Hawaii Bound

My dad decided that the best way to celebrate his 65th birthday was to take the family to Kauai I had flashbacks to the Hawaiian episode of the Brady Bunch. Fortunately, no one on this trip found a cursed tiki .

While I'm not much for sitting on the beach vacations (thanks to my irish heritage I go straight from white to red to spotted), it is really hard to pass up a mostly-free trip regardless of the destination. So on August 24th I boarded the plane in for a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Kauai.

There is not much to say about this trip other than I completed all of the required Hawaii activites: laying at the pool, snorkeling and of course we went to a luau. I also checked off a few optional activities as well: Kauai movie tour, plantation intertube trip, and eating true Hawaiian shaved ice (served with coconut milk and red beans).

Here are the highlights...

Kauaii Movie Tour: Normally I wouldn't recommend a tour in Hawaii where you spend most of hte day indoors but this was definitely an exception. We drove all over the island in a small bus equiped with a television. In the bus the guide would show scenes from movies filmed on Kauai and by the time the scene was over, we had arrived at the site where the scene was shot. I was surprised not only by how many films were filmed on the island but also by how often the island was posing as another destination all together: Vietnam in Tropic Thunder, Costa Rica and Jurassic Park in Jurassic Park, Peru in Raiders of the Lost Arc, as well as many others.

Snorkeling the Napali Coast: My brother Patrick, Cousin Cecilia and I spent one day taking a boat tour to the Napali coast for a morning of snorkeling. The boat ride was beautiful and educational. We learned all about the Napali coast (just don't ask me to remember) and then had 45 minutes to jump in the water and snorkel. At first I didn't think the snorkeling was going to be all that great. Sure I saw some fish and coral, but not nearly as many varities as I would expect in the tropical waters. But once I got a little further out from the boat (apparently not where we were supposed to be) I came across a lone sea turtle. I looked up to see if there was anyone around that I could share this with but didn't see anyone. I swam back towards the boat until I found Cecilia and dragged her back out with me. Both of us were thrilled when we found the turtle again. I have to say that after seeing him I was that much more impressed with Pixar because he looked just like the turtles in the movies. Unlike the movie, however, the turtle flat out refused to give me a high five.

Plantation Tubing Tour: Sometime int he last 20 years or so one of the last sugar plantations on Kauai closed it's doors. Rather than let the complex irrigation system that was built to hydrate the sugar plants go to waste, some entrepreneur decided it would be a good idea to get gullible tourists to pay to ride down them in an intertube. Well, we were among the gullible tourists that they targeted but it was well worth the price of admission. In nothing but a swimsuit and a hard hat, my mom, dad, brother, cousin and I all hopped into intertubes and leisurely floated down the ditch. Most of the ditch is open to the elements but every once in a while, it flowed through a shallow, man-made tunnel. It was for this reason that we had to wear hard hats equiped with head lamps. When we got to the longest of the tunnels the group was given the option to ride through in the dark.

Utah - Maob-ulous

Always up for an adventure (in case you're wondering, I like to travel), it didn't take much to for Jenni to convince me to spend Memorial Day weekend in Moab, Utah. You might be asking yourself, why Utah? or better yet, why Moab? or even where's Moab? Well, for me, it was the location suggested and planned out by Jenni. For her, who ever really knows...

We flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday night and spent the night a few blocks away from the Mormon Temple in downtown SLC. In order to feel like spending the night in SLC was worth our time, we did a Temple drive-by in the morning before embarking on our 4 hour drive to Moab in the south eastern part of the state.

We headed straight to Canyonlands National Park. First stop was the visitor center where Jenni found out what we should see and I learned the difference between a mesa and a butte. Since I'm sure you all are dying to know, I'll fill you in... a mesa is wider than it is tall and a butte is taller than it is wide. I taught Jenni my new factoid and then persisted to test her on this throughout the weekend (I'm hoping she'll forgive me for this soon).

How do I describe Canyonlands? Well there are a lot of canyons filled with... mesas and buttes. We drove around and did a few short hikes to see all the sites that Canyonlands had to offer. Apparently, the guides in the visitor center suggested the same itinerary to just about everyone that asked because we saw the same people at every stop.

On Sunday, Jenni and I tried our hands at mountain biking. While I do in fact own a mountain bike, it has never been ridden on a mountain... or even off road. The one and only time I went mountain biking (about 12 years ago) I can't say I really enjoyed it all that much so I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. My anxiety increased when we met up with the rest of the group and I was the only one with essentially no mountain biking experience. When Jack (a 65 year old retired doctor) started making his bike bounce as if on a trampoline, I was about ready to turn around and head back to the hotel. However, once we got going, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was enjoying myself. This is not to say that I wasn't afraid for my life everytime a rock stood in the route, but I did think about actually taking my own bike off road (maybe). The hardest thing was just watching where I was going because the scenery was so beautiful that you could easily find your eyes and mind wandering. Fortunately, our guide, Brian, gave us ample time to stop and take pictures.

Monday morning we decided to start the day with a hearty breakfast before heading to Arches National Park. Unfortunately we chose poorly. We went to a coffee shop that served bland, dry bagels (me) and chocolate oatmeal (Jenni). It was really the lure of the chocolate oatmeal that made Jenni want to go there but it turns out that it is just really dry oatmeal mixed with chocolate syrup. I think Jenni would agree that it was not the highlight of the trip. But it did give us the energy we needed for a couple of hikes to see some of the most spectacular naturally occurring arches we've ever seen. I think we were both disappointed when it was time to head back to Salt Lake City for our return flight home.

Russia - Random Tips & Observances

I just got back home and have somehow found some energy to write one last blog entry. Jenny and I made note of quite a few tips and other things that just seemed to stand out but never seemed to make it into another entry so here they are for your reading pleasure.

1. I've often heard the phrase blue-haired old ladies but I've never really seen an old lady with blue hair. Here in Russia, they have purple-haired old ladies and they actually have purple hair. The first time I saw this I figured it was a fluke but quickly learned that this is a respected style.

2. Both the Lonely Planet and Frommer's are out of date. For example, Lonely Planet mentions that there are a plethora of internet cafes, but after going seeking out two in Jenny's book and four in mine, we found all but one has closed. The St. Petersburg in Your Pocket guide that we got at the hotel proved much more useful than either guide.

3. It is in your best interest to not only look both ways before crossing the street, but to run while doing so. Cars tend to speed up when they see you.

4. Near the Kremlin in Moscow it costs 15 rbls. to use the porta-potty. I recommend walking a block and using the bathroom at the Ritz Carlton for free. It much more pleasant and had running water.

5. In search of a quick, tasty bite to eat? Jenny's favorite (and I liked it too) is Tepemok. They serve up a tasty bliny (pancake) filled with your choice of savory or sweet fillings. Best yet, they are cheap and reliable. Yum yum good.

6. Women really like their nylon s here in Russia. I'm not sure I've seen a single girl over the age 12 go bare-legged. Whether they are wearing a skirt, shorts or capri pants one thing is certain, they will have on nylons.

7. Before going to Russia I highly recommend learning the Cyrillic alphabet. This will be pretty easy for those of you that were in a Sorority or Fraternity or studied math or engineering as it seems to be a hybrid between the Roman and Greek alphabets. Not only is it fun to try and read signs while wandering the streets, it becomes extremely important in trying to find the restaurants listed in guidebooks or read the maps they provide since they always translate everything phonetically into English. Unfortunately, restaurants and street signs don't always do this. You will also find quite a lot of English words are used by translating into Russian... for example finding and internet cafe requires you to look for "ИНТЕΡΗΕΤ ΚΑФЕ".

8. Watch your step while walking in Russia. Men spit quite a lot here. Perhaps it is all the dust in the air from all the construction.

9. Book your trains before heading to Russia. Not all holidays are posted in the Lonely Planet and trying to get a last minute ticket on a holiday weekend can prove difficult and costly.

10. For women in Russia, it is definitely fashion before function. Almost every woman you see is wearing extremely high heals everywhere. I'm not just referring to going to work, we saw them in museums, parks, shopping centers, etc.

11. The sidewalks are extremely uneven (making the women wearing high heals even more impressive). I think Jenny and I each tripped a dozen times a day due to this. Hopefully when they finish reconstructing all the buildings, they will start working on the roads and sidewalks.

12. Man-purses never really took off in the US but nearly every guy here (ok, maybe only 10 %) carries one with pride. I'm not talking about briefcases or camera cases either, these are truly man-purses.

13. I look Russian... and so does Jenny. At least all the people that attempted to ask us questions on the street seemed to think so. We would just stare blanking at them and smile and they usually got the hint. When that wouldn't work, we'd add in a shrug.

14. Vodka might be the drink most associated with Russia, but beer is the people's drink. No matter what time of day, you will see men (and sometime women) walking down the street, beer in hand. Sometimes a beer in each hand.

15. If you don't like beer, you can buy a can of Gin & Tonic. I never actually saw anyone drinking this (although we did see an empty can next to a guy passed out on the metro) but billboards were everywhere.

16. I highly recommend showering in the evenings. Some of you may prefer morning showers, but by the end of your first day walking around Russia, you will most likely convert. By the end of the day we were always covered in dust (did I mention there is a lot of construction here?) and smelling of smoke (everyone smokes in Russia) and I can't recommend lying down in clean sheets like that.

17. Bring a big memory stick for you camera because they allow you take pictures everywhere. For an extra couple of rubles, you can take pics inside museums and palaces, even at the ballet during the performance. They only seem to forbid tripods.

18. They sell the oddest things on the trains to the suburbs. If you are looking for band-aids, needles, passport covers or socks, look no further than the suburbs train.

19. "Meat" is good. I recommend the "meat" bliny (pancakes), "meat" pelmini (dumplings), and "meat" pies. This mysterious "meat" can be found in just about anything and tastes delicious.

20. These are a few of my favorite road signs for your enjoyment.

Russia - No Hydrofoil for Us

The ballet, Cinderella, was not what I expected. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it, I just expected a more-classic version since we were seeing it at the Mariinsky Theater. Instead of the mice, Jaques and Gus, this Cinderella was guided by the four season (not the singing group, but rather winter, spring, summer and fall). The theater itself, was a bit run down, but at least this time we were able to see the prince find his princess at the end.

Ever since my cousin Jason sent me a list of must-sees in Russia, I've been looking forward to taking the hydrofoil to Petrodovets (aka Peterhof) . In fact, I've been wondering exactly what a hydrofoil was. Unfortunately for us, the hydrofoils don't start going to Peterhof until next week. I guess we beat tourist season by a week. We spent the next hour or so trying to find another way to Peterhof. Jenny's guidebook indicated that there are a lot of buses that will take you from the main street for about $20. But all we could find were tours that ran 1,800 rbls. (~$85) in english or 1,300 rbls. (~$60) in Russian. So we continued on to the Baltisky train station to take a suburban train. Turns out the only train wasn't scheduled to leave until 4:00, but there were supposed to be buses and Marshrutkas (mini-vans). After a little searching we found the right marshrutka and it only cost 100 rbls total (~$2 each). A much better deal, although, we were never confident that we were on the right marshrutka until we pulled up in front of the palace.

The palace at Peterhof is quite amazing. It is surronded by golden fountains (unfortunately they don't start running until May 31st) and is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. I looked for Finland, but I couldn't see quite that far. The park surrounding the palace was quite nice as well if it weren't for all the little bugs. I didn't see them, but they saw me and had a feast.

Today we went to Catherine's Palace in the town of Pushkin. This time we were able to find and take a suburban train. The train trip itself, made the day worthwhile. People came on to sell us bandaids, needles and socks and a gentleman sat next to us and played the accordian. Jenny made friends with the Russian woman sitting across from her. She gave Jenny a coin and pointed out sights through the window. Too bad we don't speak Russian and had no idea what she was showing us. She tried to find it in Jenny's tour book, but it wasn't listed so I guess we'll never know what she so badly wanted Jenny to see. At least she was able to tell us when to get off because we never would have figured this out on our own.

We walked to Catherine's Palace from the train station and were pleasantly surpised by how short the line to get in was. That is, until we realized that this was just the line to get into the park. The line for the palace was quite a bit longer. In fact, we had to wait well over an hour and just made it in before the cutoff (they only let individuals in from 12:00 to 2:00, after that it is reserved for tours). The palace was much like all of the others we've seen with the exception of the amber room. This is a room where all of the walls are lined with amber stone. Although it is the only room that you are not allowed to take pictures in, they did nothing to stop Jenny from photographing from just outside.

After making our way through the palace, we meandered through the park for a while. We saw the pyramid where Catherine the Great buried her favorite dogs... what she did with the others is anyones guess.

We made a quick stop at Pavlovsk before returning to St. Petersburg. Pavlovsk is another park & palace about 4 km further south. It is supposedly one of the most exquisitely landscaped parks in all of Russia, but I hope this is not true. There was nothing "landscaped" about it. They seemed to just cut down a bunch of trees to make a path.

In a few hours we will head back to Moscow and then back home. I will try to write one more time, but just in case, thanks for reading.

Russia - Happy International Labour Day!

We have been having a hard time finding inexpensive train tickets for our return trip to Moscow because of the holiday. We kept asking the consierge which holiday, but she didn't know. Lonely Planet mentions Victory Day on May 9th, but nothing on May 1st, but according the section on Belarus it is International Labour Day. I'm guessing that Russia must celebrate this too since they are a nation. The real question is, why don't we get this day off in the States? We're a nation too, right?

We had to go to the train station to purchase train tickets for Saturday night since the ticket center that the consierge uses is closed today for the holiday. She wrote down the information that we needed, but without the help of a friendly Russian, we would have failed for sure. Even with her help, we ended up on the slowest overnight train (12 hours) arriving in Moscow at 2:00 PM. It was either this or pay 12,000 Rubles each for an 8 hour train. At least, we will get to see some of the country-side during the ride.

After our adventure at the train station, we took the metro to Vasilesvsky Island. This is just across the Neva river from the Historic District of St. Petersburg. We walked through the Menshikov Palace which is free the first Thursday fo the month and attempted, against Tracy and Andy's advice, to go to the Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography. The attempt failed because the museum was closed for the holiday.

We walked around the tip of the island and made our way to the Peter & Paul Fortress. There is a small beach there and much of the town was sunbathing along the river, including men that really shouldn't be wearing speedos and women that really shouldn't be wearing bikinis. Once inside the fortress it was really no surprise to find it under construction. We were still able to go inside the Cathedral, which was fabulous in all it's golden glory.

After leaving the fortress we walked across a few bridges and found ourselves near the entrance to the Summer Garden and this time it was open, and there were May flowers. The Summer Palace isn't really that impressive, especially after the last few palaces that we've seen, but we took pictures all the same.

We had a delicious lunch of Georgian dumplings (something between a ravioli and a pot sticker) and are currently killing some time until our scheduled evening entertainment. We will be taking in the ballet Cinderella at the Mariinsky Theater.

Russia - St. Petersburg is Under Construction

It is day two in St. Pete's and one thing is becoming very obvious... the entire city is under construction. We started off the day at the Russian Museum. It took us a few minutes to find the entrance since the entire front of the building is covered in scaffolding. We did find our way inside but were escorted throughout the building by the sounds of chisels and hammers. The museum itself was fairly nice, but I think at this point I've seen all I can take of Russian artists of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries for this trip.

After leaving the museum, we made our way towards the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood. This looked a lot like St. Basil's in Moscow and we regulary called it St. Basil's 2 for simplicity. The gruesome name is based on the fact that this is the spot where Czar Alexander II was murdered. Unfortunately the church was closed as many sights seem to be on Wednesdays in St. Pete's, so we settled for some pics of the outside and moved on.

Our next stop was the Summer Gardern and Summer Palace. However, these were closed as well, not because it is Wednesday, but rather because it is April. Apparently they are waiting for the May flowers to come in before re-opening to the public. Perhaps we'll try again tomorrow.

Russia - The Road to St. Pete's

We shared a compartment on the train to St. Pete's with two Russian gentlemen, Andrei and Sergei. They were in Moscow for a business trip and were returning home to St. Petersburg. Andrei spoke reasonably good english and served us our first caviar (and last for me) of the trip. I'm not sure I understand what people see in eating salty, fishy smelling, fish eggs. I took one bite and gave mine to Jenny. Although she ate the bread with butter and caviar on top, even she said she would have preferred to just have the bread and butter. From what Andrei and Sergei told us, the tradition on the train is to drink lots of beer and smoke. We passed on the beer and cigarettes and opted for sleep instead.

We arrived in St. Petersburg unshowered and sticky at about 8:00 in the morning and took a taxi to the hotel in hopes of checking in early, showering and napping before heading into town for sightseeing. Although, our hopes of getting a room so early were dashed, we did get some coffee. After resting in the lobby, sipping coffee for a while, we headed into town to attempt to buy train tickets for the return trip to Moscow at the central train ticket office. We waited in a non-moving line (this seems to be the trend for most ticket lines in Russia) for a while before we realized that we didn't have enough money to purchase a ticket anyway. At least we killed time until the Hermitage opened.

It is hard to describe the Hermitage properly. It is more than a museum really. It would have been worth the price of admission even if there was not a single painting hanging on the wallls.

After wandering the rooms of the Hermitage for hours, even looking at a painting or two, we headed out in search of food. We stopped at the first reasonable looking cafe we found. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a waiter for the non-smoking section so after about 30 minutes of being told to wait, we decided not to wait any longer and went in search of a new place. The service at the next cafe was not that much better, but at least we got the attention of a waitress eventually and were able to order some food.

Finally we headed back to the hotel for a shower, but decided to stop and climb to the top of the colonnade at St. Isaac's Cathedral first. We were already sweaty and sticky from our night on the train and day in St. Pete's so it seemed like a perfect time to climb 262 steps. The view from the top was nice, but our desire to shower was greater, so after a few pictures, we headed back down the spiral staircase and headed to the hotel.

Russia - Last Days in Moscow... for now

Sunday was Easter here in Russia. To celebrate we decided to head to the Novodevichy Convent and Cemetary. After spending the morning looking at the graves of unknown, but rich, Russians, we headed back to the main part of town and went on the literary walking tour recommended by the Lonely Planet. If you ever decide to go to Moscow, I don't think I would recommend it. It's not that it was bad, but how many statues and homes of Pushkin do you really need to see?

On Monday, our last day in Moscow before heading to St. Petersburg, we were at a loss of what to do. We started with checking out the Diamond Fund at the Kremlin. It is a very dark room full of angry looking guards, gold, diamonds, and other precious jewels. Apparently, the Russians take their jewelry very seriously because some kid turned to yell at Jenny when she laughed at some joke I made about Catherine the Greats coronation crown.

Next we walked along Arbat Street. This was sort of like 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica. Closed off to cars, it was a mix of souvenier shops, cafes and American fast food joints. It was here that we saw our first Starbucks. I was starting to worry that Starbucks still hadn't made its dent into Russia.

We still had a few hours to kill before our night train to St. Pete's so we went in search of the american movie theater at the Radison hotel. Unfortunately, this closed (no one at the hotel seemed to know it ever existed). So instead we sat in the lobby and rested for about an hour and then took the metro back to the Kremlin to see a perfomance of Swan Lake. We had to take off before the ballet ended, but I'm confident the prince found his swan princess at the end.

Russia - Top Ten Lessons Learned on the Moscow Metro

A la David Letterman I thought I'd share some things that Jenny and I learned by taking the Moscow Metro.

10. Escalator arm rails move at a faster pace than the escalator itself.
9. Riding escalators backwards to talk to your friends or make out with your girlfriend/boyfriend is common and socially acceptable.
8. Operable windows are allowed in underground trains. I've never seen this so I just assumed that this was a bad idea, but apparently they are a good (and perhaps only) source of ventilation on trains.
7. Befriend a Russian before attempting to purchase metro tickets.
6. The center of the earth is much cooler that we were taught in elementary school.
5. It is easy to get lost inside the station so look for the big escalators (works 90% of the time).
4. Metro stations are a good place to pick up essentials, such as swords, keys, and underwear.
3. Signs in the metro stations are color coded to match the maps. This significantly reduces the time needed to find the right train.
2. Just look for the first three characters of the next station on your route to determine the direction you want to head. This is much faster than looking for your destination station.
1. And the most important lesson... Never take the metro during rush hour. I cannot stress this enough. Just don't do it.

Russia - Hot Chocolate... Pudding?

It is our third day in Moscow and we found out where Russians eat (or at least could if they wanted) breakfast. I ordered a cup of tea and a muffin and Jenny got hot chocolate and a croissant. Everything seemed normal enough when they brought the food and drinks to our table, except there was a weird chocolate topping on Jenny's cup of hot chocolate. We figured they topped hot chocolate with chocolate instead of whipped cream in Russia. Except upon further inspection, the chocolate topping went all the way to the bottom of the cup. I guess hot chocolate in Russia is actually warm chocolate pudding. I guess that is why they brought Jenny a glass of water with her breakfast.

After breakfast we returned to the Red Square, this time to take a peak in the Lenin Mausoleum. While in line we were able to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Two guards marched in, in a very CanCan-esque way, faced off with the two on duty and then switched spots. We watched the two departing soldiers dance, I mean march their way back across the park. We finally made it to the front of the line to see Lenin. After waiting in the bright sunlight for about an hour, the mausoleum was very dark. We had to navigate a dark maze with the help of appropriately placed guards before we rounded the last corner and saw Lenin himself. He was very waxy and looked like a display in Madame Tousard's Wax Museum. We stopped to take a better look, but were quickly rushed on by angry looking guards.

After the Mausoleum we headed off to the Tretyakov Gallery (lots of portraits of unknown (to me) Russians), Gorky Park (New York's Central Park meets the Santa Cruz Boardwalk), the Peter the Great Monument (gawky monument of Peter on a pirate ship) and to the Christ the Savior Cathedral (ornate, modern Cathedral) before returning to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.

Russia - Don't Take the Metro at Rush Hour

We woke up this morning bright and early ready to check out Moscow and everything it had to offer. Now that we had our metro tickets and new roughly how to get to the Red Square, we headed off. I remember reading in the Lonely Planet that taking the metro during rush hour was not recommended, however we had no idea how bad an idea this was. We barely made it through the doors but had nothing to hold on to. Turns out, handrails aren't that important at rush hour because we were packed so tight that there was no where to fall. The worst part was the rush of people getting off and on at each station... I was sure that one of us was going to get pushed out and we would be split up.

Fortunately, we made it in one piece to our station. We decided to try a new route to the Red Square today, which was another bad idea. This time, instead of following onion domes to our destination, we followed the people. Too bad they didn't work at the Kremlin because they did not lead us to the Red Square.

Once we did finally make it to the Red Square we went in search of breakfast and more importantly, coffee. Turns out Russians like to eat at home. We finally found a 24 hour cafe. No one there spoke english but we somehow managed to order a cup of coffee. Except it was espresso, but not. Espresso was on the menu so we tried something else that we hoped was just coffee. It was strong and bitter, but at least it was chalk full of caffeine.

We found a bakery nearby for a little sustanance before heading to the Kremlin. We bought our tickets for the Armory and headed right in. The Armory was actually used to build arms and had a large amount of armory and weapons on display. This was not mentioned in either of our tour books, they preferred to describe the jewels and fabrege eggs on display.

Apparently during the time that we were in the Armory, the tour buses must have arrived because it took another hour to buy our tickets and enter the Kremlin. The Kremlin is made up of a number of office buildings surrounding 6 or 7 magnificent onion-domed cathedrals. Are tickets granted us entry into a few of them. The Archangle Cathedral was filled to the brim with coffins. Our tour through it was accompanied by the singing of a small choir. The music made for a perfect soundtrack to our tour, but it was a bit strange to see the women dressed in very propper Orthodox clothing but wearing leopard print scraves on their heads.

We spend the rest of the day meandering through the Kremlin, Red Square and adjacent area.

Russia - 1st Day in Moscow

Well, we arrived in Moscow at 10:00 AM with big plans to make use of the day. However, the kids sitting in the rows around us had other plans. They proceeded to spend the entire time on the airplane kicking and grabbing our seats, yelling, laughing and screaming. It did not make for good sleeping. As a result, by the time we checked in to our hotel room, neither Jenny nor I had the energy to do anything but sleep.

Around 6:00 PM we roused from our naps and decided to find our way to the Red Square. Turns out, not a whole lot of people know how to speak english here in Russia... After attempting on our own to purchase Metro tickets and failing big time, we sought the help of a friendly english-speaking Russian. It took a few tries before a woman took pity on us and helped us, but not without laughing at us for trying to get by without knowing any Russian.

Once we bought our tickets and figured out how to use them, we descended the longest, steepest escalator into the center of the earth where the trains are located. Apparently the metro was designed to double as a bomb shelter which is supposed to explain the depth. It took us a few minutes to match the Cyrillic characters on the signs to those on the map to determine which train and direction we were looking for. Once on the train, we needed to pay special attention to how many stops we made to figure out when to get off because there was know way we were going to be able to match the announcement to the names of the stops since we did not know what they sounded like.

Once we got off the metro, finding the Red Square was another adventure. Everytime we saw a building with an onion dome, we headed toward it. Unfortunately every other building seemed to have one. But finally we saw a multi-colored, Disneyland-esque dome and knew we were finally heading the right direction. We finally made it! After taking a significant number of pictures (I hope to post some soon) we went in search of food. The first few places we saw, TGI Fridays, McDonnalds, and Sbarro's were out of the question, but we eventually found a food court where we managed to point and smile our way to an interesting dinner of oily potato with stroganov (me) or stew (jenny) on top. Then it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

Russia - Why Russia?

It is just under 12 hours before I board the plane for my Russian Adventure and I thought it was time to introduce you all to my blog. On past trips I sent out email updates describing a little of my experiences so that you could get a sense of what the country is like and, more importantly, so I could rub in the fact that I'm on vacation and you're not.

So now as I get ready to head off I thought I'd answer a few questions that I've been hearing a lot lately.

Q1. Are you excited?

A. Yes, excited and nervous. I booked the trip so long ago that I thought I'd have plenty of time to plan out what I wanted to do. Now that the day has arrived, I better hurry up with the planning.

Q2. Are you packed?

A. Not yet. I am definitely my parent's child when it comes to this. When I was growing up my mom decided to read a self-help book on procrastination and I'm fairly certain that the book mark is somewhere in chapter 4. What she did learn in those first 3 1/2 chapters is that the people that are most likely to procrastinate are perfectionists. So I like to think that I'm not procrastinating by sitting at my desk setting up and writing this blog instead of packing, I'm just waiting until I can be sure I pack perfectly.

Q3. Of all the places to go, why Russia?

A. Well... why not? Here are a few more reasons.

1. My cousin Jason lived in St. Petersburg for a while and since he is my only older cousin, and therefore my wisest cousin, I should go see what the fuss is about.
2. My brother Patrick forced me to listen to the Beatles non-stop from 1987 to 1990 and the song "Back in the U.S.S.R" was a regular on the playlist.
3. I really liked the animated movie Anastasia about Anastasia Romanov as the lone survivor of the assasinated Romanov family as told in the musical Disney format and wanted to see if any modern day Russians look anything like the drawing of Rasputin.
4. I was able to get a free flight using my Delta frequent flyer miles.
5. According to facebook I've traveled to about 10% of the world and I wanted to see if I could double it with just one trip.

I will attempt to update this blog every couple of days and hope you will take a look and send me your comments. Now, I better go pack.