3AM I was back and didn't get up to leave until 10:30AM. The manager was still not there. Not taking her offer was a huge mistake.
1PM I went to GUM again after failing to find any currency exchanges for 2 hours. I finally gave up to went back to ATC. An elderly Pakistani first promised to exchange but then just his own 1,000 USD. A Turkish elderly exchanged my 160 USD basically without my permission even after I told him to wait. He was exchanging 100 USD and I was exchanging 160 USD. We were 40 USD short of the 300 required for the commission waiver. When I returned with someone else's 100 USD, it was too late and the deal was done.
3PM I spent another hour taking photos around the Kremlin. I walked for an hour to The State Tretyakov Gallery. It was very impressive and had a lot of art in 62 galleries on two different floors. It was very worthwhile. It wasn't lavish and there were a lot of good pieces displayed. A girl I met yesterday messaged me on WhatsApp. Dinner was set up.
5:30PM I walked to the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure. This was also great.
7PM I got back to the Kremlin and took more pictures. It looked like she wanted to go to Mari Vanna or Grand Cafe Dr. Zhivago. I sensed the opportunity was dying and I had to get her dinner at 9PM, which was at odds with me going to St. Petersburg tonight. I went to Taras Bulba instead, which wasn't great. I had stroganoff beef and some beef and pork pelmeni. I then went to the GUM mall for some ridiculously priced Beluga caviar. It was 5,000 RUB and I assume that this price is the same which means I'm getting it at a discount given that the ruble has fallen so much. I am not sure though. I am sure that I would never pay for this again because it was not nearly as good as the 100 RUB ice cream from the mall.
9:50PM I got back to the hostel and the receptionist was waiting for me. My luggage was the last one in the room. I don't know whether I was lucky or not but it looked like she might have been leaving pretty soon. I will never find out but had she left I would be without my luggage and charged for one more night.
10:15PM I got the girl sitting outside to order a taxi to head to the Leningradsky station on the Yandex App. It was 503 RUB but the driver was okay with me paying 500. I did forget my type C USB cord in the car. The overnight sleeper train was 5,418 RUB. I bought a coke and a big bottle of water and boarded the train. It left after 5 to 10 minutes at 10:50PM. I was on the top bunk but I did find out that this train offered a shower for 150 RUB. I had to try it. It was fine without a towel. They offered me a clean bedsheet. The water was hot but eventually did get colder and colder after five minutes. I lost my razor but found it on the floor after showering on the way back. I then discovered a small towel on my bed in my room.
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