Day 11: St. Basil’s Cathedral, the GUM, and Pancakes

St. Basil’s Cathedral, located at the south end of Red Square, is actually a conglomerate of nine different churches in the same building.

After we finished with the State Historical Museum, we crossed Red Square again to see St. Basil’s up close.  Unfortunately for us, the church closed to tourists at 6PM and we got there about twenty minutes too late, so we could only see it from the outside.  The statue in front of the cathedral depicts Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin who liberated Moscow from Poland-Lithuania in 1612.  This Prince Dmitry is not to be confused with the actual heir to the throne Dmitry Ivanovich (who was killed in 1591), the first False Dmitry (a Polish impersonator claiming to be Dmitry Ivanovich who successfully overthrew the boyar princes in Moscow), or the second False Dmitry (who, after the first False Dmitry was found out and executed after a one-year reign, came from the south and got his army close to Moscow before being put down in 1608).

On a random note, when we were walking around Red Square we found a number of historical lookalikes who would pose in pictures for a small fee – Lenin, Stalin, and Tsar Nicholas. 

Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin discuss the impending downfall of capitalism outside the State Historical Museum.

Opposite the Kremlin is a Russian mall known as the “GUM” (ГУМ in Cyrilic) which currently stands for “Главный Универсальный Магазин” or Main Department Store.  During Soviet times, the first word was changed to “Государственный” making it the State Department Store (and conveniently keeping the same acronym).  It is essentially an upscale Russian mall with elaborate architecture, albeit with rather expensive merchandise.  We didn’t do a whole lot of shopping, but enjoyed Italian sodas around an indoor fountain before continuing back to the hostel.

Lance and Jasper relax around the fountain inside the GUM.

 Interior of the GUM at dusk.  I took this photo during my 2011 trip to Russia.

Our last stop of the day before turning in was dinner.  In contrast to the rather fancy meals we had the previous day, we opted for Russian fast food instead, at a chain restaurant called “Teremok” which specializes in Russian pancakes (called “blin” – similar to crepes)

A Teremok restaurant off Tverskaya Street.  This chain has restaurants all over Moscow and St. Petersburg and is tasty, quick, and easy to use.  They even have an English menu!

I stumbled across these during my last trip to Russia and were among the top of my “must eat” list for this one!  They have the whole range of toppings and fillings to suit your appetite.  There are simple blin, ranging from sour cream to ham and cheese, and there are a number of “gourmet” blin such as their Italiano (with tomato, mozzarella, salami and more).  They even have dessert blin with fillings such as cherries, apples, or jams.  It tastes great, it’s cheap, it’s fast, and it’s Russian.  What more can you ask for on a trip like this?

Cooks cooking up a storm at the Tverskaya Teremok.