Today we did some sightseeing, which means I have something other than pictures of food and elevator instructions to share. We started with a trip to the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. We took the metro (subway) there and had to go down the steepest, longest escalator I’ve ever seen. Heights don’t normally bother me, but I looked down once and that was it.

The metro popped us out right near this beautiful church. I did some digging after I got back to my hotel room and learned that it is the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The church was built in 1997. For 50 years before that, this site was home to the world’s largest swimming pool (this might be important to know if you’re ever on Jeopardy). It took two years and $350 million to complete the construction of the cathedral.

There’s a park surrounding the cathedral and there were tons of newlyweds getting their photos taken. I played paparazzi and snuck some pictures of them as well. This isn’t even close to all of the ones I saw today either.

Okay, back to the museum. Pushkin is Moscow’s premier foreign-art museum. We saw some really beautiful paintings by some really famous artists. Unfortunately I didn’t realize until we were more than halfway through the museum that non-flash photography was allowed. So I missed taking pictures of some of my favorites.

I wasn’t trying to get artsy with this next one. It was the only way to keep the glare off of the photo though.

This is just a building that was across the street from the museum. I have no idea what it is, but I really like the color of it.

After the museum we sort of wandered around for a while. I didn’t realize how close we were to the Kremlin.

And after some more walking, we were even closer.

Tomorrow we have a tour set up of the Kremlin and Armory, so I’ll be even closer then.

We took the metro halfway back to our hotel and then walked the rest of the way. We went down a street called Old Arbat (Moscow’s most famous street!), which is full of souvenir vendors and street artists. I would have pictures for you, but my camera was acting up and refusing to focus. No worries though, it turned out to be operator error and so we’re back on speaking terms now.

Old Arbat ends at my grocery store. It’s so close to our hotel that I’ll definitely be going back some night after work. I need to do my souvenir (my dream is to someday be able to spell that stupid word without having to look it up) shopping and it’s great for people watching. Plus, this cow lives on Old Arbat, so how could I not go back?

I think it’s a MosCOW. Ha ha! I am so darn clever!!

One of the ladies I am working with was kind enough to translate the calling card for me. The translation goes something like this:

1. Dial 787-0007
2. Listen to a lady’s voice speaking Russian
3. Press the * key and then enter the code and pin
4. Listen to a lady’s voice speaking Russian
5. Dial the number you wish to call

I never would have been able to figure it all out without her. I tested it tonight and it worked beautifully. And I still have like 497 minutes left, since my test call went unanswered (mean old Stacy didn’t want to talk to me). I’m pretty sure I won’t be spending 8 hours on the phone in the two weeks before I leave, but the card was only about $20 US and when I leave I can give any remaining minutes to the nice woman that translated it for me.

I have no idea what the people on the front of the card are doing with those phones. It’s a little scary.

This weekend I’m going to work on taking some more pictures, from outside of my hotel room even! We have a tour set up for Sunday of the Kremlin so that should give me plenty to share.

Kosmostars taste like Alpha-Bits.

Since I’ve got the elevator down, I decided it was time to learn something new. Tonight’s adventure was the grocery store. Here’s a photo from my hotel room so you can see just how far I had to go. It was like two whole blocks – am I brave or what? It’s that place on the corner that starts with a “C”, and yes that is a McDonald’s sign on the side of the building. I don’t know where the McDonald’s is exactly in relationship to the sign though.

To get to the grocery store I had to cross one fairly busy street above ground, and another below ground. The underground part was pretty neat. They had some stores under there selling everything from your standard convenience store items, to souvenirs, to ladies’ unmentionables. Because you know, that’s really where women prefer to buy their delicates, in a subway-esque tunnel under a busy city street.

Anyway, I made it to the grocery store without any problems. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing I’m not a picky eater – because being in a foreign country where all the food has different packaging and nothing is in English would be really rough. Oh wait, I am a picky eater.

Yeah, I ended up with bread, crackers, peanut butter, and some cereal. Mmm, Kosmostars. I think next time I go I might brave the produce aisle (I have no idea what to do there – do you have to weigh things? Do they do it for you?). I don’t have a microwave in my room so that really limits what I can buy. I do have a small fridge though, so that’s a plus. I also have the coolest heated towel rack in the shower. Yes, I know towel racks have nothing to do with food, I just like it.

I’ll try to remember to take my camera with me when I go for groceries too, so I can get pictures of some of the products and their packaging. I’m sure no one will think I’m at all strange.

I must at least appear to know what I’m doing and where I’m going when I’m walking around. On the way back to my hotel three Russian teenagers asked me for directions. At least I think that’s what they wanted. Honestly I have no idea, I still don’t speak Russian. They could have been asking me if I was lost.

PS: Stacy, look what I found in the checkout line at the grocery store.

Dave is my hero. He managed to fix my camera/laptop for me long distance. So now I am able to take pictures and get them off of the camera to share. This means I can share the elevator instructions for you all, just in case you’re ever in a similar situation.

Here you go!

Not much help in Russian (Cryllic) is it? They do have the English instructions on the opposite page, but they aren’t as fun to look at.

It’s weird because I just got up for work, and he’s getting ready for bed. So it’s Wednesday here, and Tuesday there. I’m writing this from the future…woooOOOoooo. Okay, maybe not.

It turns out the unlocked cell phone I bought on eBay, specifically so I could use it here, does not work overseas. One of the gentlemen we’re working with took me to a phone store during lunch yesterday (today for you, remember I’m in the future). It was really fantastic of him to do so – since even if I had been able to find it alone, the employees did not speak much English. Pair that with the amount of Russian I speak (none) and I would have been completely lost. I did get a calling card that will help lessen the cost of international calls. Without the card I think it’s $6 per minute to call home – yikes! Now I just need someone to translate the calling card for me so I can figure out how to use it and I’ll be all set.

I’m here! I was really dreading the flight over, but it turned out to be one of the best flights I’ve had. I lucked out and was in economy plus, instead of normal economy/coach, and that made a huge difference. Plus, no one sat next to me on either flight so I was able to stretch out a little. Not having to share the armrest is fantastic!

Each seat had individual TV screens built in to the back of the seat in front of it. I don’t normally watch movies on the plane, I like to read and watch the map that shows the flight’s progress. However they were showing three movies I wanted to see (“Definitely, Maybe”, “The Other Boleyn Girl”, and “Horton Hears a Who” for those that are interested) and since the seat next to me was empty I could use that TV for my map. The movies were on demand too, which means I was able to decide when I wanted to watch them and in what order. I could also pause, rewind, and fast forward (do I sound like a commercial?). I was definitely not roughing it by any means. Oh, and something else cool about the map display – they had an option to view one of two cameras on the plane. So we could see the pilots’ view or the view down, of what we were flying over – pretty cool. I’m keeping my fingers cross that the flight home is half as good, especially since it’s almost 3 hours longer.

It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, and the hotel is really nice. The elevators had me totally confused though. I got in to the elevator, pressed the button for my floor, and waited. The doors closed, but nothing happened. So I opened the door crossed the lobby and tried a different elevator. The door closed, I pressed the button for my floor, and again nothing happened. At this point I gave up and asked the bellboy how to work the elevator. It turns out you have to insert your room key in to a slot in the elevator in order to make it work.

I just took a picture of the instructions for using the elevator that were on the desk in my room. Not that they helped because using them would have meant I got to the room prior to the incident, and I certainly wasn’t about to walk up 15 flights of stairs. Anyway, when trying to post them I realized I don’t have the software I need to remove the photos from my camera. I’m in the process of trying to find it online now. For your sakes I hope I do, or else this is going to be a pretty boring, photoless trip, and the photos were the whole reason for setting this up after all. Grrr.

So we finally got this site up and running, just in time for my trip to Russia. I’m leaving tomorrow and will arrive in Moscow on Sunday at 2:50 PM (an 8 hour time difference, so that’s 6:50 AM Virginia time). Check out the sunrise and sunset! That’s a looong day!

I’m going to try and update this any time I have something interesting to say and I’ll post pictures too when I can. Unfortunately, Dave isn’t going to be able to come over and visit while I’m there. I’ll do my best with the picture taking though! He’s actually getting the camera ready for me now so I can pack it up.

Speaking of packing, I still haven’t started anything yet and have 2 loads of laundry to work on, so I should get going.