Have a Nice Trip!

Our trip to Moscow turned out great. It was very relaxing. I hate to admit it, but every time I visit Moscow I like it more. The first few times, I was not a fan, but it's now becoming more familiar, if still a little overwhelming. We got in on Thursday morning and spent the day hanging out and walking around the city. We went and found our hostel, which was in a cool like neighborhood and close to a good Metro stop. (The Metro is the only way to get around Moscow.) We went through some of the regular tourist places around Red Square, went to a cool little book store, and had some sandwiches in a little shop. We also took advantage Moscow's many coffee shops to stop and warm up with coffee, tea, or cappuchino...a lot. [Pictured]

Friday we went to the Tretiyakov Gallery which has Russian art. It's a pretty cool place. We spent several hours there and then met up with Joanna and Eric for some dinner at a place that ostensibly served Arabic/Middle Eastern cuisine, so we ordered up some tabouli and hummus. After dinner we went to the Spleen concert which was pretty cool. Spleen is a Russian rock group that we like, so we were excited when we saw that they were playing in Moscow during our break. The venue was not that great, but the show was good and they played for close to three hours.

On Friday we hung out on the Arbat and spent plenty of time warming in coffee shops before catching a train back to Vladimir in the evening. At the train station we had a conversation that could only happen in Russia.

As we go through the turnstyles:
Train Station Lady, Angrily: Not that way, this way!
Us: Okay...
Train Station Lady, Still angry, but not quite so angrily: Have a nice trip!

Today we are catching up on some reading and doing a little bit of work (not too much!) We've got exams to give this week, another teachers seminar Monday and Tuesday, and a further Wednesday-Sunday vacation in two weeks that we have no hard plan for yet!