Last Tuesday after work we took a boat ride down the Moscow River. I saw a lot of the same landmarks and buildings I’d seen before, just from the other side. There were a few new things too though.

This boat is similar to the one I was on, but different, because I’m not on it.

This is me on my boat. I wanted a nice picture of me with the flag blowing behind me, but the wind would not cooperate. Thankfully a nice Russian lady helped me out.

We passed by Gorky Park and then Gorky Park’s Amusement Park.

This is one of the USSR’s last spacecraft (a copy of the US Space Shuttle) built just before the collapse of communism. It is now used as a ride in the theme park.

Next we went by a 317 foot tall statue of St. Peter the Great. It’s one of the largest statues in the world.

And here’s a close up of great big Peter the Great. I really need to get better at editing my photos so the color of the sky stays the same. I mean look at these next four, all taken within a half hour of each other.

And here’s some familiar sights – The Kremlin and St. Basil’s.

This building (the Hotel Ukraina) is one of Stalin’s “Seven Sisters”. The Seven Sisters were built during Stalin’s last years (1947-1953) and are a combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles with the technology of American skscrapers.

The Hotel Ukraina is the second tallest of the “sisters” (650 feet), and is still Europe’s tallest hotel.

Another of the sisters is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was right outside my hotel (across the street from my grocery store). It is 563 feet tall and was supposed to be a lot shorter. It was supposed to have a blunt rectangular top, but when it was finished Stalin changed his mind. They were just about out of money though and so a metal spire was dyed to match the building’s exterior and was hastily added to tower’s roof. This helped make it look more like the other sisters, however it’s not exactly a perfect match.

I’m not sure if I saw all 7 of the girls. I know there were a few more I saw that I didn’t take pictures of – you get the idea though.

Yesterday’s trip home took approximately 23.5 hours, not that I was counting.

It was fantastic.

The flight from Moscow to Atlanta was fine. I only got about two hours of sleep, but the flight felt like it went fast. It was once I got to Atlanta that everything went to hell.

At first our flight was just delayed for 20 minutes – not fantastic, but not overly terrible. Then we needed to change terminals – not a big deal, it happens. As we were on the escalator to our new gate though, it died. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as long as the one in Moscow, and when escalators quit, they just turn in to stairs.

But then the rain came. It poured, it thundered, it lightninged. They closed the airport because of the weather.

That’s right they closed the airport, which meant no planes were allowed to land. This was more than just a minor travel annoyance, it was a big freaking deal. The plane that was supposed to come and take me to Virginia was instead rerouted to Knoxville. This meant that when the airport did open again my airplane was in Tennessee. I was not in Tennessee. I was in Atlanta and wanted to be in Virginia. I was not a happy girl.

So we were waiting for the plane to come from Knoxville when Delta decided to just give us a different plane. At this point it’s already an hour and a half after the time we were originally supposed to leave. The new plane finally shows up, they get all the people off of it and let us on. Once everyone is seated on the plane they announce that we’re going to have to sit for a bit longer because they just realized that the brakes on the plane need to be replaced.

Seriously.

We’re all on the plane and they’re going to call Triple A or whoever to come out, jack the plane up, and change the brakes? Now I’ve had family members change my brakes a couple of times (thanks Steven, Dad, Uncle Pete, and Dave) and they have always tested the car before they let me in it. It’s a good idea and nice of them, you know, make sure everything is safe. I really think I’d like it more if airlines had the same thought process. You know, test the brakes once or twice before you fill it full of people and take off. Heck, they didn’t even need to go through an actual landing, I’d have been happy if they’d gone down the runway real fast and tried stopping quick.

But the guy I saw out my window that was carrying the wrench (and not in a confidence inspiring way) apparently had the situation under control. We took off and landed (at about 11:30) fine. Once we got to the airport though, they didn’t have a gate for us. So we had to wait on the runway until they brought a people mover out to us. Here’s a people mover, just in case you haven’t had the pleasure of riding on one before. It’s not my photo obviously, because it was dark out.

Eventually I did get to where Dave was waiting for me and then we got to spend an hour waiting together for my luggage. Yeah, they started unloading bags from my flight when the conveyor belt jammed. At this point I was convinced that one of my bags would not show up at all and the other would be full of broken glass and vodka soaked dirty clothes, because that would be the perfect end to my evening.

But both bags did appear (the vodka was fine) and we ended up getting home a little after 1:00 am. We had just enough energy to bring in my luggage (when I say “we”, I mean Dave) and were both asleep by 1:30. Which was good because someone’s alarm (when I say “someone’s”, I mean Dave’s) went off at 5:30. This same someone hit snooze like 20 times so we could listen to it repeatedly. Awesome.

We (yes, really both of us here since I was wide awake too at this point) got up at 6:30. He finished packing and was on the road by 7:30 to head to Alabama. So if you don’t count time time spent at the airport, driving home, packing, or sleeping, we had about 40 minutes together.

So now I’m home without him, fighting jet lag and a month’s worth of dirty clothes. I won the laundry war (4 loads and not a single casualty) which is a pretty big accomplishment because the jet lag is kicking my butt.

The vodka’s been bought, my hotel bill’s been paid, and I’m almost done packing. My plane leaves at 12:55 tomorrow, and after an eleven and a half hour flight (11 hours and 35 minutes to be exact) to Atlanta, a two hour lay over and then another two hours in the air, I’ll be home.

It can’t come soon enough.

I really do like it here (much more than I was expecting to) and hopefully will be back to visit again sometime with Dave. Right now though, I’m ready to be home. I miss Dave, and since he’ll be heading down to Alabama on Sunday I’ll be missing him for most of August too.

Anyway, I’ll catch up on Moscow once I’m back in the states. For now I need to finish packing and maybe get some sleep (it’s not like I won’t have plenty of time to sleep on the plane). Tomorrow night, at about 8:30, Dave will be there at the airport waiting for me. He’ll be ready to give me a huge hug and (almost as importantly) carry my bags.

After the Cucumber Festival Natalya (that’s what the tour guide told us to call her, the Führer title was optional) had some more history to shove down our throats share with us. I can’t complain about it too much though, I got some fantastic photos.

We visited the Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius in Suzdal. On our way there we passed by the cathedral of the Nativity. If you hadn’t noticed, they have a lot of churches in Suzdal.

We continued our walk to the monastery, though if I had wanted to I could have had this guy or one of his friends give me a ride.

Can you guess what’s inside of the monastery walls? If you said church, you get a gold star! It’s the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, and I think it, and the 1st one I posted today, tie as my 2nd favorite (my 1st is St. Basils).

It does get bonus points for being the first church I was allowed to take photos in.

There was a great garden too – flowers and herbs and all sorts of pretty things.

And before we left I grabbed a photo of this wall surrounding the monastery. It really is my photo, and I took it the same day, I don’t know why the sky isn’t as blue as the first two photos though. Crazy Russian weather.

So now I am all caught up with Saturday’s adventures. Sunday was shopping at two different markets and then last night we took a boat ride down the Moscow River. Don’t worry, I took pictures both days and I’ve still got plenty of Russia left to share with you before I come home on Saturday.

Before we were given our “free time” at the cucumber festival our tour guide insisted on telling us all about Suzdal’s Museum of Wooden Architecture.

Any other day I would have been much more interested in hearing about how the umbilical cords of baby boys used to be cut with a knife, while girls’ were cut with scissors (because boys did manly things like hunt and kill things and girls sewed), but not when the cucumber festival was waiting!

Finally we were allowed to explore the festival. Our long winded tour guide gave us a whopping 45 minutes of free time. If she’d have cut out the umbilical cord talk we might have had a full hour. I still was able to see most of the festival – very quickly. I wasn’t able to browse all the crafty stands like I would have liked to or even stop to eat a single cucumber! I know, I know, what a shame (not really, I don’t like cucumbers, or pickles, or younger siblings that eat pickles and then chase you around the house and breathe on you).

I did get to listen to some music.

And see people dressed up in cucumber garb. Some just accessorized with hats.

And others went all out. It really was a family affair.

There were puppet shows.

And Mr. Potato Cucumber Heads. Can you see the stuffed cucumbers next to them? Did you have any idea how versatile the cucumber was? Remember from Forrest Gump? You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. There are cucumber-kabobs, cucumber creole, cucumber gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple cucumber, lemon cucumber, coconut cucumber, pepper cucumber, cucumber soup, cucumber stew, cucumber salad, cucumber and potatoes, cucumber burger, cucumber sandwich.

No wait, that was shrimp.

Check out this lovely quilt!! Imagine the fantastic cucumber dreams you’d have sleeping underneath it!

And at then end of the day, they made me their queen!!

Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) are a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family. Though technically they are a fruit, cucumbers are often considered vegetables.