TRAVEL STORY
For several years, I loved travelling on my own, especially across Russia, Mongolia and China.
One fine morning, I had decided to go and see Red Square in Moscow. As I was admiring a charming little wooden church in the surrounding streets, two elderly ladies called out to me: “Do you even know what you’re looking at, young lady?”
Since I always travel without a pocket guidebook (it’s a principle I hold dear), I had no information about the church — I barely even knew where I was!
Seeing my no doubt utterly bewildered expression, each of them took me by the arm and began showing me all the wonders of Red Square, miming historic battles, jumping about, full of energy!
I followed along, spellbound, when suddenly — the better to tell me the story — one of the ladies slipped under a security cordon in the Kremlin garden. Immediately, a uniformed guard came and took her by the arm, ordering her to leave. Undeterred, the grandmother pulled her arm free and started to raise her voice, explaining that she was only recounting the history of great Russia and that this palace belonged to the Russian people! For a brief moment, I was afraid I’d be sent to rot in a prison cell!
Once we had moved away, the ladies walked me back to the nearest metro station and invited me to spend the summer at their dacha! The Russian soul — bewitching, explosive, gentle and endearing — in all its splendour!
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