Sport Hotel Yaroslavl

... fake polygamy...lots of trees...Suzdal churches...dinner with family...fields of flowers...carriage ride...Moscow Kremlin...Lenin's mausoleum...coffee at GUM shopping center...St. Basil's...walking along the river...beautiful metro stations...final train ride...Peter and Paul fortress in the rain...strange hours at Peterhof palace...boats along the canals...beautiful performance of Giselle...late night taxis...final goodbyes...

Thanks for a great trip!

Our last day in Ivanovo was actually spent mostly in Vasilevskoe, making our second visit to Elena. She was more reserved on the second day--I think probably because it had sunk in that we wanted to adopt her. Dad had already asked her a couple times if she wanted to go to America to live. She told us about a time when her sponsors came from Arizona and all the kids made quilt blocks with wishes on them. Her wish was to have a family, so if ...

... architecture. I thought the whole complex of buildings was a strong wind and a match away from either going up in flames or falling down--or both, but inside, the rooms were actually pretty nice. Decorated in typical Russian style, of course, which meant a lot of lace and a lot of bubblegum pink and bright seafoam green. They had a nice living room area with a thoroughly modern television and DVD player--the ...

... originally) and lots of different types of spicy sausages (some of them had peices of cheese inside). No wonder there was some curious breath smells.

The tour turned out to be a tour of Monasteries and Churches or so it seemed to me. Because of the language difficulties I didn't know what was coming next but after a while I gradually realised it would be another church.

On the first day i really needed a coffee. There was none ...

... 12.30 pm early lunch today which confused a few. We also need to pay cash for drinks instead of TAB so that also confused the masses. After Lunch information on our Optional Tours for St Petersburg this will end up costing us a few pennies. Should be well worth it though. Left to mull that over and check our budgets. We should have enough cash. Guides accept pounds so it was lucky we brought some with us ...

... Now your not telling me I somehow hit the fare value right? There was no sitting spaces left, so I figured it was a bribe, slipping into his pocket. After an hour my bum was on a seat. We passed through villages that history passed by. Churches derelict from the soviet religious purge. Now taken over by nature. The metal frames of their five onion domes somehow still lay on a roof twisted ...

... visited Yaroslavl, one of the Golden Ring cities, founded in 1010. It was named after Prince Yaroslavl the Wise who is on the Russian 1000 ruble note. Yaroslavl is a city of scientists and students and a centre of the engineering, chemical, textile and processing industries. It is also a place for Cultural and Arts and we were taken to their puppet theatre which had beautifully made puppets where children could learn the art as well as see the ...

... sauerkraut and various pickled veggies. It would have been a good place to buy sprats or chocolate but we were just not into it after our debauchery yesterday, After dinner, Russell wanted to open some of his set of 6 beers. I needed some down time and just went back to the room and enjoyed the beautiful sunset from there. At some point in the night Ed staggered in singing "Show me the way to go home..." He is feeling fine this AM.

Some photos of the most insane trainride so far... Nat and I went in different directions from Yekaterinburg. So, I had a cabin full of drunk Russian men all to myself...YAY!!?????... Endless remarks about how beautiful I am (ehhh...gag...), about why I'm not married, and how come I won't marry one of them.... But, all in all, an experience...

... I missed this one because of taking that long nap), "Russian language lesson No. 2" (?, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, where are you from and I love you' this kind of content), and my favorite one..... "Learning to sing Russian songs!" I'm glad they offer the English translation of some of the songs. Including the most famous one: "Kalin-ka kalin-ka maya, Kalin-ka kalin-ka maya, Kalin-ka kalin-ka maya, Kalin-ka kalin-ka maya..." I in fact built a ...