At least one of my friends loves me enough to visit me in Russia!

Look at me! Two posts in one week!
The truth is, life has been slow. I've been feeling really under the weather and haven't had much responsibility, so I have been taking it realllyyy slowly. I have been spending most of my time sleeping and reading. I just got a bunch of new books and have read about 3 or 4 of them in just 2 weeks.

The last few weeks have been pleasant though, because we have some very welcomed visitors. Right now the "in-laws" from VA are here which has been such a delight. And last week my friend from Richmond, Sarah Beth was here. So she got me out of the house a little bit. We did a few things I haven't done before, but mostly it was just really, really nice having an old friend here.

Sarah Beth took some great pictures and I want to share some of them here. Much of the content you have seen before, but these are from different eyes, so they are captured much differently. It's like hearing two sides of a story, and I really like her version of Moscow:

Pictures from the Red Square at sunset:




Metro pictures:


The dark, steep escalator tunnel in/out of the stations


Waiting for the train at our station, Taganskaya


Lucky dog statue at the metro station of the Red Square


a high ceiling with a painting of the Soviet flag at the top the Taganskaya station


Young boy playing the accordion for money in the metro


Around the city:


Famous graffiti wall for a Russian musician on Old Arbat


Delicious looking greens at the Alexander Gardens of the Kremlin






Sarah Beth at the KGB at sunset

Pictures from our day at the Moscow State University:








The great part about MSU is not only the cool architecture, but this fantastic view that you get of the entire city. The campus is set upon a high hill that overlooks Moscow. Pictures of the view in another post.


A newlywed couple on the side of the hill, about to release some doves.

Behind them you can see the ski slope down the hill that is used, no matter what the weather.


The lift wasn't working so we just walked down the hill to the river.
The walk down reminded me of an old video game I use to play on Playstation.
My knees hurt so badly after walking down this steep hill.


We walked along the river to this metro station that is situated right above the water.

Something I really love about other cities (outside of the ones I lived in for a significant amount of time) is the markets.
Moscow has GREAT markets. One of them is a food market that I had heard of but never been to. Sarah Beth and I went, spent about $40 on fresh fruits and veggies, and I had about 15 conversations in Russian. It was great practice.

But my favorite market is the one in our neighborhood at Izmaylova. Our neighborhood is known for 2 big things: the gigantic park and the market.
The market is indescribable- it's another world where the rules are different, the dialects and languages change at every hall and you can literally get lost shopping.
I like to take people there because it really is like being in another country. Sometimes you are in China, Vietnam, the Caucasus, somewhere in the Middle East- all developing, and nothing western. The entire place is probably as big as the town I grew up in. You think you are in the market before you actually even see the high arched doorway. It is a maze inside. A maze where every hall has a different item. The first two halls as you enter are fur coats. Then some are shoes, purses, umbrellas, jeans, etc.

I usually just stay on the main path and enjoy all of the sights, sounds and smells. For the first time I ventured into the Asian part (Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, I really don't know) and bought some delicious tofu!! The only tofu I have been able to find here is the soft silken tofu that's really only good for making pudding or as an egg substitute.

But for $1.5/$2 (30/40 rubles) I found firm and smoked tofu!! This is a huge improvement for my diet since lent ended. This part of the market also has greens that I have never seen in Moscow, and never seen in my life. I can't wait to go back this weekend. They also have some things that are hard to see and stomach- chicken carcasses completely exposed, buckets of live fish bigger than my midsection, crawfish, squid, and all kinds of animal parts. All exposed and butchered how you want it on a piece of cardboard on the ground. Yeah, maybe buying anything from them is risky- but the tofu is pre packaged so I feel okay about it.

Here are general pictures of walking through the market:



They have these vendors that walk through the market and sell food, cigarettes, and even small stationary items. We saw a couple of guys with huge carts holding 10-20 melons, they were cutting them up with big machetes right there and selling them piece by piece.








‘Nothing can stop our independence now’ – breakaway republics

Saint Petersburg trip with our Swiss/German friends

So, finally here I am with the Saint Petersburg pictures.
It's about time, I know, I know!!

Before moving to Russia I really did not know much at all about Saint Petersburg- you could probably say that I knew nothing except that it was a major city second to Moscow. So, I will assume that many others don't know too much about it either and I will share some information that I have learned before the pictures.

I have heard many Americans and tourists say that Saint Petersburg is their city of preference in Russia because of it's aesthetics that Moscow is lacking. It is a gorgeous city, very European, with colorful architecture (for a while it was illegal for owner's to not paint their buildings, we saw only one black one), it is called the Cultral Capital, it holds a lot of history as it once was the capital of Russia and an important city in many wars.

In the last century Saint Petersburg has undergone many name changes. Up until 1914 it was Saint Petersburg, then for 10 yeas it was Petrograd, then for 67 years it was Leningrad and was changed back to Saint Petersburg in 1991. Some people, mainly the generations older than mine, still refer to it as Leningrad.

The city is Europe's 4th largest (Moscow being #1), therefore Russia's 2nd, with 4.6 million people. And it is the northern most city with a population over 1 million.





On the train- 12 hours overnight. But we had a personal 4-bunk room which was nice and cozy.



Russian countryside from the train.




After leaving 12 AM Friday night(Sat morn.) we arrived in Saint Petersburg around noon on Saturday.

Saint Petersburg is known for it's many canals, which gives it the nickname "Venice of the North"
Yeah... sort of maybe... but you can't really compare anything to Venice.
One of the first things we did after checking into our hostel was explore these canals on an hour long "cruise"




Our friends on the boat.



Us on the boat.



Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum. We didn't get to go inside, and it's a hard one to miss out on. There are over 3 million pieces in the museum, including works by Picasso and Rembrandt. It is a major attraction of the city.



Beautiful European-like architecture.



Exploring.



The Northern-most mosque in the entire world.



We rested here for a bit and played a little bit of Durak (Russian card game)



Evening falls....


The main reason I wanted to come to Saint Petersburg during this time is not only that the weather is comfortable, but to experience the "White Nights"
This is the time of the year when the sun never completely sets and full darkness is not experienced.
At 1 AM-2 AM we climbed up to the balcony of St. Isaac's Cathedral:



And this is what we saw:






The next morning we had brunch at a famous restaurant called "The Idiot" where I had one of the best salads of my life- it is VERY difficult to find a leafy green salad in Russia. They usually consist of cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh dill and maybe cabbage.
However, the real leafy green salads I have had here have been out of this world. I highly reccommend The Idiot if you visit Saint Petersburg.



Our main venture for the day was the Imperial Palace (Peterhof) which requires a half hour boat ride on a hydrofoil across the Gulf of Finland (of the Baltic Sea.)



This palace is known for it's great gold fountains.
It's called "the Russian Versaille" and I thought that that was a more accurate comparison.
It was built in 1721.

In front of the palace, looking down above the waterfalls towards the Gulf of Finland.



Our lovely group-



Inside the palace-




Behind the palace in the gardens, a newlywed couple were enjoying their day



We didn't stay long, headed back to St. Petersburg and walked around a bit more before we had to go back to Moscow.



The WWII Eternal Flame-



He didn't feel like smiling in front of a war memorial, but I felt a connection to it since my grandfather spent a significant amount of time in Russia during WWII and it is something our entire family holds a lot of pride in.


What was really strange were these brides taking pictures at the eternal flame. Some of them were holding Cosmopolitan stuff, so I suspect that it was a photoshoot or a contest for them.



The last big thing we saw was the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood which is similar to that of Moscow's St. Basil's





Afterwards, we headed back to the train station and found a cafe to watch the Germany-Spain EuroCup final. We had a little bit to drink, watched some football, bought some fruit and water for the big trip back, and returned to the little 4-bunk room for the 12 hour ride home.

*I want to mention that we stayed at the Nevsky Hostel on Nevsky Prospekt. It was PERFECT. They were extremely accommodating, affordable, comfortable and right around the corner from the center of the city. I HIGHLY recommend it.