"The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round..."

So, today was lunch/movie afternoon at Sheri's. Sheri doesn't live very far, only 3 metro stops away on the green line (the line we live near). So, from door to door it's about 20 minutes. At a recent AWO (American Woman's Group) meeting, we were given tricks of the trade on using the bus/tram/trolleybus system. I decided to give it a whirl. While the metro is fast, frequent, and convenient (and you avoid having to deal with traffic); in Paris I liked the busses so I could see where I was going (metro is underground). Some of the busses are newer and some I think are from the soviet era. As long as I don't touch anything, I'm okay. Some can be very dirty. The only "bus" option I have are the trolley kind (TB) and there are 6 different TB's for me to choose from. They stop almost in front of my apartment which makes them a nice option--if you know which one to take.

We live on a very busy street--15-18 lanes of traffic. In order to get to the other side of the street- to get the bus in the correct direction (going towards the city center), I have to use the walking overpass. No problem. Bought some tickets (using my Russian!). No problem. Saw TB 65 coming and knew it wasn't one of the six I recognized. Then I thought they are all attached to cables, it's got to be going towards the city center. WRONG! Thank Goodness I had mentioned to the driver that I wanted to go near Mayokovskaya metro and after a few stops, he told me to get off. Not off to a great start. Then TB 70 pulled up and that one I recognized! Yay! I got on TB 70 and it proceeded to take me several stops in the right direction. Great! Not so much. It turned around and started going back towards my apartment! I got off that TB and decided it was metro time. I walked (in the rain) to the Bellarusksaya metro (had to find the passageway to cross back over the street) and went one stop to Mayakovskaya. FINALLY! Then walked on over to Sheri's apartment. It should have taken me 20 minutes and 1 bus ticket. It took one hour and 10 minutes, 2 bus tickets, and 1 metro ticket. Had a great afternoon at Sheri's and even braved the bus on the way home. TB 12 and it dropped me off almost in front of my apartment!

Traffic on a Friday early evening...

Just a quick post and picture of the amount of traffic in Moscow. It's totally OOC (out of control). This is the street we live on at about 5:15pm on a Friday going North out of Moscow. Sometimes, the traffic is like this at 11:00am or at 10:00pm. Thank Goodness Darron does the reverse commute!

Anniversary Weekend Trip to Vladimir and Suzdal Continues...

Well, today was our Russian Banya day. Experienced a bit of the unexpected. I knew a Banya was a sauna but wasn't sure how it was set up or what we did. We went to the lobby and were told we were in Banya number "chiteer-ee" (4). We had our own little house! It was like a little wooden cabin. It had a living room with tv and DVD player, small bathroom, changing area, and the sauna area with shower. First you rent the Banya, and then you can add additional services if you wish. We added the "taking a steam bath in Russian style with the switches of green birch or oak twigs" extra. Little did we know...

So, our "Banya Dude" knocked on our door (didn't speak a lick of English) and showed us the phone and “charraded” (yes, I know that’s not a word) to us that we needed to call him when we were ready. Okay. Whatever dude. We changed into our swim suits and went to check out the sauna. Very nice. Called Banya Dude. That's where the fun began! He had Darron go into the sauna first (thank goodness!). Darron did and that's the first time I busted out laughing...he told Darron to take off his swim trunks! Darron did as was told and the Banya Dude “charraded” to him to lay on his stomach on the benches in the sauna. Banya Dude came out of the sauna and retrieved his "leaves". He then began hitting Darron with the leaves from head to toe! THEN he made Darron turn over which made me laugh even harder and he continued to beat him with leaves head to toe. The clincher. He made him get up and run out of the Banya down the steps and jump into the cold water! Let's remember people, he's in his BIRTHDAY SUIT! Darron came back in and Banya Dude went through the process again hitting him with leaves. Then he made him go lay down in the living room to rest. MY TURN.

Front of our Banya

Before the naked branch beating

Our Banya Dude getting the branches ready

Darron and Banya Dude after jumping into the refreshing water

After we move back to the US...possibly a career as a Banya Chick?

At least I knew what was going to happen. Thankfully I got to keep my bathing suit bottoms on! Same process. I have to say...I felt WONDERFUL when it was all done. So relaxed and my back and shoulders were no longer sore. The combination of the sauna/steam/twigs, and cold water was awesome! I'd do it again in a heart beat. Darron...thought one time was enough.

The ride home was uneventful. We stopped about an hour from Moscow and had dinner at a cute little restaurant. This was the first place we'd eaten that didn't offer an English menu. Luckily, we knew a few food words and dinner was delicious! All the way home we saw people on the side of the road selling things. From stuffed animals and inflatable pools to fruits and veggies from their garden. It was a great first Russian road trip!

Anniversary Weekend Trip to Vladimir and Suzdal Continues...

Hotel was very nice and we even had a jacuzzi in our room! Today was our day of just walking around Suzdal. We saw some quaint churches and had fun taking silly pictures in the downtown area. Even Darron joined in the fun! Weather was great!

Hotel with Banya

Suzdal Kremlin

We climbed up a hill to get this view of the little church. Well worth the climb!

Funny face pictures we took in downtown Suzdal. This picture pf Darron makes me laugh every time I look at it. Doesn't Darron looks HOT in pink?

Anniversary Weekend Trip to Vladimir and Suzdal

Darron planned our first Russian Road trip for the weekend after our anniversary. We were a bit nervous about figuring our way on Russian roads but we did it! Well, we did it with the help of a borrowed Russian GPS! We certainly know how to say turn left and turn right in Russian now! We lucked out and had a great weather the entire weekend. Both Vladimir and Suzdal at one time surpassed Moscow in importance. Vladimir is a town that doesn't rate a visit of it's own but is a great stop between Moscow and Suzdal. It's about 2.5-3 hours from Moscow. There were only a few things to see but we were glad we stopped. Plus, we found a nice little inexpensive pizza place for lunch. With a GROSS bathroom. But..when you gotta go, you gotta go!

The Golden Gates of Vladimir

Gross bathroom as noted above. Lovely "European style" toilet. A hole in the floor.

Cathedral of the Assumption and gardens

Cathedral of St. Demetrius

Cinnabon in Moscow? Yes Siree!

Today, after Woman's Group at the Hard Rock Cafe, my friends and I decided to go to TGIF's for lunch on Tverskaya street. I needed a few groceries and they told me about this "beautiful grocery store" on Tverskaya. Little did I know that on the way to the store, we'd pass a CINNABON! Cinnabon....in Moscow? Cinnabon a global company? I couldn't believe it! My friends were right though, the grocery store was super fancy! I did spend some time walking around admiring how beautiful it was. A bit different from good ole' Strack's! Now, when can I get a Cinnabon...? I can only hope that Cracker Barrell and BW3's(equipped with all the college sports and NFL games at a reasonable hour) is next...I know, I'm dreaming...

Fancy Grocery Store

Darron's Satellite Office

Darron was feeling a bit left out since my laptop is in our "office". Plus, I said "nyet" (no) when he asked to set up the card table in the middle of the living room (like he did in Paris) for his laptop. He got creative and set himself up a little office out on one of our enclosed balconies! There's even lighting and heated floors for him! Can you see the fancy building in the right upper corner? That was my friend Susan's building (sadly, she moved back to Texas), where I had to shower for the two weeks we didn't have any hot water! Also, can you see the 15 lanes of traffic and the overhead walkway to cross the street? We are lucky that our windows are very thick making our apartment very quiet!

"Inside Edition" of our apartment!

The kitchen...where my cooking MAGIC takes place.

Looking into the kitchen with the sliding doors open. As you can see from the little table in the kitchen, this picture was taken when Janae and fam stocked us up with goodies! You can't see, but to the right in the kitchen we have a nice pantry and water cooler with hot and cold taps!

This is the other part of the living room. We are so thankful that the landlord left his big screen tv for us to use! Plus, we have better cable than we did in Paris. We've got ESPN American, ESPN Classic, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Travel & Living, BBC Prime, CNBC, Hallmark, etc...

This is the living/dining room with the attached kitchen through the sliding doors.



The spare bedroom. It's small, but cozy and awaiting your arrival!

This is our guest bathroom. It's good size and has a great shower with serious water pressure!

The Office. Really, Jenn's office and tv room! It also serves as our library. It's a multi-purpose room. This is Janae's husband Greg (on his cell for a work call) on the air mattress that Whitney got to sleep on during their stay. Thanks to Mary for letting us borrow the air mattress!

Sorry folks, I just realized I don't have pics of our master bedroom and bathroom. I'll get those posted soon!

52 Leningradsky Prospect Apt. 87-Our Building, Floor Plan, and our Crazy Door!

Part of our building and our red gate and the security hut. Once I go through the red gate, I go to the left and inside the automatic sliding doors to the elevator. We have 24hr. security and underground parking which will be awesome for Darron in the winter. The guard always lets us in. If not, we have a little sensor on our keys that opens the red gate. Sometimes our security guard appears to be drunk and passed out OR sleeping...but hey, it's Russia! Nothing like a little vodka for breakfast! Just FYI, little Russian lesson, the black and red sign above the red gate..that K word means Kitchen in Russian. It's just an advertisement.

And here is our apartment front door. It looks fairly normal, but it's not. It's the Mr. T of all doors. You can see the circle digicode. We've got a 6 digit number that we punch in and the door beeps and then we can open it. What's really nice is I really don't have to take keys because the guard lets me in the gate! (unless he's sleeping but then I ring the doorbell and wake him up!)

So here is our crazy door opened. It's like a bank vault--very heavy and safe! You can also see we have a "normal door" as well which serves absolutely no purpose. You might notice there isn't a peep hole--no problem. We have a camera in our apartment so we can see who's at the door and also the elevator area. As you are looking into our apartment; to the right is the three bedrooms and to the left is the guest bathroom and living/dining room and kitchen.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I posted a picure of our floor plan to make it easier to get a feel for our apartment. I even wrote rooms in English to simplify your reading. I'm nice like that. The writing that is cut off is the guest bathroom (off the hallway to the left of the entry). We really like the layout and that the bedrooms are away from the livingroom/dining and kitchen.

Inside apartment pictures forthcoming...stay tuned for more fun, witty, blog postings!

Ice Cream in a Bag...literally!

Not sure I've ever seen this in the US. (Please be reminded that I didn't actually GROCERY shop in the US so maybe it is available!) I had heard about the Russian ice cream in a bag and was a bit skeptical to try it. Yesterday, when shopping at the new Carrefour, I decided to get crazy and buy it. Not only is it in a bag, it even comes equipped with a carrying handle! And who says Russians don't have items of "convenience"! I haven't tried it yet, but today I made some homemade chocolate sauce to go with it! Notice the crazy Russian alphabet! Also, I made another great discovery- cheese sticks! They probably won't compare to Langels but sometimes you've go with what you can get.