River Cruise

So recently Jolene and I went of a river cruise on the Moscow River.  Yes it is the middle of winter so yep we were on an ice breaker ship.  It was pretty cool, no pun intend.. okay well maybe it was.  Anyway we had a good time.

This was the type of boat we were on.

The cruise was about two hours long, substantially shorter than the summer cruises, but breaking ice takes a bit more time so the trip isn't as far as the others.  As the boats break the ice, the water starts to freeze again and a low fog also forms above the river.  The effect is pretty cool.

The beer selection was not all that great so I went with a local Russian beer.  Kinda reminded me of Budweiser.  Oh well I was there for the experience, not the beer.  The experience was pretty cool  We plan on taking the cruise again at night when it's warmer.  Looking forward to getting some pictures of the city then.

Is it me or is she looking more Russian?

As we approached Gorky Park, we turned around and headed back.  You can see how thick the fog had gotten.  If you look close you can see the Russian Buran (shuttle).  This is in Gorky Park.  I still need to make it there, but we're going to wait till it gets warmer and nicer out.

We actually went with a group of other first or second tour diplomats, some from other embassies.

And as the cruise headed back you can see the sun trying to peak through the heavy cloud cover.  Just another winter wonderland weekend in Moscow.

Freezing in Russia

Okay the last few weeks have been pretty darn cold, like -20° C cold.  They say it's been a mild winter, but I thing the weather gods are trying to play catch up.  So how do you cope with cold weather well you could go for a walk by some old Russian equipment...

Or you could continue to walk along by a huge cask, of course you want to make sure there is a sign that says it is okay to do this...

But when it's all said and done, nothing helps handle the cold like a large bottle of beer...

Well you've probably guess where I went.  Yep the Ochakova  Пива (Beer) factory.  A nice tour around the factory then off to do a little sampling before heading to their outlet store for some some beer and wine.

The rest of the pictures from the tour are HERE at our Picasa site.  It was just me and about 20 others from the Embassy.  We all had a really good time.  I gotta say the fish jerky was a little too salty but other than that it was all good.

So this was one way to beat the Russian Winter...  Another way is to just leave.

So that's what I did.  I actually had official travel to go on.  I needed a week long training course and it just happened to be in Budapest, Hungry.  So off I went.  Like the trip to the brewery, it was just me.  Jolene and Crystal held down the fort and enjoyed the chilly weather in Moscow.

Okay off to Budapest.  Almost literally a trip back in time.  My flight left Moscow at 10:45 am and I arrived at 10:30 am.  After a short ride to the hotel, a friend and I went to get some lunch and some restaurant called Makko Cafe and Restaurant .  Here's a peak inside.

I had a great bowl of goulash and then some suckling pig with three types of potatoes mashed and fried into these little patty like things, it was all covered in sauteed onions and some light gravy.  Yes I added a few pounds from this trip.  Everywhere we ate the food was amazing.




I kept the bulk of the weight off I think from all of the walking we did.  Budapest is a good sized city but you can walk around many of the historical districts.  The metro system there isn't to bad.  One thing I noticed is unlike Moscow where everyone gets on and off the cars at the exact same time, it is much more orderly in Budapest.  People waiting to get on the train stand to the side of the doors to let everyone off then in an orderly way, everyone gets on.  ... Just say'n...

So Ronald Reagan was an important figure to the Hungarians and they have a statue of him.  It's funny that the statue to Reagan, thanking him for the support during the fall of the Soviet Union is right next to the monument commemorating the Soviet Army.  Talk about mixed signals.

So there were many things to see in Budapest, oh and my training was pretty good too.  There was only a dozen of us in class, half of which had flown in on Malev Airlines.  Friday morning, the last day of training the hotel staff informed us that the airline had gone bankrupt and had cancelled all flights.  Kinda glad I flew on the Russian carrier Aeroflot.

Well here are the rest of my Budapest pictures.


Thanks for reading!
Do svidaniya!

Our First Visitors

Well we have had our first family visit, Jolene's sister Nickie and her husband Scott came and spent a week with us.  We were able to hit the major touristy sites like Red Square, the Kremlin and the Armory.  We also saw the changing of the guard at the WWII memorial, which was pretty cool...

Right before the changing of the guard a local woman went up to the Leningrad Marker and dusted off the snow.

Here they come down the path

Not sure why they cocked their heads, but it was a precision movement, if I had to guess it represents passing on orders or something.  If anyone knows please comment and share.

and away the go . . .

We finished off at Izmaylovo where they were able to get all their souvenirs.  Nickie actually came in under budget, which is a  major accomplishment.  The weather has been great too.  For two coming from the Midwest, our mild Russian winter was nothing to them.



Now after a 4am drop off at the airport, I'm back awake and enjoying my day off.  Crystal is back in school and Jolene went back to work today so it's just me and the cats hanging out.  So I took this opportunity to upload a post and check in with those few that follow this blog.

So if any of you reading this would like to know something, see pics of anything in particular or want me to try to pick you up a souvenir, post a comment and we'll see what we can do.  And if you want to come see it all for yourself, send me an email (link in the top right) and we'll get things rolling.  Outside of family, we've got one daring lady getting set up to come this summer.