June 2

Today was another adventure into Moscow--we haven't rushed into our days there yet. Once again is was 11-ish before we even left the house. (It might have been even later, but summers are meant for lazy days, huh?) There was excitement as we left the apartment knowing that today was the day for my brother's family to pick up their first car in their 3 years in Russia. They will still use public transportation, taxis, buses, etc. because that's how the city works, but now their trips to Moscow will be more productive & less "threatening," hopefully. We took a taxi to the train station & it was not too busy there--more people were coming back from Moscow than were going to. Mad taught Megan & super-graceful Ethan to do a ballet jump. I'm not sure they have it mastered yet. We hopped on & got a better picture of a real train ride to Moscow. The other night when we took our first train ride there were no vendors on board--probably cuz it was too late in the day. But today we got musicians, toy vendors, misc. vendors with a pack full of goods you could buy, etc. selling their wares through the train aisles. We bought some fun balloons & a couple of Chinese fans. Along with the fun of watching the sales people, we also were bothered by a man sitting across the aisle from Patrick. We're glad he was the one on the outside, but. . .this man was in-your-face trying to ask Patrick why he didn't give money to one of the musicians. There was quite a heated dialogue between the 2 & he even tried to bother Megan a bit, but she's learned the rules of the train & did very well ignoring his banter enough that he finally left us alone. However, a lady sitting across from him started chewing on him to leave us alone & we were a bit afraid that he would try to hurt her. We hope this was not the case but they both got off at the same train stop. The reality of Russia is that corruption is the norm, so hollering for help & expecting anyone--even the authorities--to do anything is not necessarily the way things work. After he left, we could breathe easily the rest of the ride into Moscow. A couple of stops on the metro got us to . . .

Our first stop was to get our ballet tickets picked up form the ticket booth. Patrick did this on his own while we played at a nearby playground, capturing quite a funny "show" of Megan finding Ethan in a smart game of hide-n-seek. It's a bit hard to describe it, but we got it on video & had quite the laugh about it. Then on to see the breathtaking splendor of Christ the Savior Cathedral. We got pictures of the outside & everything leading up to it, but picture-taking is forbidden inside the building--right, MOM? (shhhhh! She got kicked out of this cathedral when she visited it the first time cuz she tried to snap some photos not knowing it was forbidden) This was a reverant but awesome experience for Madeleine & I to see since we don't have churches like that in Kingman, KS--or anywhere close to us. It's a relatively new structure--within the past 3 years, I think.

Then it was on to the walking bridge where we got another spectacular view of the Kremlin area & took some more pictures. We caught a couple of bridal parties getting pictures taken in the historical section of this architecturally beautiful city. We took pictures, too. I guess weddings are quite the spectacle here. This brought us to paying to use the toilet--not the first time we've had to do this on our excursions. There just aren't very many public, free restrooms; most of them you have to pay 50 cents-ish to use them. Ice-cream was the next stop. Today it was jacket/sweater weather so the ice-cream didn't melt all over our arms & elbows. There are vendors selling everything everywhere so it's not hard to take care of yourself throughout an entire day outing.

Our next stop was to ride the metro across town to get to the car dealership. Wow! This was a 5-story glass complex housing thousands of used vehicles. We took lots of pics of their new car, but as sales works, the DVD was not working through the car's sound system so after a 2 1/2 hours wait to get it serviced, etc., we were finally on our way with Patrick taking his first real-live drive into the streets & highways of Moscow. Drivers here are a little more kamikaze & fast in their skills; but the up-side is that most of them use their blinkers, unlike Americans. Christy, the kids, & I spent most of the waiting time exploring the adjoining 7-story new car complex seeing what's new. The building had quite the wow factor. Woo hoo! On each floor there was a little cafe so we got drinks during our wait.

Good news is that the car's wiring finally got taken care of & then there was about 45 minutes worth of paperwork for Patrick to take care of. Megan entertained us with her spastic mood & became the monster teacher from down under. She was a tough one & couldn't pull herself out of this crazy mood.

By the time we left the car dealership (the service station had already locked its doors on us & turned off all our doors), it was after 9. We got our first tank of gas--Patrick knows how that system works now. Our original plan was to get the car & go to the Mega Mall that houses one of their favorite stores--IKEA--to eat salmon for supper in the IKEA cafeteria. By the time we got there, the mall was still open, but the cafe was closed. Food court to the rescue: we ate McDonald's & KFC--Rostiks as it's called here. I guess that means we'll have to come back to Mega Mall again so they can really show me the IKEA.

Our trip home was uneventful & took way less time than renting a taxi or riding the train or bus home. It probably cuts the trip in half, easily--so only 45 minutes as opposed to the hour & some odd minutes is usually takes. We were home by 11 p.m. & hit the hay very quickly, resting for another day in our Russian adventure.