Russia Adventure; Outside the Kremlin- (Red Square and GUM)

 so here're a couple more shots of the street fair going on in Red Square... sadly I have absolutely no idea what that giant red building is, besides pretty. My apologies.

 Standing in Red Square... even among the bustle of everything else going on, it was still pretty incredible to be standing where revolutionaries stood.

 Lenin's Tomb was closed due to the fair, but I managed to get some pretty good pictures of the outside.

 

In the single greatest feat of irony ever accomplished by city planners, the large and ornate building across the Red Square from Lenin's Tomb is... a shopping mall.
It's this huge, very famous place called GUM, and inside are a bunch of high-end retailers from all over the world, especially western culture. Louis Vuitton, Fluevog, and many other easily recognized brands all have boutiques in GUM.
The outside is beautiful, but the inside is absolute madness.

 outside GUM

 GUM main entrance.

 Apparently, in Russia it is very common for the wedding party to go out and take commemorative photos in beautiful places around their area. While we were in Moscow, I saw at least five couples, and there were even more in St. Petersburg.

 the decor inside the mall had nothing to do with the fair- it's just like that every day. Cool...