Klyazma Hotel Vladimir

... a Souzdal, petit village de 12000 habitants a quelques kms de Vladimir. Cette bourgade regorge d'eglise et de cathedrales avec des coupoles dorees... Le temps etait magnifique, nous nous sommes promenes sous le soleil dans la neige. Quel plaisir ! Demain nous partons pour Nijni Novgorod ou notre 3e hote Evgeny nous attendra.

... to a multinational oil&gas player, as based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. For those of you unaware of the exact location of the island of Sakhalin, picture a flight departing mid-morning from Houston on October 27. I arrived 14 hours later (on 28th) in Moscow, and spent two days becoming acquainted with the envisioned work and my future short-term location. As you can see from the included pictures, I also had the ...

... to Sochi, Russia--they won't be the minimum age of 18 by the time of the Vancouver Olympics. This morning, we finally arrived in Moscow and had little trouble finding our hostel, which was actually a little cheaper than expected. We spent the morning at the Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral, it was incredible! Anyway, Russia has been a pleasure for me so far. Everyone-ish seems to be very friendly.

... less than 1000 people in 1668. Its recovery was slow but industry has helped the town boom. Famished on arrival I got to the hotel ASAP (briefly stopping to take photo of the pussy cat) and dined at an Azerb/Georgian restaurant. Delish! Day 116. 8/8/08 I woke up at 1am coughing my guts up, what is up with me! Vladimir is a town of a few hundred thousand, I would put ...

... ambassador gave Catherine the Great a something and said "There are 999 diamonds on this, and you make the 1000th". Flattery? Or diplomacy? No pictures allowed, but I almost snuck one of a metal overlay for an icon encrusted with pearls. Such unbelievable wealth for both church and state. All made on the backs of the peasants who had been enslaved by serfdom. So quite frankly, the Armory made the Hermitage look just ordinary. The ...

... lot of braking, tooting and cursing - but rarely hitting another car. If you want to make a U turn, feel free to do so over the two white stripes in the middle of the highway. Everybody does it. I miss the convenience of having a car but would never dare trying to drive here. In the first week of January, I have seen 2 cars being hit when they were parked (btw, nobody cares where they park a car - on pedestrian crossing, mostly though on the pavement - even behind railing defining the ...

... out for a full day of sightseeing. We saw Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. Red Square is not red. It consists of the Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Russia Museum, walls of the Kremlin, and a high end shopping mall. The Red Square McDonald's is also very close by. Unfortunately, dead Lenin wasn't available for viewing on this day. His tomb operates under mysterious hours, and apparently closed for the next two days. After Red Square, we ...

... from hell. Very Russian and didn't so much as ask us to come here or do this but barked commands at us. We got the giggles and found it hard to be serious. Someone asked her a question about something she'd already told us, her reply was, "didn't I just tell you this? Weren't you listening correctly?" We were too scared to ask her to repeat anything else. :) Despite all this she was an encyclopedia of knowledge on Moscow. The fashion here is shoes, shoes ...

... gefunden: Für den günstigen Preis sehr gute Qualität. XXXXX The show must go on. After a long stay in Moscow and a daytrip to the countryside the trip goes on. In Vladimir I stay for one day. It's pretty hot but a hotel with a short delay found: Very good quality for low price.

... Just now I was impatiently informed that I'm over my limit of 10 MB/hour at this internet cafe, and I have to pay extra. I guess the tiny streaming video of the shuttle launch is too much. Yesterday I said goodbye to Anna and Alexey and boarded a train to Vladimir. The hotel, of course, didn't have the reservation Anna made me. The receptionist said she was very sorry, but I could ask again the next morning when the reservation woman returned ...