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Orginially from Ohio, I went to the big city of New York for about 5 years (mainly for school), and now I am working towards my masters at Cambridge in England. I hope this website gives everyone a taste of what my life is like here... and if nothing else I think you will find it fun and entertaining!!
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Moscow Day 2
Lots of Moscow sightseeing and fun adventures to go on today... so lets get started!!!
First... a photo of the map of Moscow... nobody had a good map, so I figured I'd take a photo JUST in case we got lost hahaha... i LOVE digital cameras.
First stop... KGB Museum... here are some KGB uniforms
Kate and me by the entrance.
The lobby with the KGB emblem... I bought a replica for myself and for my brother... hehe hope I don't get arrested ;)
Vivian and me inside the main room
The flag and podium.
More official uniforms...
And we had lunch YAAY... bliny (thin pancakes) with red caviar (very salty) but when mixed with sour cream, its fair good... still not my favorite way to eat them though hehe.
Vivan got some kind of weird food with green jello (pepper flavour) hehehe
After lunch we went to see the changing of the soldiers.
Everyone said the changing of the guards in London is much better... will have to do that sometime.
Eternal flame... just guessing haha
Look how perpendicular to his body his leg is when he marches.
And leg down...
Leg up...
Ohhh another guy from the other side...
Marching in with guns...
Playing around with their guns haha...
And they are off on their separate ways...
More perpendicular walking...
One block for each big city...
Another big city...
A monument... sorry these things must not have made a big impression on me as I really cannot remember what they are or their significance.
Ohhh looks like a christmas tree... but its a building and not christmas time.
Kutafya Tower or maybe Trinity Gate Tower going into the Kremlin...
They made everyone check in their bags so I had to carry two cameras around... hehe im not crazy enough to trust checking in even my not so good camera!!
Soooo freezing we all thought we would die... it looks so pleasant though haha.
hehe seeeee holding my silver fuji camera... and my nikon is taking the photo... well someone is taking the photo with the nikon in any case
WOW a neon orange church... now there is a colour we have not seen yet.
A government building.
More government stuff.
The tower behind us, after we walked through.
The Tsar Cannon was cast in 1586 but never shot... it was just built to look huge and scare people hahaha.
Another shot of the big scary cannon.
And the first of a bunch of churches.
Another church.
And there it is in focus haha.
I want my house to have shiny gold on it :) it looks sooo pretty in the sun... not practical though really.
Everywhere inside the church is covered with paintings and religious stuff.
More churches... thats all there really is there...
ohhh and guess what we have??? ANOTHER church
Churches here, churches in the distance...
Then we went to what the lonely planet guide calls the Armoury and Diamond Fund Exhibition... this is a throne where two boys (i forget which two) were both named ruler at the same time (one from each possible ruling family) so that there would be no fights... the funny thing is that one of the boys was so young, his mom cut a hole behind his head (see the square on the right hand side) and whispered through to him what to say... so he appeared very smart... our tour guide said this is very typical of russian women... smart, strong, and always the brains behind the operation!! Maybe we should make this more general and say its true of ALL women hahahahah.
The crowns of russian rulers... only in russia do they have crowns with fur hahaha...
This crown has 2 separate spheres... one of the western world and one represents the eastern world... russia: is it part of asia or europe? Now there is a question to ponder... post answers here!!
Up close photos of the fur crowns hehe.
Lots of carriages... a carriage room in fact.
Before this museum became a museum, it used to be a place where nobility would stay, and there are stories of kids taking the carriages apart and hiding parts as a game of ohhhh lets hide this and see who can find it first... but then they would sometimes forget how to put things back together... GAAAH children!!
HUGE wheels.
Awwww a separate one for the children!!
Look how tiny their waists were!! Imagine having to balance that huge skirt!!
Various fans and accesories... ohhhh its like Claires for the rich!!
This outfit is covered in pearls and jewels... I loved this museum!!
Painting... this is what St. Petersburg used to look like.
They had very elaborate covers for their bibles made of jewels.
More jewels and gold covered religious stuff.
Those grape shaped things look EXACTLY like these family heirloom pieces my dad has.
Taken for you dad :)
so people back in the day smelled bad... they couldnt shower often (it was considered unhealthy anyway), and they wore fur and sweated... ewww sweat + fur in a long meeting = nautious to me... soooo they had a pair of these elaborate gold structures for burning incense in... and one day they invented showers and deoderant hahaha.
an intricate faberge egg
Some more faberge eggs
The faberge collection was amazing... the photos clearly do not do them justice.
more photos of faberge
wooooah Lindsay with kids... SHOCKING!!
Took a walk over this bridge to check out Gorky Park (the original Soviet culture park which apparently has some amazing movie made after it? and is in some famous song?)
It's supposed to be like the brooklyn bridge... or maybe it was that the brooklyn bridge was like it??
Sooo windy and freezing walking along the bridge...
That huge ugly thing in the water from a distance is the Peter the Great Statue from before hehe.
The smoke in the background... we were told anyway... comes from the best chocolate factory in russia.
trying not to let my face freeze this way... but it may be permanently frozen in a smile shape.
And the entrance to Gorky Park!!
Artists display their work to be bought in the subway underneath Gorky Park.
Ohhh and we are back up on the other side (you have to go down in the subway to safely cross the street).
But there is nothing to do at Gorky Park in the winter... so we just take our photos and head back.
Normally there are rides to go on at Gorky Park.
Not that we trust old Russian roller coasters all that much ;)
The sun is soooo bright but we were completely frozen walking across the bridge.
Trying to keep my mind off how cold I am.
Lindsay is walking backwards so that her face doesn't completely fall off.
Ohhh the midway point.
Look I am even wearing my hot pink hat :) ahhhh banana republic cashmere, does life get better than this??
So then we went to the big huge mall because I desparately needed to go to the toilet. One would think that in a huge mall with LV and Dior, they would surely have nice toilets... so I PAY to get into the bathroom... and what is it??? A squat down and aim and pray it goes in the hole bathroom!!! My stomach was KILLING and this was NOT going to do!!! I was angry!!!
So we went back to our hotel (yes it was a decent hotel in Moscow) where I felt much better after about 15 minutes... and then we spent the night walking around taking nightime photos of Moscow from in our hotel.
Yah the window isn't great...
But look how close we were to St. Basil's and the red square... right outside our window...
Here we can take photos with the window open...
Not sure how much the hotel management liked that we started opening up random windows throughout the hotel... but thats ok :)
Reallly gorgeous at night :)
thats our hotel!!
Reminded me a bit of las vegas... hahaha i know that is a horrible thing to say!!
ohhhh noooice!!!
Lots of night time photos :)
Well there really was not much else to do
ohhh look my apple flavoured soda (the BEST)...
and Bonjour... yummmmmy chocolate cereal filled with chocolate icing... very similar to the yummy cereal I love in Israel :)
ohh and here is my heavy little bag at the end of the day... and my loaf of bread for breakfast ;)
Phhheeeeeeeeew, maybe we did cut today a bit short Lindsay... but at least we were well rested for our super fun day in Moscow where we would ummm meet some locals WOOO HOOOO!!!!
First... a photo of the map of Moscow... nobody had a good map, so I figured I'd take a photo JUST in case we got lost hahaha... i LOVE digital cameras.
First stop... KGB Museum... here are some KGB uniforms
Kate and me by the entrance.
The lobby with the KGB emblem... I bought a replica for myself and for my brother... hehe hope I don't get arrested ;)
Vivian and me inside the main room
The flag and podium.
More official uniforms...
And we had lunch YAAY... bliny (thin pancakes) with red caviar (very salty) but when mixed with sour cream, its fair good... still not my favorite way to eat them though hehe.
Vivan got some kind of weird food with green jello (pepper flavour) hehehe
After lunch we went to see the changing of the soldiers.
Everyone said the changing of the guards in London is much better... will have to do that sometime.
Eternal flame... just guessing haha
Look how perpendicular to his body his leg is when he marches.
And leg down...
Leg up...
Ohhh another guy from the other side...
Marching in with guns...
Playing around with their guns haha...
And they are off on their separate ways...
More perpendicular walking...
One block for each big city...
Another big city...
A monument... sorry these things must not have made a big impression on me as I really cannot remember what they are or their significance.
Ohhh looks like a christmas tree... but its a building and not christmas time.
Kutafya Tower or maybe Trinity Gate Tower going into the Kremlin...
They made everyone check in their bags so I had to carry two cameras around... hehe im not crazy enough to trust checking in even my not so good camera!!
Soooo freezing we all thought we would die... it looks so pleasant though haha.
hehe seeeee holding my silver fuji camera... and my nikon is taking the photo... well someone is taking the photo with the nikon in any case
WOW a neon orange church... now there is a colour we have not seen yet.
A government building.
More government stuff.
The tower behind us, after we walked through.
The Tsar Cannon was cast in 1586 but never shot... it was just built to look huge and scare people hahaha.
Another shot of the big scary cannon.
And the first of a bunch of churches.
Another church.
And there it is in focus haha.
I want my house to have shiny gold on it :) it looks sooo pretty in the sun... not practical though really.
Everywhere inside the church is covered with paintings and religious stuff.
More churches... thats all there really is there...
ohhh and guess what we have??? ANOTHER church
Churches here, churches in the distance...
Then we went to what the lonely planet guide calls the Armoury and Diamond Fund Exhibition... this is a throne where two boys (i forget which two) were both named ruler at the same time (one from each possible ruling family) so that there would be no fights... the funny thing is that one of the boys was so young, his mom cut a hole behind his head (see the square on the right hand side) and whispered through to him what to say... so he appeared very smart... our tour guide said this is very typical of russian women... smart, strong, and always the brains behind the operation!! Maybe we should make this more general and say its true of ALL women hahahahah.
The crowns of russian rulers... only in russia do they have crowns with fur hahaha...
This crown has 2 separate spheres... one of the western world and one represents the eastern world... russia: is it part of asia or europe? Now there is a question to ponder... post answers here!!
Up close photos of the fur crowns hehe.
Lots of carriages... a carriage room in fact.
Before this museum became a museum, it used to be a place where nobility would stay, and there are stories of kids taking the carriages apart and hiding parts as a game of ohhhh lets hide this and see who can find it first... but then they would sometimes forget how to put things back together... GAAAH children!!
HUGE wheels.
Awwww a separate one for the children!!
Look how tiny their waists were!! Imagine having to balance that huge skirt!!
Various fans and accesories... ohhhh its like Claires for the rich!!
This outfit is covered in pearls and jewels... I loved this museum!!
Painting... this is what St. Petersburg used to look like.
They had very elaborate covers for their bibles made of jewels.
More jewels and gold covered religious stuff.
Those grape shaped things look EXACTLY like these family heirloom pieces my dad has.
Taken for you dad :)
so people back in the day smelled bad... they couldnt shower often (it was considered unhealthy anyway), and they wore fur and sweated... ewww sweat + fur in a long meeting = nautious to me... soooo they had a pair of these elaborate gold structures for burning incense in... and one day they invented showers and deoderant hahaha.
an intricate faberge egg
Some more faberge eggs
The faberge collection was amazing... the photos clearly do not do them justice.
more photos of faberge
wooooah Lindsay with kids... SHOCKING!!
Took a walk over this bridge to check out Gorky Park (the original Soviet culture park which apparently has some amazing movie made after it? and is in some famous song?)
It's supposed to be like the brooklyn bridge... or maybe it was that the brooklyn bridge was like it??
Sooo windy and freezing walking along the bridge...
That huge ugly thing in the water from a distance is the Peter the Great Statue from before hehe.
The smoke in the background... we were told anyway... comes from the best chocolate factory in russia.
trying not to let my face freeze this way... but it may be permanently frozen in a smile shape.
And the entrance to Gorky Park!!
Artists display their work to be bought in the subway underneath Gorky Park.
Ohhh and we are back up on the other side (you have to go down in the subway to safely cross the street).
But there is nothing to do at Gorky Park in the winter... so we just take our photos and head back.
Normally there are rides to go on at Gorky Park.
Not that we trust old Russian roller coasters all that much ;)
The sun is soooo bright but we were completely frozen walking across the bridge.
Trying to keep my mind off how cold I am.
Lindsay is walking backwards so that her face doesn't completely fall off.
Ohhh the midway point.
Look I am even wearing my hot pink hat :) ahhhh banana republic cashmere, does life get better than this??
So then we went to the big huge mall because I desparately needed to go to the toilet. One would think that in a huge mall with LV and Dior, they would surely have nice toilets... so I PAY to get into the bathroom... and what is it??? A squat down and aim and pray it goes in the hole bathroom!!! My stomach was KILLING and this was NOT going to do!!! I was angry!!!
So we went back to our hotel (yes it was a decent hotel in Moscow) where I felt much better after about 15 minutes... and then we spent the night walking around taking nightime photos of Moscow from in our hotel.
Yah the window isn't great...
But look how close we were to St. Basil's and the red square... right outside our window...
Here we can take photos with the window open...
Not sure how much the hotel management liked that we started opening up random windows throughout the hotel... but thats ok :)
Reallly gorgeous at night :)
thats our hotel!!
Reminded me a bit of las vegas... hahaha i know that is a horrible thing to say!!
ohhhh noooice!!!
Lots of night time photos :)
Well there really was not much else to do
ohhh look my apple flavoured soda (the BEST)...
and Bonjour... yummmmmy chocolate cereal filled with chocolate icing... very similar to the yummy cereal I love in Israel :)
ohh and here is my heavy little bag at the end of the day... and my loaf of bread for breakfast ;)
Phhheeeeeeeeew, maybe we did cut today a bit short Lindsay... but at least we were well rested for our super fun day in Moscow where we would ummm meet some locals WOOO HOOOO!!!!
