones I have found is the Square of Europe. This bridge used to be a rail terminal but was made into a beautiful lit up fountain in 2002 and ever since has been a great tourist attraction. The Kremlin Square is another widely visited place in Moscow due to the fact that it is surrounded by some of the most amazing buildings in the entire city. GUM and TSUM are the two over-the-top shopping malls in Moscow and are both places that I would urge you to visit. 35 MM is another go to place because it is one of the nicest cinemas in the entire world. Gorky Park is amongst the things that I would enjoy seeing in Moscow because it seems that it shows more of the medium-class peoples of Moscow and not just the rich and poor. Another reason I would want to go there is because I don't want to simply visit the huge things in Moscow but I also want to be able to experience what it is like to be a Russian at its simplest. Cafe Pushkin is another place I would like to go cause the fact that it is a cafe with a giant library in it just fascinates me cause I love reading and I also happen to love my coffee too. I'm hoping to go to all these places at their ideal times in my stay in Moscow but if I could only go to one I would have to pick Kremlin Square because I've always wanted to see it in person after seeing Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.

Communism: Pros and Cons

                                                              Vladmir Putin



Well it is probably obvious to the world that Russia is a communist country. As far as the economy goes Russia is ranked 144th of overall freedom of the economy.. This is no surprise to find out because when people think of Russia they think big powerful and healthy, they do not think of the fact that because it is a communist country it is limited at what its economy can accomplish. With Vladimir Putin becoming president of Russia on May 7th 2012 things could change but I don't think they will let communism go. Russia suffered a rather large blow to their economy in 2008 during the global stock market crash, but is now bouncing up because of the rise of oil prices and the governments $200 billion rescue package to increase liquidity in the banking industry. So far this has proven to work and Obama is planning something along the lines of that except he is wanting to take money from the older people of America and use that money to fund the banks which are already loosing money quickly. Another interesting thing about Russia is that 75% of surface water is polluted and 50% of all water in Russia is now polluted. Another thing that Russians love is their nuclear power plants, and amongst the many problems they are having is poaching and deforestation. So overall Russia is somewhat stable but that's kind of how communist countries are, they are worse places to live but they tend to last longer. Just look at America and all the debt we have with China and even though we havn't payed them back they remain to do great.