Saturday we got up bright and early for our bus ride to Vladimir and Suzdal. The trip wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, but I’ll get in to more on that later.

After we’d been driving for about an hour and a half we stopped at a rest area to pick up a group of college students that were joining us. I decided to take advantage of the bathrooms there since we still had another hour or two before we got to Vladimir. Our guide had warned us that they were pay toilets, so I knew to have 10 rubles (about 43 cents) handy before I went in. What I was not expecting was that inside each stall was a hole in the floor.

Now it was a very nice hole, porcelain and everything, and you even got to flush the hole. It was not however, a new experience I was willing to try that early in the morning. Thankfully I didn’t have to go that bad, and so my 10 rubles were the only thing that went down the drain.

When we got to Vladimir we picked up our main tour guide. She was full of historical information and insisted on sharing all of it with us, down to the very last detail. Some of it was interesting, most of it was just too much though, “My dear people, this building was once a textile factory, it is now an office building, blah blah blah”.

It really put a damper on the day. I think most of us were expecting to see a couple of historical sites and then be let loose at the Cucumber Festival. It wasn’t like that at all. Instead, Führer Tour Guide kept us on a very tight leash. She also was constantly referring to us as, “My dear people” (the college students made a drinking game out of it).

Most of the Vladimir portion of the tour consisted of St. Demetrius Cathedral, Assumption Cathedral (you know what happens when you assume don’t you?), and the Golden Gates. All three are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and I’ll start with St. Demetrius, because that’s where the tour started.

I’ll have you know that I was reprimanded while taking that photo. In order to get a better shot, I dared to walk ten feet away from the group while the tour guide was talking.

The cathedral was built in the 1190s by Prince Vsevolod III the Big Nest (the “Big Nest” nickname is because he and his wife had at least 14 children).

We weren’t able to go inside of this church, but that’s okay. The outside was beautiful enough. There are over 1,000 individual carvings adorning the outside. The most noticeable is this one of King David, it appears on the building three times.

From St. Demetrius we were shepherded over to Assumption Cathedral (Do not dawdle my dear people!).

Vladimir was the capital of Russia from 1169 to the middle of the 14th century. Assumption was the principal church where Russian princes were crowned during this time and for some time after the capital was moved to Moscow.

Alexander Nevsky was named the Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1252. Nevsky was one of the great warriors of Russia during the Mongol period and was adored by his people. Prior to his death, he took religious vows and was given the holy name of Alexis. In 1547 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the patron saint of soldiers. See, I told you, they loved him.

Alexander died of pneumonia in 1263 and was buried in Assumption Cathedral. In 1710 Peter the Great founded a monastery in his honor in St. Petersburg. in 1724, on Peter’s orders, Nevsky’s remains were transferred from Vladimir to the monastery. The people of Vladimir were very upset by this decision and begged the Tsar not to move the body of the saint. According to our guide, “Peter the Great finally relented and gave them the finger”.

She meant, of course, that they left one finger in Nevsky’s original tomb and moved the rest of his body. It still cracks me up to picture Peter the Great flipping people the bird though.

The Chapel of St. George and this giant bell tower were added on to the church in the 1800s. These additions were built out of red brick covered in white mortar, instead of limestone like the cathedral. That’s why the style and color is so different.

And lastly we have the Golden Gates. Built in 1163, the massive oak doors of the Golden Gates formed the main entrance to Vladimir. While we were there, the gates were surrounded with restoration and repair equipment. So I didn’t even bother to photograph it. I did find someone else’s photo from a different time to share with you though.

And that, my dear people, is it for today.

Friday night I went to the Moscow Circus. According to our tickets, camera were not allowed. However before the show they only said video recordings were not permitted. So I took a bunch of pictures (I am such a rebel). Most of them didn’t turn out. I kept the flash off because I didn’t want to be responsible for blinding a tightrope walker or ticking off a lion.

There were crazy clowns on a big bike.

Seals, I think. Dave knows the difference between seals and sea lions. I don’t. My favorite was the big fella on the right.

A flamanco balancing hamster wheel act.

These lions made me sad. There was one point where the man put his head in a lion’s mouth. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping the lion would Siegfried him (yeah, I know it was Roy, not Siegfried, that got mauled, but if I said “Roy’ed him” – would anyone have gotten it?). The poor lion should be out killing things and being king of the jungle. Maybe I should have used the flash for these photos? No, that’s not nice. I didn’t really want anyone to get hurt. It was pretty heartbreaking though to see these beautiful majestic cats having to perform like that.

The tightrope walkers were really great. At one point one of the men walked across the rope with two women balancing on his head – one on top of the other. They did have a net. It wasn’t a very big net though.

Those are all of the acts that had enough light for my photos to turn out okay. They also had a bunch of bare midriffed “cowboys” doing tricks on horses, an Arabian act with racing camels, ice skating trapeze artists, and limboing acrobatic Kenyans (much like the act we actually saw in Kenya).

And one last picture for you, here’s my hotel. The light display on the side of it changes. Note the double headed eagle, just like on that coronation gown. Since the sun sets so late here it was the first time I’d seen it in the dark, well, almost dark.

That’s it for tonight.  It’s already past my bedtime!  I’ll start catching up on today and yesterday tomorrow.

Rob commented that, “they have a lot of nice things they never use there”, referring to the massive cannon and broken bell. Well here is one more for you.

This carriage was built for one of the empresses (I think Elisabeth, but maybe Catherine). According to our guide, when it was completed they hitched 6 horses to it. The carriage didn’t budge. They doubled the number of horses and it still didn’t move (it needed more horse power – ha ha). So they took the wheels off of it and put it up on cinder blocks in the front yard. Okay, maybe not. They did pretty much park it until they had a museum to show it off in though.

It does look like something straight out of a fairy tale doesn’t it? I wish I could take credit for the photo – but I had to use someone else’s since photos we not permitted while we were there. Since I’m in a photo borrowing mood, let’s see what else I can find from the Armoury.

Here is Catherine the Great’s wedding gown. Check out that tiny, tiny waist. She was married when she was 16.

She was crowned empress at age 33. This was after she’d had three children. Look what it did to her hips! You can sort of see the emblem of Russia which is embroidered on her gown in gold, it’s a double headed eagle.

Tomorrow night we’re going to the circus and then Saturday it’s off to the 8th International Cucumber Festival. I’ll be taking lots of pictures!

Would you believe in that massively long post I wrote last time that I forgot something? I didn’t mention the race cars. They turned the streets around the Kremlin into an improvised race track for Formula One cars. It was just a demonstration, but the cars were so loud! We caught a glimpse of 4 or 5 cars going around a corner, but that was really it. Still it was pretty cool to be (quite literally) in the middle of it all.

Other than that I don’t really have much to write about tonight. Work is going really well (just thought I’d toss that out there so people know I am in fact working while I’m here). I do have one picture for you though. This was taken out my hotel room window just a few minutes ago (it’s 10:06 PM right now).

It’s supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow. An umbrella would have been a good thing to bring with me wouldn’t it?

We started today’s tour with another ride down the scariest, steepest escalator known to man. Once we got to the Kremlin, the first thing we noticed were these cannons outside of the Arsenal. The cannons were captured from the French during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

Then we passed by the Poteshny Palace (the yellow building). It was built by Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich in the 17th century and housed the first Russian theater. Tsar Alexey enjoyed various comedic performances in the theater (often lasting days at a time). However, in the Russian Orthodox Church, attending such shows was a sin, so immediately after leaving the theater Tsar Alexey would attend a mass to repent his sins (note how close the church is to the theater).

And here’s Russia’s version of the “White House”, meaning that their president has his office there. I took about 10 pictures of this building to try and make sure I got a good one of the flag blowing in the breeze. I think I was successful, though with my perspective on this photo the building looks crooked. Oh well, focus on how nice the flag looks.

And here we have Tsar Pushka (literally, Tsar Cannon). The cannon was commissioned in 1586 by Tsar Feodor and weighs nearly 38 tons. The Guinness Book of Records lists it as the largest howitzer ever made.

The cannon has never been fired. In fact, the cannonballs in front of it are too big to even fit inside of it. I know, I measured them (or I read it in my guidebook, same thing). It’s believed the cannon was never intended to be fired and was made only to intimidate Russia’s enemies.

Not far from the cannon is this massive bell, helping prove that every thing’s bigger in Texas Moscow.

The bell was commissioned by Empress Anna, niece of Peter the Great, and is currently the largest bell in the world. The bell weighs 216 tons and is about 20 feet tall. Unfortunately the bell has never been rung. After being cast in 1737, the bell was cooling off when it came in contact with water. This major “oops” caused an 11 ton chunk of the bell to break off.

Here we have the Annunciation Cathedral. Interesting fact, during WWII Stalin had all of the crosses removed from the tops of the churches. This is because the crosses are always placed East-West and low flying enemy planes could use the crosses to help navigate.

The inside of this church was beautiful, unfortunately photos (even without the flash) were not allowed.

We went in a couple of other churches as well. One had a beautiful quartet singing in it (I think it was Archangel Cathedral). I could have listened to them all day. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s the church above with the silver domes. The artwork and tombs of the Tsars were truely awesome to see.

Here is one of the Kremlin’s 20 towers and another beautifully fluttering flag. In 1935 Stalin removed the imperial double-headed eagles from the five tallest towers and replaced them with these red-glass stars. According to our guide today (Igor), the stars are important to Russians because the 5 points of the star represent the 5 continents that Russia wanted to have power over.

This picture isn’t the greatest, but I am including it because I want to tell the story, and stories are always better with pictures. Okay, see the falcon? The Russian Army has some members that are falcon trainers. Every once in a while they’ll have them out with the falcons to scare pigeons away from the shiny pretty domes. It helps keep the domes shiny and pretty and pigeon poop free.

After this we had a tour of the Kremlin’s Armory. There was no shortage of things to look at in the Armory. We saw Katherine the Great’s coronation gowns, Tsar Alexy’s 800 diamond throne (oooh sparkley), and the carriages (and sleighs) of Empress Elizabeth, just to name a few things. No photos allowed there either, so you’ll just have to trust me that it was fantastic.

My favorite display by far was that of the Fabergé Easter Eggs. Carl Fabergé and his goldsmiths designed and constructed the first egg in 1885. It was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III as an Easter surprise for his wife, Maria. Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Fabergé a “Court Supplier” and commissioned an Easter gift each year thereafter, stipulating only that it be unique and contain a surprise. They were amazing and so beautiful. I wish my husband would get me a Fabergé egg each Easter.

Okay, almost done. I promise. I can’t help it, I write like I talk, and I talk a lot.

After leaving the Kremlin we walked around Red Square. We passed by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb contains the remains of one soldier that died in December of 1941. The inscription reads, “Your name is unknown, your deed immortal”. The tomb is watched over by two guards and newlyweds often bring flowers and have their photos taken here.

We also passed by Lenin’s tomb. Unfortunately it was closed while we were there so we were not able to go in and pay our respects.

The last thing we saw today was St. Basil’s Cathedral. This cathedral was built between 1555 and 1561 to celebrate Ivan the Terrible’s capture of Kazan. Legend has it that once the cathedral was completed, Ivan had the architect blinded so that he could never again create anything like it. Napoleon ordered it to be destroyed in 1812, however (thankfully) his troops did not have enough time.

Okay, the end. I hope you all enjoyed today’s history lesson.

PS – Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad.

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.