Rus Sochi

... all you can eat salad bar as she had recommended this due to the amount of different foods we would be able to try. We were that hungry we had 3 plates full each and tried almost everything. They seem to like beetroot a lot here as a few of the dished were bootroot based. I tired a local vodka drink with cranberry which was okay and Phil had one of the local beers. We got back to the hotel about midnight hoping that our bags would have been ...

So here is the note that I promised to post from my friend, Liz, whom you have previously met.  She is hilarious and I have a few more of her posts to "steal."  I know that you will enjoy, so have at it!! Jules How to Navigate the Moscow Metro ShareTuesday, November 18, 2008 at 4:47pmHow to Navigate the Moscow Metro 1. Get a map ...

... understood and their opinion changed.  It was quite good.  We stayed up until four that morning just talking.  This is why I love hostels.             Anyway, the next day, Liz and I went to the Tretyakov Gallery.  This is where I fell in love.  It was all Russian artwork and a whole floor of icons by Rublev and others.  I am a huge fan of Repin and Serov and all of them were there.  Every famous Russian painting you can think of.... was there.  I was in heaven.  It was ...

Well, another adventure has begun I guess. While not really sure whether I will view this next travel as adventurous as some of the other travel in my recent past, in fact I am heading somewhere where few go in their lifetimes. And thus, I guess I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to head overseas to Sakhalin, Russia.. Long story short, after my brief foray into the Middle East, I returned home and began searching for what ...

... but I don't think that I am teacher material. Alban, however, may be. He lead out Sabbath school Sabbath afternoon (they do late churches) and did a great job with it. I was asked to do a mission spotlight, but fortunately they found someone else. The church service was nice. Both English and Russian were used and Gina gave a good sermon. We had some delicious gluten steaks in the evening, and ...

... pretty. Stalin lived there, the Tsars lived there, all the Communist bigwigs lived there. The congress hall is there. It is a huge meeting hall. The architects were under pressure to make it huge, to be impressive, and could not say no. They didn't want to ruin the look of the Kremlin, so put 5 stories underground. And it is built with a lot of glass, which reflects the other buildings of the Kremlin. The remarkable part of the ...

... move. Patience of the people wanting to get on is only very limited and lasts about 2 seconds (I counted it), then they push in the wagon banging into other people, stepping on feet, not apologizing at all. With this I struggle a lot and sometimes choose to wait for the next train. Similar situation is at the stations where you can change the lines. There are one way pedestrian tunnels which get sometimes so jammed by people that when you travel with somebody, you need to hold on to each ...

... together. I'd forgotten that, "People drink because they want to do the things they don't feel free to do sober." - J.Breen philosophy I was stronger the second time I saw her. In response to the story of her recent broken heart, I told her "Love" is just a negative feeling that comes from loss. I detailed my nomadic love life, saying that dancing with someone can be an expression of romance. She agreed with me. And she told me to keep in ...

... the law to drink on trains. No one knows that, of course. Anna scared them off, and the kids continued to drink anyways. I quickly passed out despite the top bunk being hot and stuffy. Another wonderful feature is that no windows open on these trains. It's just one enclosed, hot, stuff, dusty nasty little compartment. But oh well, by 9am we had reached our destination. Traffic in Moscow is a nightmare so it took us forever to get to the hotel on ...

Moscow has been an amazing surprise for us! We were expecting a bleak city, full of big grey concrete Stalin apartment blocks and little else. Yes, the blocks are there but it is transforming into a very cosmopolitan city. This must be the Russian version of Paris. The Muskva river runs through the centre and the city rings out from its banks. The Kremlin is in the heart of the city on the banks of the river. We have visited Red Square several times - the first ...