And we're back!

So here I am now sitting in the DENVER airport.....crazy crazy. But I thought that I should write at least one more entry to conclude the 3 weeks of European fun!

We left Berlin on Wednesday, which was excellent considering that they basically had the entire city shut down for Obama's speech. My mom and I got up a little early so that we could go for a walk. I was curious to see if we could see any of the hoopla surrounding Obama's visit -- and we could. We were trying to get to the Tiergarten which is the enormous park on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate -- but we were blocked at almost every attempt. So the way that we ended up going took us past the Ritz which was where he was staying. It was surrounded by police and these weird green tank looking trucks and there were a bunch of men on the roof as well. It was really insane. After a bunch of weaving through the streets, we did actually make it to the park, which was beautiful. We only had a little time there before we needed to head back to the hotel -- and hope to not get blocked.

Weird.....

Tiergarten

Men on top of the Ritz

Guarding the Ritz

That basically concluded our vacation. We got back to the hotel and left shortly after that. We did get to see Air Force One and the two other planes flying with it -- they were at the same airport from which we were leaving, so that was pretty cool! Flights were uneventful except that we had an exciting layover of about 25 minutes (unlike my 7 hour layover right now!). 

Air Force One

I do love being back in America -- I'm headed out to the ranch now for about 6 days and then (finally) headed home to Rochester for about a week before moving to NYC! I do have the domain 'ebsinnyc' reserved...haven't decided exactly how I'm going to use it yet.....suggestions are welcome!

Until next time! 

Last (full) day!

Ok -- this is really going to be quick! But we have had a really nice last day of our trip here in Berlin! We went on the Sandeman's free walking tour this morning which was really great. I had actually been on it before (here in Berlin) and really enjoyed it, so I thought it would be a great way to show my parents the city! It was still a great tour -- even if it was for the second time, and I even learned some new things because we had a different guide than before -- although the one I had before was there today just leading a different group.

What made being here a little different than last time is the fact that Obama is actually here at the moment....he's giving a speech at the Brandenburg Gate tomorrow and so they were setting up the whole thing and there were tons of police milling around everywhere - it was really crazy. Luckily we got to see that area before they shut the whole thing down this afternoon. From there, we saw the memorial to all of the Jewish people murdered during World War II which is really incredible...then stood on top of Hitler's bunker, visited some other squares, saw a still-standing portion of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and ended on Museum Island.

Things getting set up for tomorrow

From the other side 

Memorial

Berliner Dom

To be honest, we didn't do much the rest of the day -- it was super hot and we are tired after 2 long weeks! We did have a WONDERFUL dinner, though, at a place called Meisterstuck which is just around the corner from our hotel. There was creamy white asparagus soup and about 6 different kinds of delicious sausage on top of potato salad and sauerkraut and other cabbage salad and delicious beer and then their "Chocolate & Chocolate" dessert which was a brownie with chocolate ice cream and another piece of chocolate.....wonderful way to end the trip!! 

Yum.

And, again. 

And, again.....

Oh, and this too.....

Walking back to the hotel

I guess the only other kind of cool thing is that the White House Press is staying in our hotel....so we came back to all sorts of signs telling them where to check in and rode the elevator with some of them too! 

A demain?

Being a bum, a concert in the countryside, some old stuff, and onto Berlin!

So I know it's been a whopping 48 hours since I've posted -- or actually more than that, I think. Oh well. There actually wasn't a whole lot to write about yesterday, which I feel slightly guilty about, but I think that everything has worked out well.

Yesterday was our last full day in Moscow and in Russia. I woke up and worked out for a little while and then realized that I wasn't feeling so well. I ate breakfast and then when we met Victoria, I decided to stay behind in the hotel -- especially since it was just going to be a shorter day of sightseeing before going to the concert in the evening. I had a happy time just relaxing and watching some tv on one of the English channels. It was some much needed rest time.

My parents got back to the hotel around 3, and then we ate a little something before Victoria came back to pick us up along with her son! We drove out of the city center about 40 minutes to an estate which was really beautiful. It turned out that it was free to get into all of the buildings and gardens because every 3rd Sunday of the month all of the museums are free.....but the concert that we were going to was in the main house of the estate. We were there early and so we had some time to wander around and see the grounds and buildings. It was really beautiful -- it almost had a Versailles feel -- same type of gardens!

One of the buildings

Estate gardens and main house 

Someone wanted to show off his trig identities! 

At 6, we went into the main house for the concert which was a few students from the Moscow Conservatory -- there were 2 organ players, a clarinetist, and a guitar player. It wasn't the best music I've ever heard (the guitar player was pretty great though) - they were grad students, and as my dad says, I've been spoiled with the music that I've grown up listening to with Eastman being right around the corner from us...but it was a pretty unforgettable atmosphere, and the whole experience was really nice. 

We had a quick dinner at Le Pain Quotidien which is a chain restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It was simple -- clearly not Russian -- but as Victoria said, when Russians, especially in Moscow,  go out to eat, they don't go out to eat Russian food! So technically, we were fitting right in....

This morning I got up and spent a little time in the gym downstairs before heading off for a few last hours of sightseeing. We walked around some parts of Moscow that were next to Red Square -- the oldest parts of the city. Victoria showed us a few things that were definitely off the beaten path -- like a church hidden in the courtyard of a beaten down apartment building and this crazy little museum of architectural artifacts -- there was no one there which was kind of nice! 

Cool flower ball-y things

Hidden church 

It had sort of started to rain at this point but we kept going! We made a stop at a little monastery bakery which had freshly baked Russian rolls -- yum! And then we went on to the Moscow Palace of Romanov Boyers which showed one of the ancient homes of the first Romanovs -- also very interesting. 

Bakery

Museum

From there, it was about time to head back to the hotel so that we could get our bags and head off to the airport! We said goodbye to Victoria and got on our way. The taxi driver was quite a pro, I guess you could say. I think we all saw our lives flash before our eyes at least 3 times from some of the maneuvers he made. It was insane. But we got to the airport with more than enough time to spare...and then our flight was delayed another hour...so we had even more time! Hooray! 

Last view of St. Basil's

Us with Victoria, our lovely guide.

And here we are now in Berlin. We have a lovely room in the Hilton Berlin and have had a fairly relaxing time this evening ending with a nice stroll around the square over which our hotel overlooks. It's really nice. More about that tomorrow though -- this is the only city on this 'tour' that I've already been to -- but it's still a great city. It's interesting to see what's familiar though.

A demain! 

The Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior, a cemetery and Sparrow Hill!

I'd say today was a pretty 'typical' touristy day -- or as typical as a touristy day can get in Moscow I suppose. I had a pretty difficult time waking up, but it was hard to resist the incredible breakfast buffet that they had downstairs. It was about the most extensive buffet I have ever seen -- even my dad who sees many more breakfast buffets than I do, said that it was the nicest he has ever seen. They had everything from made-to-order omelettes to little jars of fresh honey to smoked eel (which I didn't try) to delicious breads and pastries. It was all delicious.

We met our guide Viktoria in the lobby at around 8:50 and set off from there. Our first stop was at The Kremlin which was a little overwhelming. We first had to wait in line to buy tickets which was in itself a confusing situation -- Viktoria left us to wait in one line while she went to wait in another line although we were a little unclear as to why she did that since our line was clearly shorter. But it all worked out and we got tickets and went inside. It's a pretty impressive complex of churches and government buildings and an enormous Soviet structure that's now used for concerts. We had a lovely stroll in the gardens from which we could see Putin's new helicopter landing pads. How convenient. I think we went into 4 different cathedrals which were pretty different from any others we've seen -- much older and covered with depictions of the icons from the Russian Orthodox faith.

Kremlin Gardens 

Putin's Landing Pads 

Old Palace in the Kremlin 

From there, we made a pass through Red Square and headed into the Russian State Historical Museum. It started with artifacts from thousands of years ago and went up through the history of the 18th century or so -- interesting! After that, we took our first ride on the Moscow metro -- I think it's supposed to be pretty cool, but the stations we saw just seemed pretty ordinary. Hopefully we'll get to do a little more adventuring with the metro tomorrow. 

Red Square

We had lunch at a nice Italian chain restaurant that Viktoria had recommended. We usually request places that aren't touristy and full of people and so that's where we ended up! I continued my "carbonara testing project" which proved to be very successful, and then for dessert, we split their homemade sour cream cake which was amazing. It seemed like it was about 8 crepes that were layered with a cheesecake-type filling. So so delicious. We then walked around the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior which gave us a nice view of the city and then after I made a makeshift skirt from my scarf (shorts were not allowed), we went inside. During Soviet times, the Cathedral was destroyed and a swimming pool was built in its place, so it was just in the last 20 years of so that it has been rebuilt -- opened again on the eve of the millennium. Crazy. 

View of the Kremlin

Cathedral of Christ Our Savior

The afternoon was pretty much a drive out beyond the center of the city. We saw a lot of cool things that wouldn't have been possible to see without Viktoria or a car. She took us to the cemetery where Khrushchev and Yeltsin are both buried along with a bunch of other famous Russia people. Then we went up to Sparrow Hill which is right in front of the Moscow State University (in one of Stalin's Seven Sisters buildings). From there, we got a great view over the whole city. It being Saturday, all of these brides and wedding parties were up there taking pictures -- too funny. And all of the dresses were absolutely awful....

View of Monastery and Cemetery

Cemetery

View from Sparrow Hill

I was pretty beat at this point -- but we were nearing the end of our day. We started to head back towards the middle of the city and on the way we stopped at a place called Poklonnaya Hill which is a war memorial honoring World War II. Very peaceful and powerful. Then we headed back to our hotel seeing some other cool things along the way. Before settling in for the night, we made a quick pass through the Gulag Museum which is just across the street from our hotel. I think it could in some ways be equated to going to an old concentration camp in Germany or Poland -- definitely a good thing to do. It actually turned out to be mostly about the life of Leon Trotsky -- and since I knew nothing about him before, it was all quite interesting! 

Poklonnaya Hill

Again

Very interesting and informative day! I think it's time for a little time in the hot tub! 

A demain.

Moscowwwwwwwwwwww.

Ok, before getting to Moscow, I want to rewind to dinner last night before the ballet -- which I thought was delicious! Like I said, we ate at this somewhat touristy restaurant called Sadko which was just across the street from the Mariinsky Theater where we were seeing the ballet at 8. It was kind of bizarre and it seemed like only big groups of foreign tourists were eating there before they went across to the ballet. There was a huge table in the middle of the dining room which had autographed plates from famous people that had eaten there -- again, a dubious sign.

But I decided to order what my mom had gotten the day before -- chicken wrapped in breadcrumbs and then sauteed (or maybe baked -- it's unclear) and then I asked for potato pancakes instead of the mashed potatoes -- those were a little less impressive, but oh well. But what was kind of funny was that it was literally little cubes of break stuck all over the chicken. And the chicken was ground up and then made into cutlet shapes, which sounds weird but it was really good. Oh, and the chocolate cake was incredible too.

Russian specialty! 

Delicious chocolate cake....

Today, we left St. Petersburg and headed for Moscow. We got kind of a slow start this morning, which normally wouldn't be a terrible thing, but we were trying to see the French impressionist paintings at the Hermitage before our train at 1:30. We left for the Hermitage around 10:45 and traffic wasn't really cooperating. Getting to the Hermitage and around that area proves to be very difficult and crowded. But we got there, spent about 45 minutes seeing just a few things, and then it painfully took almost 30 minutes to get back to the hotel. We were supposed to leave the hotel for the train station at 12:15, we got back after 12:30, left for the station around 12:45 -- and once again, traffic wasn't helping. I think we were all prepared to miss the train...but were still hoping we wouldn't. And somehow with just a few minutes to spare, we made it on and to our seats! The train ride was about 4 and a half hours which seemed to pass rather quickly. The countryside is so green and dotted with somewhat depressing little villages which were interesting to see. 

We arrived in Moscow around 6 and were met by a car from our hotel. Once again, I've been extremely spoiled with all of the hotels we are staying in. We are currently at the Marriott Aurora which is right around the corner from Red Square and Saint Basil's Cathedral. Hard to beat the location. It's a beautiful hotel and because my dad is the best, we are able to use the Executive Lounge - which is where I am now because it's where I can get internet! Once again, it's not free in the rooms...it's been hard, but somehow I'm surviving. We had some snacks in the lounge for dinner and then took a stroll around the area. It's definitely different from St. Petersburg. Moscow seems much more international and busy as a city. There are tons of young people and everyone is dressed up and looks nice all the time. Definitely a shift. 

Moscow Train Station

Part of the Kremlin (I think)

St. Basil's Cathedral -- sorry, there will probably be tons of pictures of this because I just think it's so cool....

Once again

Tomorrow, we'll start to actually learn what we're looking at and what the history is behind everything! I really like the feel of Moscow (pronounced Mos-co rather than Mos-cow) and I'm excited to spend more time here! 

A demain! 

Boat tour, two churches, and the ballet.

I've gotten in a bad habit of setting out to write an entry and then getting sidetracked by something else on the internet, and then by the time I get back to actually writing, I'm tired and just want to go to bed. So I'll just give a very brief overview of today with some pictures and then I'm off.

We rushed off this morning to a canal boat tour which was pretty cool. We got to see the bajillion palaces of St. Petersburg from the water this time -- very cool.

Super pretty Soviet architecture.....

Another view from the boat

From there, we walked down Nevsky Prospect which is St. Petersburg's major street. We stopped in the church where all of the Romanovs got married which was pretty over the top. After that, we walked to St. Isaac's Cathedral which is closer to the Hermitage -- it has the 4th largest church dome after St. Peter's in Rome, the Duomo in Florence, and St. Paul's in London -- all of which I have actually been to. 

Walking down Nevsky Prospect

Church

Inside St. Issac's

Selfie in St. Issac's.......couldn't resist posting this gem

After that, we decided to give the St. Petersburg metro system a tried -- we were successful and saw some pretty cool stations! And rode some of the longest escalators ever....

View up the escalator

Inside one of the stations

Tonight we had an early dinner at a restaurant called Sadko (I think) -- I was pleasantly surprised about how delicious it was - more about the meal tomorrow. Probably the highlight of the day was going to the ballet at the Mariinsky Theater tonight. We saw La Bayadere which was absolutely beautiful. Annoying people taking pictures all around us, but oh well. Such is life. The theater was pretty incredible too!! 

Mariinsky Theater 

And now I'm about to fall asleep -- so more tomorrow as we are off to Moscow. A demain!