fff|ggg|petrogradskaya/P1020009|Peter and Rebecca in St Petersburg|ggg|fff

I’ve resisted posting a review of our trip due to the risk of turning into one of those dads from the fifties… setting up the slide projector (one of those home projectors under $500) and saying “and here’s Elaine at the beach, and here’s Elaine and the kids at the beach, and here they are again ten minutes later…” You get the picture.

Still. Many of you have asked for some more details of what we did and where we went and what we saw. I’ll do my best to summarize our trip for you. I am, however, going to hide the rest of this post for those of you who are not quite as interested. Click to keep reading!
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Things Russia Has That The United States Needs More Of
***Gigantic|http://gallery.prwdot.org/new_tretyakov_and_graveyard/P1010624*** ***monuments|http://gallery.prwdot.org/all_russia/P1010670*** and ***statues|http://gallery.prwdot.org/all_russia/P1010689***.
***Huge|http://gallery.prwdot.org/kremlin/P1010485***, ***beautiful|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1010541*** ***cathedrals|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1010769***.
***Ornate bridges|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1010765***.
***Enormous|http://gallery.prwdot.org/palace_embankment/P1010809*** ***columns|http://gallery.prwdot.org/vasilevsky_island/P1020003***.
***Gilded|http://gallery.prwdot.org/tsarskoe_selo/P1010889*** ***palaces|http://gallery.prwdot.org/hermitage/P1020146***.
***Fast, cheap, efficient public transportation|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1010724***.
***Really little kids playing the accordion|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1020228***.
***Bright, orange-colored blini shops|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1020097***.
***Majestic train terminals|http://gallery.prwdot.org/russia_in_transit/P1010740***.
(Forgot this the first time through) Under-street pedestrian crossings. Rather than attempt to have crosswalks at busy intersections, Moscow and Saint Petersburg have remarkable underground street crossings. Some of them are in conjunction with Metro stations, others are standalone. This benefits both the pedestrians, who don’t get hit by cars and get their shopping done while crossing the street, and drivers, who don’t have to worry about pedestrians at big intersections. Most of the crossings also have mini-malls in them, where enterpreneurs have tiny booths built into the walls of the tunnels from which they sell any manner of items, such as kitchen gadgets, DVD’s and CD’s, food, clothing, etc. Amazing.

Things The United States Has That Russia Needs More Of
Traffic laws (and/or enforcement of traffic laws).
Air pollution laws.
Smoking laws.
***Taco Bells|http://www.tacobell.com/***.

fff|ggg|victory_day/P1020218|Soldiers practicing for a Victory Day parade|ggg|fff

May 9, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the allied victory in Europe in World War II. There are massive celebrations going on in Moscow, Russia today, and while we were there last week, preparations were well under way. I’ve created a special gallery that pulls together photos I took of those preparations, from the enormous red and gold banners, to the soldiers drilling, to the flower-laying ceremonies. ***Enjoy|http://gallery.prwdot.org/victory_day***!

I’ve finished uploading the photos we took while in Russia. There are several hundred photos, organized mostly by location… but no captions on individual photos. Hopefully within the next few days, we’ll write up some posts with more details of our trip, and with some links in to the photos at key points. For now, you can ***check out the raw photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/russia***. Enjoy!

We’re home. The apartment is just as we left it… nice and clean and welcoming. It’s 10:24 p.m. Thursday here, but it’s 6:24 a.m. Friday Moscow time, and we’ve been up since 8:00 a.m. Thursday Moscow time… so… yeah. Good night!

Today was our last full day in Russia. Tomorrow we head back to the USA. We had a great time over here, and we’ll probably have a lot more to say once we get home and have a chance to digest everything. For now, I’ll leave you with a link to our ***’Featured Photos’ gallery|http://gallery.prwdot.org/russia_featured_photos***, which has some select photos from the last few days of our adventuring. Enjoy!

Hi. This is just a little note in between sightseeing and dinner.

We travelled safely both to and from St. Petersburg this weekend, arriving home to Moscow this morning at 8am. Our trip there was very busy, but that’s the way we like it. The weather was cold, damp, windy with a small bit of sun thrown in for good measure.

Despite the weather, we were able to take in the sights of the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Tsarskoe Selo, a boat tour of the canals and the Neva river, among other things.

Pictures and more are soon to follow, I’m sure.

fff|ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010674|Space Obelisk|ggg
ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010709|Church of our Lady of Kazan|ggg|fff

Today’s featured photos are the Space Obelisk from VDNKh (aka VVTs aka All-Russian Exhibition Center), and detail from a dome on Church of Our Lady of Kazan, Kolomenskoe.

Tonight we’re taking a train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg (or simply “Piter” as the locals call it). We probably won’t be online while we’re there, so you’ll have to wait until we get back to Moscow on May 4 before we’re able to post more. Da svidaniya!

fff|ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010654|Church at the Novodevichiy Convent|ggg
ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010666|Tzar’s Box at the Bolshoi|ggg|fff

Today’s featured photos are a detail from one of the churches at the Novodevichiy convent in Moscow, and a view of the Tzar’s Box at the Bolshoi Theater. Kim treated us to an evening of ballet at the Bolshoi, where the featured performance was “Notre Dame de Paris”, aka, The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Modern Dance.

fff|ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010538|Becky in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral|ggg
ggg|russia_featured_photos/P1010521_edited|Guard at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier,
outside the Kremlin wall|ggg|fff

Today’s featured photos come from our visits to the Kremlin and Red Square. The first is St. Basil’s Cathedral (with Becky!). The second is a soldier guarding the Grave of the Unknown just outside of the Kremlin wall. Enjoy!