Photo of the Week: Paris

The Eiffel Tower at dusk, I like the slightly different angle and the dim lighting of the tower.

Moscow to Yartsevo

Day 26: Moscow to Yartsevo: From Moscow, we continue to Smolensk - visit "Borodino" on the Dnieper that became the strategic key to Moscow in 1812 and 1941. Later we arrive at our overnight hotel in Yartsevo. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Smolensk Motel Oasis

Breakfast: 9:30

I woke up at 8:10, before my alarm, and used my extra time to go to the grocery store for food for the bus today. I met Leah at 9:30 for breakfast as we had agreed on the night before, and then we headed out to the market near the hotel. The art market here is famous for good prices and selection so most people used their free time to shop there this morning. It was raining this morning, which made shopping outside a bit of a struggle. We walked through the non-art market market, which consisted of mostly clothes, shoes and stuff like that. Then we got to the art market where there was a 5 Ruble charge to get in (the locals didn’t seem to be paying though). We decided not to go in as it was already getting a bit late (it took a while to get through the market with the rain) so we wouldn’t have much time and it was pouring rain which was dampening our shopping spirit. We ended up at the grocery store where I tried to spend most of the rest of my Rubles on candy and snacks.

At 11:30 the bus left for Yartsevo. I had trouble with my ipod last night, it wouldn’t turn off and it scrolled through my songs, but wouldn’t actually play any so I asked Andy, my new best friend, to take a look. Apparently charging it last night fixed it and it was working fine. At 1:30 we ended up making a quick stop at a McDonalds because we had been stuck in too much traffic and needed to stop soon anyway. I just got some fries in an effort to use up some more of my Rubles, the remainder of my Rubles would be used as donations at different memorial/ monuments and as souvenirs.

At 3:40 we stopped in Borodino to see the monument and use the bathroom. During the war of 1812 when Napoleon tried to take Russia the Russian army retreated to Borodino. In Borodino the Russian’s took up a defensive position and Napoleon's Army took a frontal position. 75,000 people died and the Russians retreated, but both armies claimed victory. The Russians burned Moscow and when (as Maggy called them) General January and General February stepped in, the French were forced to retreat. Napoleon returned to France with 25,000 of his 700,000 member army. One third of the military age men in France had been killed. Today there is a monument and our first encounter with squatter toilets in Borodino. I did not use the bathroom, but they didn’t seem that bad, for squatter toilets.

At 6:30 we arrived at our hotel – the Motel Oasis, best described as a truck stop in the middle of nowhere, Russia. Outside waiting for us was Dodgy Michael; we had been warned not to buy his cigarettes or his Vodka as they were both of very questionable quality. This hotel wasn’t terribly nice, the only nice thing was that my room (and some others, but not all) had a bathroom and separate bedrooms or a bedroom and a living room. When you walked into our room you were in a foyer and straight ahead was a bedroom (Tania’s) and to the left was the bathroom, both the bathroom and the bedroom connected to my bedroom. Maggy had warned us we might not want to shower here. While I couldn’t smell the water (still had a cold) I was told it did have an odor to it, and the shower had seen better days, about 50 years ago. Every Contiki tour has a dodgy hotel, this was ours.

At 7:30 we had dinner which was to be followed by a show. Apparently whenever Contiki shows up some of the local girls come to do a show for them, and the Tour Manager and Driver cover the cost of the show in an effort to help out the local economy. Since I don’t think there is a local economy (we were in the middle of nowhere - I'm not just being a wiseass) I’m sure it didn’t take too much. 4 girls, who seemed to be in their late teens came on and did a couple different dances to different songs. Since they changed after each song we had a little intermission between each song. I like to think of this as the Moulin Rouge of Yartsevo – the dancing they did wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t high caliber - think HS talent show caliber. After the teenage girls finished a stripper came out (we had been warned incase anyone wasn’t interested) and some people got special attention. It was an interesting night, Dodgy Michael was around all night; apparently his services also included prostitutes. When Kieran knocked a glass over, breaking it, Dodgy Michael tried to swindle 100 Rubles out of him for the glass. But since he hadn’t actually seen it, just thought it was Kieran, Kieran was able to tell him he didn’t do it and as far as I know Dodgy Michael didn’t get any money. The sign that the night was going downhill was when Clinton’s leopard skin g-string came out. At that point I decided it was time to go to bed...

Museum of American History

Part 4 of my trip to Washington DC... The Museum of American History.

For those of you who don't know I'm a bit of a history buff and my buffyness started with the Civil War. So when I was going to Washington DC and thought of things I could in the evening, the Museum of American History seemed like an obvious choice. It's been a while ago, but my trip was during the Easter/Jewish holidays in March, meaning there were vacationers everywhere, luckily I spend my days in a training class. I arrived at the musem around 5pm, as all the tour busses were leaving the mall area. It was still a bit crowded when I got there, but it was empty by the time I left around 7pm.

The first place I visited was the Abraham Lincoln section, I believe this was a temporary exhibit. The first problem with this exhibit was that the entry/exit was disorganized. There was a sign near the entrance saying to stay to the right, I think this was for the line that formed during the day, but when there was no line it sent me to the right, when I should have gone left when entering the exhibit. I ended up doing the exhibit in reverse. I still enjoyed it, refreshed my memory and got to see cool stuff. They had some nice historical pieces and good signs in the exhibit explaining things.

Next up was the exhibit on the Presidents. I also enjoyed this exhibit and the museum was fairly empty by now so my friend and I could enjoy it in peace. It had some interesting pieces, like military uniforms, the more interesting ones that a couple presidents wore. I also liked the exhibit piece that showed the military rank of each of the presidents. I did learn a few things about the presidents and totally thought this exhibit was worthy of a visit.

Keeping with the presidential theme I went to see the First Lady exhibit. This was primarly clothing that was worn by the first ladies. I'm no fashion expert, but I always enjoy exhibits like this. It's dummy proof - either you like the dress or you don't, and the little captions just tell you who wore it and for what. How easy is that! My friend noticed that some of the first ladies were not actually the wives of the presidents but were called First Ladies. Later research revealed that presidents without wives sometimes asked a daughter or other suitable family member to serve as White House hostess and perform the duties of First Lady. I also noticed that some of these first ladies were quite beautiful and others got hit with an ugly stick. Sorry, but it's true. Some of the dresses also got hit by the ugly stick. I think it was Calvin Cooleges wife who wore lots of flapper dresses, very contrary to the look we're used to from contemporary first ladies. The biggest disappointment though was Michelle Obama's dress from the Inaugeration ball. It looks much better on TV, in real life it looked like it had cotton balls and silver spiders on it.

Our final stops were at a coin exhibit, that took about 2 minutes, even my friend who was into coins was disappointed. We quickly moved onto the exhibit on transportation - boats and trains. Some of the exhibits were really cool and some were a little goofy, but I think this exhibit was designed more for kids.

I enjoyed this museum, thought it was interesting without being too heavy duty. After seeing the crowds when I got there though, I would recommend going after 5pm, when it is open later. I felt like I saw a large about of the museum with little hassel by getting there so late, certainly not all of it, but enough before feeling like the museum was sucking the life out of me.

Photo of the Week: Switzerland

Mt. Stanserhorn, Switzerland. I love the eye to eye with the top of a mountain aspect of this photo.

Moscow Day 3

Days 25: Moscow Sightseeing: Two days to explore this fascinating city. Our sightseeing tour includes the Kremlin, the onion domes of St Basil's, Red Square and the GUM Store. There's even the opportunity to travel on the Moscow underground! (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Beta Block
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

When I woke up this morning my eye was stuck shut, not good, I had pink eye! I'm in Russia, on tour, I couldn't have pink eye! But I did, and I was not going to go to the doctor! He'd probably send me to the hospital, I would tough it out without medicine.

This morning Galina took us to a WWII museum (it might be the Armed Forces Museum), which was very quiet since it is not the typical tourist spot. Galina had been a history teacher and so knew all the good museums in Moscow. Then we went to the museum for the Revolution. I think my brain had fully shut down by this point, but it perked up for Galina's story about the first McDonalds in Moscow, I will now butcher her story... You would wait on line for about 2 hours, typical for Russia. When you walked in, the floor was clean, that was the first sign that something wasn't right. When you got to the counter they had a smile in their face (hello, this is Russia) and asked what you would like. This was Russia at a time when you hoped they had something at the end of a line, let alone what you actually wanted. You ask for a Big Mac. Then to add to the confusion - they asked how many you wanted? Not only did they have food, you could get as much as you wanted. This caused so much stress and confusion (people thought it might be a trick and the government was listening) that they had to put up a sign limiting the number of Big Mac's to 15, people literally didn't know how to handle a lack of limits and choice. This was Russia where you went to a store and took what they had, they didn't have selection but they did have limits, there was a 2+ hour line behind you after all. In the bathroom they had... toilet paper, and if you took the toilet paper they put a new role on. This was all knew to the Russians. I love this story, it really made me understand Russians a bit and why capitalism was such a struggle for them culturally.

After the museum Kate, Andrew and I went in search of lunch, we ended up at the underground mall again. We ran into Lis, Jilly and Tom and relaxed a bit after lunch chatting since we were so tired. We were going to head outside to people watch until our meeting time, but it was raining so we went shopping instead. I found a T-shirt (which I had been looking for) and a long sleeve shirt (I had not been looking for), but when I went to buy it there was confusion with my credit card. They wanted my passport (which the hotel had, and stupid me forgot I had a copy of it in my backpack) and eventually accepted my room card, but then the credit card didn't work. I have no idea why and they didn't speak a word of English, owell. I met Kate and Andrew outside the store (Lis and Jilly were shopping in another store), and after telling them my story they offered to lend me the cash. Yea, I have 2 new shirts!

At 5:00 everyone met, but the bus was late picking us up. We didn't get to our restaurant until 6:00 and the circus started at 7:00. Once inside the circus they had animals displayed and you could get your picture taken with them. During the circus I sat next to Cara and we discussed what was going on. The first act had monkeys dressed like people, 2 were on leashes. One might wonder why you would have a monkey who needed to be on a leash in a circus. Then they had dogs, they would do tricks and get food as a reward. We all wondered if they were fed, maybe they didn't feed them and they had to do their tricks so they could get food. During the intermission I was on a hunt for cotton candy, it wouldn't be the circus without cotton candy. But we kept getting distracted looking at people taking pictures with animals (Marie got one with a lion cub). Finally I saw a woman with cotton candy, I chased her down for my cotton candy, it was as good as I remember it. In the second half of the show they had lions who seemed to be afraid of the lion tamer. Some seemed to be afraid to do their tricks, but when the lion tamer took out his whip they did what they were told. What I learned about the circus - you can be too old for the circus, but you can't be too old for cotton candy, clowns are dumb, and animals doing weird things isn't entertaining, it's weird.

When we were on the bus after the circus we saw two drunk guys fighting, fortunately they were too drunk to actually hurt each other. But one guy did take his shirt off for the fight, but all he did was kick the tire of our bus and stumble off in the other direction. When we got back to the hotel I got my stuff ready for a bus day the next day and then went with Tania to send some emails. I finished before Tania and decided to pop into the grocery store on the way back, not my brightest idea at 11pm. I was looking around and then noticed someone looking at me, for a second I thought maybe he was someone from tour, he had on goofy glasses, but he was just a weirdo. I made a quick exit and went back to the hotel, lesson learned.

I ran into a bunch of people at the hotel bar and hung out with them. It was an interesting night. Kevin went up to the bar to get a drink and the drunk prostitute hit on him, I guess he declined because she went back to the guy she had been sitting with earlier. When Sky and Tom went up to the bar she went up to them too, she was pulling on Tom's belt and made a pass at Skye as they were walking away. When the guy she was with left, she followed him, but he kept telling her to go away, oh those crazy Russians!

5 Guys Burgers

While I was down in Washington DC I was in a training class and in the building was a burger place called, 5 Guys. I had never heard of it, but they did have a good burger. Within an hour of getting home I noticed one, then a few days later I noticed another. The second was along the way home from work, I drive I make 5 times a week. It might have been new, but I doubt I would have noticed it if I hadn't just eaten at one the week before. That's the nice thing about traveling, you find new places and that can make you more aware of your surroundings when you return home.

Photo of the Week: Las Vegas

This is an oldie, but a goody. The volcano at the Mirage in Las Vegas, don't be confused by Treasure Island in the background. I took this back in 2002 with my first digital camera on my first trip to Las Vegas. I haven't gone to see the volcano erupt on any subsequent trips to Las Vegas though.

Moscow Day 2

Days 24: Moscow Sightseeing: Two days to explore this fascinating city. Our sightseeing tour includes the Kremlin, the onion domes of St Basil's, Red Square and the GUM Store. There's even the opportunity to travel on the Moscow underground! (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Block "Beta"
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

At 9am we all met in the hotel lobby, today was a coach free day so we were starting off with a tour of the Metro. But first the sick people would have to be cared for. Daniel apparently had been sick for a few days and last night Galina had taken him to the hospital. He had an inner ear infection, he was still in the hospital. Tom also wasn't feeling well - something in his throat. Galina took him to the doctor this morning and he had to go to the hospital too, something had to be cut out of his throat or something. It turned out he had an infection in his throat (possibly from having a cut/sore in his throat and brushing his teeth with the water in St. Petersburg.) They gave him an anti-biotic and told him if he wasn't feeling better in a couple days it would have to be cut out.

At 9:45 we finally left, there was a Metro stop 2 blocks away, I took a picture of the name of the stop incase I needed it later. For the tour Galina would tell us the number of stops we were going and put up the appropriate # of fingers so everyone knew where we were going. No one seemed to get lost. At each stop Galina showed us all the cool stuff. The Metro was cool, much of it looked like it belonged in a palace, it was very grand. The decorations were very ornate and there was quite a bit of Communist things there, though some had been taken down. In one station they had montages and in one section they showed communist scenes, but in another area they had been changed and were just flowers. As grand as it was, the train cars looked like they were made of wood - that can't be safe.

When we finished on the Metro Galina put us on line to see Lenin's tomb. We waited on line for a little bit, then had to put our cameras and bags in a security thing since they can't go in. Going into the tomb was a very weird experience. After going through security you go inside the building, it's quite dark and the floor looked like granite, it was hard to see. There were guards when you first walk in, then you go down stairs and there were more, maybe 6 or more in each spot. Then when you walk into the room with his body there were only 2 in there, but at this point you're afraid to do something anyway, it's a very intimidating experience. Once in the room you walk on a pathway around the body, you can't stop or put your hands in your pocket (I heard someone did that and a guard came right up to him). The body is encased in glass and looks very waxy, totally unnatural - it was a parafin waxy look to be more specific. When Lenin died he wished for a small funeral with little fanfare. Stalin had a huge funeral with lots of fanfare for Lenin, he also ordered that his body be maintained so people could see him, like me. He told the Russian scientists to figure out a way to maintain the body. According to Lonely Plant the body is wiped down every couple days and then they use paraffin wax on the body to keep it looking fresh, that explains the waxy look. You too can have this done to your body, you just need to pay 1 Million dollars. After Stalin died his body was put with Lenins, but after 3 years Kruschev had his body removed from the tomb and buried.

Once we left the tomb we had to walk half way around Red Square to get our stuff back, but we did walk through GUM, which is a high end mall. One of the stores had mannequins with potato sack heads, interesting. Andy, Kate, Marie, Kieran, Ted, Lis, Jilly, James and I all went to the Church of Christ Our Savior, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful churches in all of Europe. The hand of St. John the Baptist was in the church, making it a little difficult to get in. It seems that every human being on the planet had made a pilgrimage to the church to see the hand, who knew? We walked by the line for it for quite a while before getting to the back of the church, we thought it was the entrance, but we couldn't get in since it was the exit. We were only able to take pictures of the back. From where we were the line continued around the block and then to the front of the church to get in, the line seemed to be over a day long. Man these Russians really do know how to make a line! After taking a few pictures we headed back to the Red Square area for lunch.

On the way back Lis and Jilly wanted to sit for a few minutes, it had been a long day and it had started getting hot out. Only Kate, Andrew and I waited with them, the others went ahead for lunch. The 5 of us ended up at the underground mall by Red Square having lunch at the food court - we had pizza with bad salads, we also ran into Tom, who had been released from the hospital, I think Lis had sent him a text message about where to meet us. At 3:00 the group met outside the Kremlin for our tour of the Kremlin. Once inside there are areas where you can and cannot walk, they get a little pissy if you cross the line. While inside the walls we saw a group of the military marching in formation, they started heading in our direction but Fraser didn't see them and they just kept marching right into him, it was pretty funny! Inside the armory we got to see some of the Tsar's Faberge Eggs, which were very nice. But I was so tired that it was hard to concentrate on what Galina was saying. After that we went to dinner near Red Square and had Borst (soup) which I didn't like and Chicken. After dinner we tried to go to a bar, but the one that had been picked out wasn't that good so most of us left. We went back to the hotel and tried to go into the Vodka Museum which was nearby, but it was closed. We ended up in the hotel bar having a few drinks, Daniel was there, he had been released from the hospital and was feeling a bit better.

King Tut and family

On Saturday I went to the King Tut exhibit in Times Square. I enjoyed the exhibit, but your reaction to the exhibit will depend a lot on what you expect. I was in Egypt in 2007 so I know that all the really good stuff is still in Egypt like his mask, the sarcophagus, gold boxes that held the sarcophagus, and the mummy. They did have a nice sampling of some of the more minor pieces from King Tut's tomb and his family. I read that there were 130 pieces, and it's quite a bit of stuff, though not overwhelming. I thought it was a good amount.


The first half of the exhibit is items of his family, including the sarcophagus of his grandmother - by far the largest and nicest piece. I thought this piece was one of the best of the collection. There was also a larger statue, though not nearly as large as the pieces you would see in Egypt. There were many items from King Tut's tomb. One example of how this exhibit could be disapointing is that there was a small wooden chair, the chair is kinda cool, though not spectacular. In Egypt there was a small chair that I remember seeing, it was covered in gold and jeweles and really jumped out at you. But overall I thought the exhibit had a nice selection which showed a variety of the types of things you would have seen in Ancient Egypt, without going all the way to Egypt.


If you're expecting to see his body (it's in his tomb), or his sarcophagus and mask (in a special room at the Cairo Museum) you will be very disappointed.

Since my brother-in-law asked, I thought I would mention that this exhibit isn't really appropriate for young children. If you have a child 10 and up and they are interested in Ancient Egypt, then they might enjoy this exhibit, otherwise leave them at home.

Photo of the Week: Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Berlin

This is a poster I found at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin. A child's depiction of East and West Berlin...

Just another Saturday night in Times Square, well and a bomb too.

On Saturday I met my friend Kelley in Times Square to see the King Tut exhibit, and then the night took an interesting turn when they found a bomb in Times Square... I'll write about King Tut for this week, but thought I would write about my experience in Times Square today.

According to news reports the bomb was found around 6:30pm, right around the time I left the King Tut exhibit, which is on West 44th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. The bomb was located at West 45 at Broadway. Kelley and I walked up to a restaurant at West 46 and 8th Avenue for dinner and were blissfully unaware of what was going on. After 8:00 Kelley went to use the rest room and was told by another woman that there was a bomb threat in Times Square. I looked out the window of the restaurant and did notice that West 46 Street was closed and there was a little crowd around and heavier traffic. I work for New York City and am all too aware of how many "suspicious" packages are in New York City so I wasn't too fazed by this. Plus I know that they are more careful with "suspicious" whatevers (I'm thinking of the recent suspicious vehicle back in December) and 2 hours to clear it wouldn't be unusual or alarming. I rarely see Kelley so I didn't want to start checking twitter or the newspapers on my iphone and pretty much ignored it. Kelley and I went up to a bar around 50th and Bway for a drink and left around 11pm. We walking down Broadway and at 46th Street were diverted to 6th Avenue. I did take a quick picture of an empty Times Square with my iphone, not a common site.

On 6th and West 46 there is a Fox News ticker which is where Kelley and I got our first glimpse at what was going on via the news - that their was a possible vehicle bomb and some guy was seen running away (which is not true), it was the first time that we got confirmation of this being serious, aside from the fact that at this point we knew it was going on about 4 hours, which is a long time. Kelley and I separated shortly after for our own respective homes and on the way home finally checked out twitter and the news and got an idea of how serious things were.

In the end it was a very serious situation, but Kelley and I was pretty oblivious to it, and that wasn't hard to do, especially since we're both pretty used to unplanned disruptions that happen in NYC all the time. You just walk a different way and go on with life. I think it's also a testament to the good work on the NYPD, we didn't see any chaos or confusion in the streets, just curious onlookers. As a tourist it would have been frustrating (can't get to hotels, broadway shows and the sites), but also more fascinating.

In the next few days more and more information will come out about who did this and what exactly this bomb was (as in how much danger people were actually in.) Am I worried? Not really. It's not that I'm not worried - I think Times Square, NYC Subway and lots of other places in NYC and other cities are targets for terrorists. But I also think our intelligence services are doing a good job, and in the end there are so many places that are targets and to avoid them all would be to not live life. The bottom line for me is that next week a friend is coming to Times Square for a show and I'm meeting her for dinner. I have not plans to skip this, I'll be there with my friend for dinner.

Novgorod to Moscow

Day 23: Novgorod to Moscow: Past Klin where Tchaikovsky lived, then a short drive to Moscow where we enjoy a first glance at the city sights, including Red Square. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Beta Block
Breakfast: 7:00 Bags to the bus/depart: 7:30

I'll start with a brief history of Communism in Russia...

Although Moscow's history is much more diverse then simply Communism, the remains of Communism are much more prevalent then they were in St. Petersburg. Moscow is first mentioned in historical chronicles in 1147, it's been burned down several times and been at the center of many battles. But I think the more modern history of Moscow is more interesting so I'll stick to that.

After the Bolsheviks took power they moved the Capital back to Moscow, in fear that the Germans would try to take St. Petersburg if it were the Capital. In an effort to maintain power the Bolsheviks and Lenin imprisoned and killed opponents, the same as had been going on in Tsarist Russia, just at a higher level then the Tsars. Several attempts were made on Lenin's life, resulting in Red Terror - tens of thousands were executed or put into labor camps. Meanwhile the continuing civil war caused widespread famine and death in Russia. Both the red army, led by Trotsky, and the white army (Tsarist with the support of the US, British, French and Japanese) ravished the countryside of Russia. Lenin and some Bolsheviks broke off from the Socialists and started the Russian Communist Party. After the war, Lenin tried to rebuild industry and agriculture in Russia, as well as fighting Anti-Semitism. In January of 1924 Lenin died, but not before criticizing Stalin and saying he is too harsh and should be removed from his post.

After Lenin's death there was a struggle for power between Stalin and Trotsky, eventually Stalin took power, the party chose him because they thought he was the lesser of two evils. Trotsky and his supporters were exiled; eventually, Trotsky would be assassinated by Stalin. Stalin went on to ban the Russian Orthodox Church, and executed the Priests. His vision for Russia was to take the peasant society and make it an industrial world power, which he did. He took away the farms and property of 4/5ths of the population in order to achieve his goal - if they refused - Stalin sent the secret police in. Those in violation were sent to Gulag Camps, by the 1930's there were 10 Million people in forced labor. Stalin ordered the deaths of 90% of the 17th Congress, because he did not trust them. Paranoia and hysteria reigned supreme - 1 and a half million people were killed within a 2 year period in Stalin's effort to eliminate dissenters - this was known as the Great Terror. Those who were sent to Gulag Camps didn't fair any better, they did back breaking work and the death rate was close to 100% in some of these camps. Throughout all of this Stalin was revered as the father of Russia and loved by all, YEA for propaganda.

In 1939 Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. This made Hitler's attack on Russia even more successful, Stalin didn't expect it and dropped the ball on the response. In World War II over 8 and a half million Russian soldiers and 20 million civilians were killed in the war. At the Yalta Conference Stalin demanded control of conquered German areas in the East, the Allies agreed.

After the bombing on Hiroshima, Stalin studied the effects of the Atomic Bomb: Hitler's invasion of Russia was 4 times worse - Russia would be able to survive an initial strike by the US - a little scary if you ask me. In March of 1953 Stalin suffered a stroke and died 3 days later. I have heard that they knew what was going on (stroke) when he was dying, but refused to help him, waiting for him to die.

Nikita Kruschev took over power after Stalin and started the De-Stalinization of Russia, which allowed more liberalism in Russia and the Eastern Bloc. The Russian economy grew faster then many Western economies. But he also encouraged the building of the Berlin Wall and persecuted the Russian Orthodox Church. He deployed missiles to Cuba, causing the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that Kruschev was ousted.

Leonid Brezhnev took power in 1964. I like to think of him as the leader of Russia when the Soviet Hockey Team lost to the USA Hockey Team in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. But he did other things, like sending his military into Afghanistan. It is also believed that he ordered the failed assassination of Pope John Paul the II in 1981.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of Russia. Under his leadership the economy failed and there were severe shortages of food. Gorbachev worked with Ronald Reagan (who promised to win the arms race) to bring an end to the Cold War. He relaxed control over the Soviet Caucuses and eventually brought an end to Communism in Russia, along with allowing the unification of Germany. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

And so it was time to drive to Moscow...

We left a few minutes late this morning because Tony had accidentally taken a towel from his room and the hotel wanted it back. Our first stop this morning at 10:30 was interesting... It's almost like a rest stop, well more like a gas station with a shop inside and a restaurant next door. They had animals in cages (like a bear and a fox in a cage, along with other animals), it was a bit weird as they obviously were sedated, either that or they have all lost their will to live. I used a really crappy bathroom, but it was better then the free one. Maggy said the free bathroom was the dodgiest bathroom she had ever seen in her life, and she has been to Egypt so it's saying something. (That was what I had originally written and in all my life this was the second worst bathroom, the worst was in Belarus. The bathrooms in Egypt weren't that bad.)

After that stop we played a game with a matryoska doll of Russian leaders that Maggy had and then she gave us some more history on Russia. At 2:30 we had a stop at McDonalds, I tried to order my cheeseburger with only ketchup (I was afraid of what else they might put on it), I thought we sorted it out, but I ended up with extra ketchup and everything else (mustard, pickle, and onion). It could have been worse; I think, they originally thought I didn't want any ketchup. After lunch we drove to Tchaikovsky's House, on the way we passed a public bus that was missing a tire, it was just riding on the wheel, and no one seem fazed.

We arrived in Moscow at 6:15, picked up Galina, our Moscow guide, and Maggy gave our passports to someone else to go get our Belarus Visas. Galina talked to us a bit about Moscow and Russia on the way to Red Square for our group photo. On the way over to Red Square I saw a kid walking around with a stuffed mouse, what? Who would want a stuffed mouse? And no, it wasn't Mickey. Don't kids want giraffes like me? So we walked into Red Square where the Red Army has marched countless times. We were quickly lined up for our picture, we took a couple and of course I was squinting in the one they picked, owell, but St. Basil's is in the background. In Red Square they were cleaning up from the concert the night before, the one that Tania and I had watched on TV, I guess it was live.

After our photo Galina took us on a city tour, she showed us the KGB and a bunch of other stuff, I think my brain was getting overloaded at this point. She explained to us about the double headed eagle that Russia uses. I explained before that it came from the Byzantine Empire, and was taken by Tsarist Russia. Under the Tsars the two heads represented the church and the Royal Family working together. When communism fell they needed a symbol, so they took the double headed eagle again, now it represents the government and something else, but the running joke is that the other thing is the mafia.

When we got back to the hotel the girl who had taken our passports wasn't back yet, she was stuck in traffic, and so the hotel would not let us check in. Around now the trip was getting to me, I was tired and it had been a long day, I even commented to Kate that I was ready to kill someone, no one in particular, just that I was on the edge. I had been one of the last to get into the hotel and I heard Maggy announce that we couldn't get our rooms yet and that we were going to leave our bags in the lobby (with someone watching them) and the rest of us would eat. Everyone was bunched up in the middle so I was waiting till they cleared out to put my bag in the middle with the others. Renae asked if I was going to dinner, I said I was just waiting for everyone to move (I think I sounded a bit short with her). Right after Fraser came over and told me I had to put my bag in the middle... Well I lost it... I yelled something about how I could see what was going on, Fraser tried to explain himself, but I just yelled at him more. I hear he mumbled something about me being a bitch, he's not the first, wont be the last even though I really am a nice girl. Once I put my bag down I went up to dinner with the few people who were around to witness my outburst.

After dinner several people went to do internet in one of the other buildings in the complex, our hotel is part of a multiple building complex that was used for the 1980 Moscow Olympics (the ones the US didn't attend) so the hotel was nice, though the rooms were out of date, but the elevators rocked! While waiting I waited on line at the reception desk to find out about the internet in our lobby, eventually I found out they were only open 9am to 7pm - when we would be out of the hotel, naturally. Anyway the girl with the passports got to the hotel at 9:15 and I was in my room by 10:00. I did a little laundry in the room, since Moscow is the only city in Russia with "safe" water (I still only used bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth). When Tania got in she wanted to go use the internet so I went with her and spent 50 minutes updating everyone as to what I was up to. I had planned on doing something with Kate and Andrew, but I felt bad that the family hadn't heard from me in a while. I finally got to bed at 12:45.

Cherry Blossoms

Part 3 of my trip to Washington DC.

I was lucky enough that my trip to Washington DC was during Cherry Blossom festival. For years I had heard about these mythical Cherry Blossoms, but had never seen them, but I was intrigued. About 2 weeks before my trip I found out that I would be there for the Cherry Blossoms. Tried as I might, I didn't find out too much about them, none of the sites I looked at even talked about where to go see them. In retrospect, it seems obvious to those in Washington, but when all you know about them is that they are trees, you need a little more detail. For those with inquiring minds, they are around the Mall and the Potomac River.

Luckily I was there with my friend who knew slightly more then that they were trees. But we quickly learned a lesson. Driving is NOT a good way to see them. We were in the area around the Mall at rush hour - BAD, it was also during a school break so there were tons of tourists around in addition to the regular people. Being in a car gave us mobility, but also made it hard to stop and take pictures, a real problem when the sun starts going down. Low light and movement don't go well together. Also, my friend didn't have the best knowledge of getting around the area of the Potomac. Eventually we were able to stop, I got out and took some pictures - it was fairly dark by now and I didn't really know how to use my camera that well and I didn't have a tripod. I got to learn how to straighten pictures when I got home. But the cherry blossoms are pretty.

The following day I was on foot (with a very heavy backpack) and had some time to kill so I decided to go back. It was a gorgeous day - 80 degrees and sunny. The mall and the area around the Potomac was packed. I found a band on the Cherry Blossom festival stage. Well the Potomac with the Cherry Blossoms is really pretty and a great setting for photos, you'll be seeing many of them in the coming photo's of the week.

I didn't get to fully experience the festival, I just got a glimpse of it. I can't say I would kill myself trying to get back for the Cherry Blossom Festival, but it did seem like a nice way to spend a spring day in Washington DC.

This was also my only opportunity to buy souvenirs from my trip. I bought myself a Christmas tree ornament, and bought my mom a Cherry Blossom tree starter kit which I gave her for Easter.

Photo of the Week: Washington DC

From my recent trip to Washington DC this was my first encounter with Cherry Blossoms. You can read about my experience seeing them on Wednesday.