Day 17-20 Russia

We were finally one our way to the Motherland! I had been wanting to go to Russia for so long since it's such a huge part of Max's life.

We had a great time exploring Moscow. It was nice to be in a country where at least one of us understood the language and knew the city really well. It was nice to not get lost and to be able to know what food we were ordering :) We were quite exhausted when we got to Moscow after traveling for so many days but we had 4 days to explore which was really fun.

We also got to celebrate Max's birthday in Moscow which was a fun! Poor kid didn't get a real birthday with cake or presents but I think a trip to Europe is probably good enough:)

First thing we did was make a trip to Red Square. It really is quite an amazing thing to see. To think of all that has happened there is crazy!

 

{visiting Lenin was the coolest thing ever. this was the first thing i wanted to do and i'll admit i was prepping for huge disappointment. but i was not disappointed at all. you walk into a room and there he is...just laying in a huge, ornate coffin. Google some pictures if you want to see. Anyways it felt like we were just at a viewing..of someone who had been dead almost 100 years..pretty neat}

 {st. basil's}

{inside st. basil's where st. basil's body lies} 

these guys were the most incredible! the sound was so powerful!

  {gume...the fanciest shopping mall in Moscow}

 {stalin tore down this beautiful church during his reign. during his reign they destroyed almost every church or religious institution. his plans once he destroyed this church was to build a statue of himself. but before it could be completed he died, so the government turned it into a swimming pool.}

 {a statue of peter the great}

 Our second day in Moscow we got tickets to go inside the Kremlin. It was again another amazing experience. To think of all the powerful men that have ruled from there is crazy. We tour the Amoury which had a collection of things from Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and many of the Tsar's. The amount of riches they had was so incredible. It was cool to see their crowns, dishes, dresses, carriages and weapons. The US has nothing like that (which I like) so it was cool to see.

 {the birthday boy}

 

 {funny story about this picture. we were watching the changing of the guard outside of the kremlin near the eternal flame. i was right up against the wall and about 2 seconds after i took these picture i had a guard come past and physically grab me (near my ribs) and push me out of the way. i was a little caught off guard because i had never had anyone grab me so forcefully before. they kept going and i just switched my attention the changing of the guard. when we got back to Philly we were telling our friends the story about how that was probably the weirdest thing that happened max speaks up "well they said to move away from the wall...in russian...guess i forgot to translate". obviously....sometimes he wasn't the best translator because he would forget to let me in on things like that.}

 

 {catherine the great's palace that she never used because it wasn't good enough...yea i don't think it would be good enough me either...those russians}

{the sign behind max says free wifi..we were always on the look out for free wifi}

 {blini's}

 {russian food is honestly one of my favorite cuisines, weird i know, but i love it. I love borsch (beet soup), pelmeni (like dumplings), sparkling lemonade and peach juice. Almost everything we tried was so yummy!

 

 {moscow has so many beautiful parks}

 {moscow landscape}

 {max's birthday cake...2 cookies}

 

{the hotel gave him a bottle of champagne for his birthday also..such a nice gesture}

 {our last night in moscow was one of my favorites. we had the best dinner with max's teacher masha who had just gotten to Moscow. then we saw an orchestra concert at the famous Bolshoi theater which was such a neat experience}

 {and a little firework show to send us off}

one last funny story:

Max had one meeting so instead of staying at the hotel i thought i would come with and just find a cafe to hang out at. we found max's meeting location but there was no close cafe. i had seen a sign for a mcdonald's a few blocks down the road so told max i would find the mcdonald's and wait for him there. amazingly i found it, since i don't read russian i had to follow the arrows. the mcdonald's was in a food court and i decided to order something while i was waiting. so i went to the mcdonald's counter and realized i couldn't read anything let alone saying anything in russian. so i left and walked around. i found another place that wasn't so busy so i decided to try ordering there. the only thing i could say was coca-cola so i ordered one. the guy told me it was 50 rubles. i hadn't paid for anything in russia so i just tried to think of watching max. he had been paying for our 60 ruble metro passes with coins. so i saw a 50 coin and thought awesome..this is easy. well i gave him the coin and he just laughed at me. i was so confused...so i pulled all of my money out. i saw a paper bill with a 50 and asked if that was right..he just laughed (along with all the other workers) and nodded yes. so i paid and sat and waited for max. a little later i see him looking very panic running up the escalator. he said when he got out of the meeting he realize he had left me alone in Russia! I explained to him how i took care of myself and he just laughed his head off. He said that was a did was pretty much giving 5 cents when i should've given 5 dollars..no wonder they were laughing so hard!