First Train Ride...

So last Friday t 11:59pm Moscow Time I boarded my first ever train ride. It was an overnight to Moscow from St. Pete. They gave us little cookies and had our beds all made up (and there were instructions in English).

We arrived in Moscow around 8AM and went to a cafe for yummy blinni with "cottage cheese" (sweet cheese). Then took a bus tour of Moscow.

Places we stopped and got out: Red Square, Novedomchimy (sp?) Convent and Cemetary (where Yeltin and Kruchev and Golgol and others are buried), A Caherdral that Stalin tore down and then the Federation rebuilt (the one that Stlin planned to build the Palace of Soviets on, and was also a pool- in which I guide had swum), Lookout over the city

Places we drive by: Old wall of Moscow, Stalin's Sisters (skyscrapers), where the Olympics took place, FSB headquaters, new business district, random buildings and neighrbor hoods iun Moscow.

On our way to the hotel, we got stuck in a 2 hour trffic jam. We got to listen to 1990's pop music mixed in with Russian Techno (for the 5 of us that stayed awake on the way there.

That night a few of us went out to Hard Rock Cafe Moscow, where I got a YUMMY veggie burger that I literally inhaled in less than 15 minutes. It was heaven on earth (says the girl that protein has been in the form of eggs or PB for 2 months). Got some suviners and walked around Arbat Street. Then we went on an adventure to iscover what this cool looking building was, but got distracted by flashing lights for a while.

I got a cup of hot cocoa that was actually hot cocoa not melted chocolate. Then some little snotty kid tried to steal it from me in the street. Not even kidding, he rn up to us (a group of 5: 3 boys 2 girls) and started yelling at me in Russian and tried to grap my hot cocoa. I yelled back "Net" and we walked really fast away from him. Interesting experience, we laughed bout it for a few minutes, as we glanced back at him like "What was that about?"

Found the building (it was an aprtment building) then we found the "white house" or the Russian State government building tha Yeltin stood on a tank in front of and bombed later. We got some pictures and then continued to make jokes about how that is where Putin's tiger cub (hat he got for his bday) got to run around freely (and that is what happens to political prisioners :] )