russia: moscow: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

I've grown to really appreciate all that Moscow has to offer, and the way I'm able to see something new quite regularly.

This time I heard about a temporary exhibition of the work of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I didn't know much about either one of them, I had only a vague impression of Kahlo using a lot of flowers. Since the exhibition was only temporary, I figured this was as good a time as any to see a bit of art.

According to Wikipedia, Frida Kahlo was born as Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo de Calderon (what a mouthful!) in 1907 in Mexico.

Kahlo originally wanted to be a doctor, but a traffic accident at age 18 caused lifelong pain, and ended that career before it started. After the accident she went back to a childhood hobby of art, which turned into a lifelong career.

Kahlo is now known for her works on Mexican folk art , portraits and self portraits, and the body. Many of her paintings were considered too shocking to display in her days, she was shut out of exhibitions more than once.

Diego Rivera (born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, an even bigger mouthful!) was also a Mexican artist, born in 1886.

While Kahlo was born into a mixed family (German father and mestiza mother,) Rivera was born into an upper class Mexican family. He was supported in his artistry from his start, when he started drawing on the walls of the family home at age 3.

When Rivera first met Kahlo, he was already married, to his second wife. She was a student at the time, and twenty years younger than he was. They ended up being married twice, with a very volatile relationship. After she died, he went on to marry for a fifth time!

Rivera had a long and storied career, and had different types of paintings. 

He was originally known for his large murals, but also had some cubist works and post impressionist works.

The exhibition in Moscow was in a large hall somewhat close to Red Square, it was an easy walk from school. I bought my ticket (500 rubles on a regular day, 700 rules on a holiday or weekend,) and put my coat and backpack in the coat check.

The exhibition was arranged with each artist on one side. The walls behind all of Kahlo's works was painted maroon, the walls behind Rivera's works was painted blue. I liked the way everything was arranged, it was easy to walk through without having to circle around too many times.

I realized I'm not much of a fan of Kahlo's style, I thought Rivera was okay. That being said, I don't think I'll ever have any of his stuff on a wall of any home I have.

I took a quick spin through the gift shop after looking at the paintings, (people seem willing to spend a lot of money on things they don't need,) and had my photo taken with a couple instagrammable spots just outside the exhibition.

After leaving the exhibition I walked to a bus stop, and grabbed a bus to the next place I wanted to go in Moscow, a mosque. Moscow Cathedral mosque was originally built in 1904, but doesn't look at all like it did back then.

A little online research tells me it was demolished in 2011, and the orientation toward Mecca was changed by a few degrees, (it had been incorrect for over a century!) The current mosque was inaugurated in 2015, and is said to be able to host 10,000 worshippers at one time. In other words, it is really big.

I saw the mosque only from the outside, as I didn't feel like going through the hassle of security. It's a beautiful building, I wonder how much women are allowed to see.

After the mosque I got back on the metro, and headed toward my last stop for the day: a mall.

Yes, I know how lame that sounds. This stop was because of an Instagram post I'd seen, one with a mirror and skylights.

After wandering through the entire mall, I found what I was looking for, it was actually a walkway going over the street. I really liked it, and had fun people watching as they walked through the passageway. The sides are lined with mirrors, so each time one person walked, it looked like they had multiple identical siblings walking with them.

Another fun Wednesday afternoon :)

russia: astrakhan

I'm not sure if there was a specific reason we chose to go to Astrakhan. Maybe we liked the name, I really don't know. It was a holiday weekend because of a Russian holiday, (defender of the fatherland day, which generally honours men, especially veterans,) so we wanted to go a bit further than a normal weekend trip.

Astrakhan is nearly 1400 kilometers southeast of Moscow, of course we flew. Our flight landed in the middle of the night, so we found some seats in the airport and tried to sleep, or at least rest a little.

The first mention of Astrakhan was way back in the 13^th century, when it was known by another name I can't pronounce. 

Like so many other parts of western and southern Russia, Astrakhan has a lot of fighting in its history. Tamerlane burnt the city to the ground when the Golden Horde tried to take over the world.

(What is now) Russia first took control of Astrakhan when Ivan the Terrible was in charge, in the mid 16^th century. Soon after he took over he ordered a kremlin to be built on top of the hill; Wikipedia tells me this is considered the founding date of the modern city. There was no interruption in habitation in the area, so I don't know why the founding date isn't earlier. 

Peter the Great had shipyards built in the city, because the location of the city on the Volga made it quite important to shipping and transportation in the area. Catherine the Great increased the industrial aspects of the city as well. In other words, the leaders of Russia recognized the geopolitical importantance of Astrakhan from the very beginning.

When morning rolled around and we decided to find public transport into the city we were thrilled to find a giant city sign right outside the airport. We never turn down a team photo at a city sign.

It was easy to find the bus stop, then take a marshrutka right into the city. We hopped off next to one side of the kremlin, then started walking in the direction of our accomodation. The kremlin of Astrakhan is probably the most identifiable place in the city, and its appearance hasn't changed much throughout history. Long white stone walls.

We passed a Lenin statue, next to another side of the kremlin. Even though Lenin statues around the country (even around the world,) generally look the same, we're still fascinated and still usually take a photo.

We found the hotel we booked easily enough, though our request/insistence that we not be registered wasn't so easy for the hotel to deal with. Since all three of us are foreigners, we are supposed to be registered everywhere we go, and we're supposed to be registered where each of us lives in Moscow.

My landlady in Moscow won't register me, I have to pay someone else to register me somewhere in the city. If I am registered in another city, it means I have to re-register when I get back to Moscow, meaning I have to pay again. As much as I'm traveling this year, I can't afford to get registered each time I come back to Moscow.

Howeva, I could also see where the hotel was coming from, as the law says they are supposed to register everyone who comes through, especially foreigners. A little creativity and the problem was solved with money, and we were able to check in.

After relaxing for a bit, we started walking again, following one of the canals running through the city. Most of it was frozen, which was awesome. It was even more awesome when we came across a group playing ice hockey. Very fun to watch for a few minutes. As Angela is from Canada, and is a hockey fan in general, she loved it even more than Claire and I did.

From the canal we walked up the hill, to the entrance gate of the kremlin. Entrance to the property was free, woo hoo. The interior of the kremlin was somewhat standard, with a couple churches and other buildings that are now museums.

We wanted to go in one of the churches, but discovered the main level was closed. Only the lower level was open, but it was still pretty nice. We could see that the upper level had a lot of windows, which means it is probably beautiful inside, but who knows.

We wanted to see a few of the museums, but when we tried to buy tickets we discovered that not all of them were open, argh. We ended up buying tickets for what was open, only two museums.

One of the open museums was called the guardhouse museum, which had some dioramas of daily life at various points in the history of the area. We got to see some of the uniforms worn by soldiers who had fought for different groups, and items they used.

The other museum was in the cellar of a building, I'm not all that sure what it was supposed to be about. Oh well.

Our next sight ended up on our list because I saw it on a magnet and asked the lady selling the magnet where it was located. Russia is full of victory arches, commemorating the many battles in the history of the country.

A minute after we arrived at the arch, a wedding party arrived as well. We were able to take a team photo before they took over the area. (They recognized what we wanted to do, and that it wouldn't take long.) There was a fountain on one side of the arch, but since it was the end of February the fountain wasn't running.

Behind the arch was a heroes alley, with busts of local heroes lined up on pedestals. As always, I didn't recognize the names, and told myself I'd look them up later, but (as always,) that didn't happen.

At the other end of the 'alley' was a statue of Peter the 1^st. I think the statue generally marks the beginning of the riverfront esplanade along the Volga River. The boardwalk has been developed quite nicely, with quirky statues at various points, and nice views of the river.

At the other end of the riverwalk was a sushi place where we opted to have dinner. 

Even though it was only 1800 or so, we were exhausted, and struggled not to fall asleep at dinner.

The room rate we'd paid included breakfast, but it wasn't much. I only had oatmeal, sigh.

We started our day by walking to Victory Square, though part of the Muslim Quarter. We walked past a couple markets, and over a couple canals too.

Our arrival at Victory Square was not at all impressive. A thick level of dirt covered everything, it was not pretty at all. I'm hoping that's just because it was the end of February and the city hadn't done any spring cleaning yet.

From the square (which wasn't a square, it was just an area in the middle of the road,) we could see onion domes, so that's where we went next. St John the Baptist monastery had a red brick exterior with gold and maroon domes. I thought it was super ugly outside, but the inside was absolutely lovely. A dark wood iconostasis, with walls and ceilings of sea green. One part of the ceiling was covered by a painting of a double headed eagle.

Quite a bit more walking brought us to another 'park.' I put that in quotes because it was basically a small square with some benches and trees, and a big memorial. 

The memorial honours those who fought from 1919-1921.

Not far from this 'park' we saw more walls that made us think of a kremlin or monastery. We finally found an open entrance, but weren't able to go very far in. I couldn't tell if it was abandoned, or protected, as looked empty, but there was a security gate too. Weird.

We kept going to get to our last sight: the frog and toad museum. Add this one to the quirky museums of Russia list you didn't know you had. (Like the fairytale museum in Rostov Veliky.) 

It wasn't much of anything, basically just a collection of all things frog and toad. Heaps and heaps of figurines, and some games in the last room.

This museum wasn't far from the sushi place at which we'd eaten dinner the night before, and the food had been decent, so we decided to go back for another dinner. The food was fine, and we didn't have to wait too long.

The bus stop for a bus to take us back to the airport wasn't too far from the restaurant, we were already at the bus stop when I realized I'd left my backpack at the restaurant. Eeeek. Thankfully the bus to the airport came every 15 minutes or so, so I had time to run back and get my backpack, and still be able to catch the next bus. Phew.

Our flight back to Moscow was easy, as was getting back home for each of us. I don't think I need to come back to Astrakhan, but it was a nice weekend.

russia: pskov, pechory and izborsk

Another cute sounding town in the guidebook is named Pskov. For English speakers like me it is a strange name, in that it only has one vowel, but it is still easy to pronounce. Anywho. Pskov is the capital of Pskov oblast, and is just 30 kilometers from the Russian border with Estonia.

Pskov is considered one of the oldest cities in Russia, it was probably established in 903. Well, that's not really when it was established, but that is when a prince from Kyiv married a local named Olga. It was originally called Pleskov, (the English name was Plescow.) 

Like so many other towns in Russia, it was originally a republic of its own, and sortof functioned as one gateway to Europe for Russia.

Pskov has well defined history from World War 1, as it was in a railroad car sitting in Pskov where Tsar Nicholas signed the paper announcing his abdication in March of 1917. Due to its location, the city and state have been the sight of a lot of fighting through history. Several countries have come in and ruled the area for a time, including Estonia and Germany.

Our visit started when our night train from Moscow arrived on time, at 0805 Saturday. 

It was easy to walk through the station, (and look up to see if there was one of the grand ceilings I love so much,) get a small cup of hot chocolate, then walk to the appartment accomodation I had booked.

After hanging out in the flat for a bit, we started walking. The weather was fantastic, completely sunny and chilly. What we didn't love was the the remains of the slush and ice that covered a lot of sidewalks. It wasn't easy to walk at times, there was a lot of sliding. We considered ourselved lucky in that we didn't fall. 

Our first sight was a war memorial in the middle of a traffic circle. There was a column in the middle, with a gold, double headed eagle on top. On each of the four corners of the platz was a four sided, shorter column. Each side of those had a depiction of some part of the military history of the area.

From there we crossed the street and found a WW2 war memorial. This one included an eternal flame, (going very strongly,) fake flowers, and a large sculpture making me think of long guns.

Moving along, we came to an old fortress wall. We followed it and came to a tower from which defenders would've tried to protect the city, back in the day. This particular tower was right on the river, and there was a special viewing platform nearby. The viewing platform was not a safe place during our weekend, it was basically a small skating rink.

We crossed the river by walking over a bridge, and followed another small street. This one took us to a monastery, only half active now. The main church of this monastery is now a museum, with an entry fee. 

It is supposed to have very nice frescoes inside, but it was rather small, so we opted to skip going inside. Maybe another time.

There was a small duck pond in the corner of the grounds, it was fun to watch for a few minutes.

We left the monastery and soon found ourselves at another church, this one named for Alexander Nevsky. While it was an Orthodox church, it didn't look quite like they normally do. This one was brick on the outside, with blue onion domes. The interior was different too. The chandelier was more of a double chandelier, with one hanging inside another, and the iconostasis up front was very very different from what I'm used to seeing.

Our next stop was a tea shop. It wasn't an intentional stop, but when we walked past it on the street I peeked through the window and was very intrigued. I didn't buy anything, though I was sorely tempted. After three weeks in Sri Lanka over the new year, the last thing I need to be buying is tea.

We were about to cross a different bridge, back over the river when I saw an interesting looking bell tower, right on the banks of the river. There was a church too, and the view over the river was great. 

We sat on a bench for a while and soaked up sun, which felt amazing. 6C and sunny, how awesome!!

we walked across the bridge, and saw a couple people crossing the river by walking on the ice. It looked solid, but we also knew it was 6C that day, so we didn't know how solid it actually was at that point. I would've loved to walk on the ice, but better safe than sorry.

Back on the first side of the river we came to the Pskov Kremlin, also called the Krom. I'm not sure why some towns have different names for their kremlins. 

Since Pskov was the sight of soooo much fighting over the years, the kremlin had to be really strong. Wikipedia told me there were a huge number of seiges (26!!) in just the 15^th century alone. People really wanted to claim this part of the world.

As we went through the first set of walls, we could see ruins, though I don't know of what. As we went through the second set of walls (at one point there were 5 walls!) we couldn't help but see the church in the middle of the whole area. Trinity Cathedral looks really new, I'm sure it has been painted recently. 

The bell tower stands separately, I don't know if it is possible to climb.

We went into the church, the sanctuary of which was on the second floor. The iconostasis was really really tall, and made your head naturally look up. The ceiling had some frescoes, but they were older, and dirty. They were so dirty I thought they were covered in netting. I'm the crazy person that suddenly craved a wet wipe, to try to clean them off. (Yes, I'm fully aware that wet wipes are not the best way to clean up paintings.) After a few minutes of wandering around, we walked back out.

Not far from the kremlin was Pskov State University. In front of the main university building was a statue of our favourite Soviet, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Of course we took a team photo.

About a block away from the statue of Lenin, was a museum of an apartment in which Lenin lived for a whopping three months. It seems that everywhere he lived in the former Soviet Union is now a museum. This one had a couple rooms that seemed to be the same as they were back when he lived there, but the other rooms (it was a big flat,) were filled with photos and information and other items of his life.
One of the rooms also had items from his wife, I liked those just as much as items from Lenin.

After seeing the flat museum, we were hungry for real food. We ended up walking about 25 minutes, ending up at a cafe with decent reviews online. Our experience was mixed. One item was undercooked and cold, (since it was meat, this was particularly alarming,) and the desserts we wanted had sold out. Other food was okay, and presented well.

A grocery store visit on the way home took care of any additional hunger :)

The next morning our 'landlady' came when we asked her to come, at 0830. We were proud of ourselves for getting everything together and out the door that early. 

We walked back in the direction of the train station, which was across a park from the bus station.

At the bus station I bought our tickets to a town called Pechory. About 75 minutes later, we got off the bus at a very small bus station in Pechory, only two or three kilometers from the border with Estonia.

Pechory is mostly known for its monastery. The monastery has several names, but they all seem to be some version of Pskov Pechersky Dormition Monastery. It is one of the few monasteries in Russia that have never been closed since they were first opened. Somehow, they escaped the rule of the Soviets.

Our first stop was actually the WW2 memorial, since we'd passed in on the way into town. From there we found the statue of Lenin and took our normal team photo.

Then we made our way toward the monastery. It was established in the 15^th century, when religious hermits settled in 'caves' where you can now see by joining a tour.

Entry is free, to get inside you walk through a gate at the bottom of a bell tower. There was a big, newer church on the higher level of the monastery, but when we got close we could hear the service taking place inside. We walked down the hill, deciding to try again at the end of our visit.

When we got to the bottom of the hill we were stunned by the view of the full monastery. It's not big or grand, but the colours of all the buildings are gorgeous. There was a yellow building, a red building, a white building, another bell tower, and more. The onion domes were particularly fancy, and were the main part of several of our photos.

We watched a crowd gather at a doorway, and figured that must be where you enter the caves area. We should've joined that group, as it turned out that we had no idea when another tour would take place. Oh well, it's a reason for us to come back another time.

We visited a smaller church at the bottom of the hill, the one in the yellow building with fancy onion domes. The inside was not at all impressive, but we didn't care. The outside more than made up for it.

After wandering around the area at the bottom of the hill for at least 30 minutes, we came back up the hill just as the service in the big church was letting out. We were able to go inside and look at the ceiling for a few minutes. The entire ceiling was painted, it was beautiful. I wish I'd taken a few photos.

After leaving the church, we walked back out of the bell tower gate, and stopped at one of the stalls across the way. We each wanted a magnet from the town.

From there it was back to the bus station, where we bought tickets for the next bus. We had to wait about an hour, inside a bus station that hadn't been redecorated since it was first built, probably in the 80s.

The bus dropped us off in our second town of the day, called Izborsk. Another tiny town, this one is mostly known for its fortress. Walking through the town of Izborsk was difficult, as the road had not been plowed, at all. 

The tires of cars had gone through the same paths over and over again, so there were ruts in the ice, they'd gone clear of ice. The sidewalks were still covered in ice and snow and slush, so there was no really good place to walk. Each time we tried to walk on the road, in the dry ruts, a car would come along. Sigh.

We made our way to the fortress which had an obvious entrance. After paying the fee (the same for locals and foreigners, woo hoo!) we were able to climb stairs to take us to the second level of the walls. Great views over the entire area, I wish the walkway had gone all the way around the fortress.

After coming back down a different set of stairs, we walked through the entire center area of the fortress. The bastions were still standing, we were able to go in most of them. My favourite was round, with 'windows' allowing light into the middle.

As we circled back around toward the entry gate we were walking in the shade, and on ice. It was completely slick, I'm amazed I didn't fall and slide every which way.

Just before leaving the fortress we walked into the church sitting in the middle. It was small, with green onion domes. The interior looked and felt even smaller than the outside made me think it would be. It took us all of a minute to see the entire church.

From there we walked back in the direction of the bus stop. It took us a while, since we were walking slightly uphill, and choosing between ice, slush, and snow.

It was easy to hang out at the bus station and wait for the next bus back to Pskov. When we got back we hopped off the bus a bit before the bus station, and stepped into a cafe for a warm drink.

After eating and drinking, we ended up back at the train station, where we didn't have to wait long before boarding our train.

The next morning we arrived back in Moscow, on time as expected. Another successful weekend. I'd happily return to this area of the country, as there are several smaller towns in the area that sound as if they're worth a visit.

russia: moscow: new tretyakov gallery

When I 'plan' where I'm going on any given Wednesday part of the planning is figuring out the 'best' way of getting there. I walk if I can, if not, I take metro trains and/or buses. There is almost always at least a little walking involved, which I think is the best way of seeing Moscow. The streets that connect the different parts of the city are fascinating. 
The biggest factor in figuring it all out is time. How long would a walk be? I want to get to a museum before it closes, and before the sun goes down. I'm generally willing to walk a couple hours as long as it isn't raining. 

My end goal for this Wednesday was to see an art museum. I decided to walk the entire way, even though it was snowing and sleeting. Plus the streets were covered in more snow and slush. At one point while walking I saw another lady slip and fall. She was okay, all I could do to help was pick up her bag for her.

While walking I saw a few onion domes and took a slight detour to get closer. It turned out to be a church inside a monastery. I should've taken a photo of the name, as I can't remember it now, and google maps just lists it as 'monastery.'

The walls were red, but every building inside was white. The onion domes on top were a silvery metallic shade. 

The inside of the church wasn't at all exciting, as it was mostly being renovated. The scaffolding was set up in a way that made it seem to be a very low ceiling, I could only see the very lowest level of the iconostasis.

There was a second iconostasis set up on the right side, it was very very gold. Somehow, it was also really really quiet in that area, even though it was the only 'normal' area of the church. I enjoyed a few moments of quiet reflection.

I kept walking, my route took me over a bridge, I was lucky I didn't get covered in the slushy mess being thrown up by the tires of all the traffic.

The gallery I wanted to visit was called the New Tretyakov Gallery, and the permanent exhibition is of 20^th century art. It was easy enough to go through security (if you haven't gone through some sort of security on a day, are you really in Moscow?) then put my bag and coat into coat check.

I got lucky, the day I visited was free ticket day. I don't know if it happens every Wednesday, or just the day I was there, but I was happy to save 500 rubles. I took my ticket and walked up two long flights of stairs to get to the exhibition.

I read online that some of the rooms are closed for renovations, but I didn't feel as if I was missing anything.

It took me over two hours to walk through all the rooms. Even so, at the end I had to rush to get out before the doors were closed and locked. There were a lot of paintings on display, but it never felt too crowded, and I feel like I got plenty of space to appreciate each piece of art.

Most of what was on display was Soviet art, some of it more well known than others. I wouldn't mind going back to see some of the pieces again, even if I had to pay an entry fee. Maybe the other rooms will be fully renovated in the forseeable future, and I can see the pieces I missed.

I know it sounds silly, but I felt like a real adult, appreciating art. When I finally walked out, I felt like I had seen the right amount of art. It was time to call it a day and go home. 
I'll never get to all the museums in Moscow, as there are far too many, but I'm trying. Not only are there heaps of museums, there are even more temporary exhibitions. Sigh, at least I'm trying. 

russia: moscow

When we were making our travel calendar for the year we got to February and realized we hadn't planned any time in Moscow for a while, so this weekend we decided to stay in the city.

We started our Saturday even earlier than we would if it had been a work day, but it was a good reason. Claire had gotten the contact information of a massage therapist, and we'd arranged for each of us to have a massage.

The price was a lot cheaper than each of us had expected, and it was 90 minutes each. It was amazing. I definitely need to do that again, it was sooooo worth getting up early.

After the massages we went into the city center, with the plan of going to see a couple iconic sights in Moscow. Unfortunately, as we got close to the first of our sights, we saw a queue. A very long queue. A queue that seemed to go foreva, we didn't actually figure out where the end was at that time. So we decided to put off seeing the State History museum another time.

We walked across Red Square, (currently still filled with a holiday village of sorts,) to St. Basil's Cathedral, only to find another ginormous queue. So that got pushed back as well.

At that point Claire looked at social media and figured out that this was the birthday weekend of the state museum system. On this weekend you don't have to pay an entry fee to a number of the state museums, hence the really long queues.

We are not made of money by anyone's definition, but we had no desire to visit these sights with everyone else in the city, so we opted out. We'll pay the entrance fee and visit another time. If we are around next year, we'll make sure to travel outside of Moscow this particular weekend.

We walked to Novy Arbat street, and found a place called the Museum of Optical Illusions. It's not a museum at all, it's basically a place with a heap of painted areas where you can insert yourself into scenes and take photos. We took a LOT of photos, just like everyone else there.

After exhausting ourselves and all the opportunities for photos, we walked all the way back to Red Square, all the way through. We walked to one of our favourite Moscow restaurants, a place called Kimchi. Korean/Chinese food for dinner, yum.

The next morning we slept in, woo hoo. At least we tried, I'm not sure any of us are actually capable of sleeping very late in the morning.

We met up at a metro station, then walked to the boat dock near the Radisson hotel (which used to be the Hotel Ukraine.) 

We'd already bought tickets for a boat ride on the Moscow river, I don't think the price was any different if we bought ahead or not.

It was easy to board the boat, put our coats into coat check, and be seated. Right from the very beginning, a Russian family at the table next to ours was giving us dirty looks, though we never figured out why. Come to think of it, it wasn't the entire family giving us dirty looks, it was just the mother/wife.

 We ordered drinks, and sat back to relax. The boat ride was 2.5 hours, going around several bends in the river, then coming all the way back. The best part of the ride is when we went past the Kremlin, as it is one of the iconic parts of the city. I also liked going under the bridges, one of which is being worked on. (I wonder if there is a date for when that construction is supposed to be finished.)

The temperature inside the boat was good, I was comfortable. The drinks were good, but expensive, which was to be expected. 

 Since this was the middle of February, the weather wasn't amazing, so the boat wasn't at all busy. I liked it.

After the boat we started to walk back to the metro station when we passed a restaurant with Georgian food. Angela is a huge fan of hachapuri (the famous georgian bread which kinda looks like a boat with an egg in the middle,) so we had to go in.

When the menu was in English, and the prices seemed reasonable, we had to try the food. It was good, and we were happy we'd stopped.

From there we got closer to the metro station, and stopped to take team photos at the holiday lights that are still set up. Good fun.

Finally we started on our last 'chore' of the weekend. We're planning a trip to Siberia in early March, so I needed ski pants, and Angela needed boots and a coat. I found my ski pants, though they're probably too big.

After that we hit up a big grocery store, since we were already there.

This weekend wasn't so much about travel, but we still considered it to be successful. There is always something to see and do in Moscow :)