Our helpful guide book
Mmmm, airport food
It's a TV on the back of every chair
You can watch whatever TV channel you want
Robby knows how to travel easily
Mmm, fake cheese that requires no refrigeration
Yummy more airplane food
A good place for a snack in JFK airport in New York
Kim learns some Russian
Robby has an even better time on the 2nd leg of the flight
On this leg there is only one screen. Boo.
But we brought our own. Take that Aeroflot!
We are nearly there
Kim with helpful fellow traveler Bob
You can bring parrots and pandas if you want
Our hostel door - I wonder why it took so long to find?
Robby in an alley in Moscow
A helpful warning in our hostel building
The tiniest elevator ever
Russians!
Robby sits by a cave sculpture at the Kremlin
Kim by St. Basils cathedral. It looks like it should be from Hansel and Gretel
We squint due to St. Basil's blinding colors
View from our hostel of Tverskaya street
More view. That says Telegraph!
Even more! Samsung!
Hot dog stand called CTAPDOGS which reads: "Star Dogs" but looks like "Crap Dogs"
Moscow = commerce and (in the background) crazy buildings
Our bizarrely antique hostel key
Someone forgot to buy photos
Fellow hostel mates: the Australians. (Dave and Melissa)
Creepy sign
The australians in a Moscow underpass. Because traffic is so insane, they make pedestrians walk under the streets.
We're on a bus tour!
The kremlin!
More kremlin!
Even more kremlin!
This church is a 2005 replica of a much older church. Stalin knocked down the original to build the world's largest swimming pool.
Kim walks back to the bus
Look. Kim is the third spire of the church. OK, so it didn't really work.
McDonalds = MakAona^Ac
A Russian stadium and pretty Russian trees
The same view - but now we're in front of it!
Behind Robby is the Moscow university - a tall, beautiful building. So Robby gives a thumbs down to his ASU hat.
Some birds in a box.
Whoo!
The university.
And again.
A giant monument
And again
A Russian victory arch. Beat that, French!
A woman with two very differently sized dogs
Perhaps the little one is the big one's lunch
We're the king of the... pointless wooden boat in a Russian playground
Novodevichy convent
Kim and the bus
Dave in the bus
Yes, that says TGI Fridays
Robby imitates Peter the Great's statue
Kim by the river
Beware dancing pedestrians
We though Sbarros would be easy
But what is this?
Sbarro = cbappo
Yes, that says Aerosmith
Stray Russian dogs
Yum! Malicious tongue
Kim ordered a pile of green beans and cold chicken. Robby's actual edible meal can be seen in the background
Mmmmmm
Russian food sure is good
The hostel elevator entry - beware the endless abyss
Kim at the computer in the hostel
Isn't it cozy?
Here is the kitchen
And the dining table
Robby, Kim, Melissa, Dave
Ferry, Kim, Robby
Kim sports our fancy new umbrella at Novodevichy convent
The church at the convent
Russian church decorations are colorful and thorough
More decorations
The churches are huge!
Old Russian dresses
Another one
And some more
Olde timey Russian scissors
Old Russian art
What an ugly baby!
Robby outside the chapel in front of the church
The church has a golden dome, and so does Robby!
The bell tower
A scale model of the convent.
You can't see it, but this metro station has the label KNM everywhere, which is pronounced KIM
Kim in her metro station (you can kind of see it in the star on the pillar)
Kim at the Leningradsky train station
Robby shows off the complimentary slippers and toothbrush
We arrive in St. Petersburg and there is random classical music
The St. Petersburg train station with Kim walking
What a nice comprehensible railway map
Subway = CabB3N!
"French hot chocolate" apparently means pudding
Robby "drinks" his French hot chocolate
Doesn't it look like a nice beverage?
Kim in the Hermitage square
What a big statue!
Kim making sexy pose by an arch
The arch minus Kim
Emo is popular in St. Petersburg too
View from the boat tour
Kim on the boat
St. Petersburg Circus!
Paranoid prince Michael's palace. He locked himself in there.
More boat view out on the Neva river
That sign reads "megaphone"
An old Russian boat
Behind Trinity bridge is the Peter and Paul Fortress
A Russian fountain and some columns
Small portion of the winter palace (which now houses the Hermitage art gallery)
The winter palace is ginormous
Russia's very first museum. They had to bribe people with vodka to get them to go. Serious.
St. Issac's - this was one of the few buildings in St. Petersburg to fully survive WWII
Kim on the boat after catching Robby falling asleep
St. Issac's
Lots of Russian flags
Statue of Peter the Great, one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.
This is where the ship yard used to be. Not anymore.
Hermitage again
We're on a boat
Another boat!
Church of the Ressurection - like St. Basil's in Moscow but with a better color scheme
We took a hydrofoil to Peterhof
View from the hydrofoil
Peterhof is gorgeous
Lots of people go there
Here we are in the gardens
Kim overlooks some of the hundreds of fountains
This is a pretty nice villa, Peter
Robby at the villa
Random people dressed in inaccurate period clothes
More of them
And scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Whaaa?
Robby at the Peterhof palace
Here we both are
More random classical music
The palace
Robby at the street just outside our hostel
You can see the Church of the Resurrection from our hostel. The church was built over the site of an assassinated Russian emperor.
Kim in a St Petersburg metro escalator - it's the deepest subway system in the world
Robby doesn't like tall escalators
Next we went on a walking tour. This is where Lenin seized power with his Bolsheviks.
Smolny cathedral
A building across the street from Smolny cathedral. There's some architectural contrast for ya
Smolny again
And again. By the way - this church has never been used
Left - very tall, bland cake. Right - "Italian hot chocolate" also means pudding
A "bliny" or delicious stuffed pancake
Former KGB HQ
A cracked out fountain
Who are these melty people?
Remember the winter palace of the Hermitage? This is the summer palace.
A band of animals in a statue commemorating a Russian fable writer
An upset god
A wolf eats a goose
A ballerina's mansion that was taken by the Bolsheviks.
Lenin's study and speech giving platform
A mosque
Another view of the mosque
The entry to the mosque
Inside the Church of the Resurrection
Zooming in on this "painting"
Are those tiles?
I think they are
Yes they are
It's a mosaic!
Every inch of this church is covered with tiny tiles!
Whoa!
Mosaic baby
Mosaic flowers
Mosaic dome
More dome
Mosaic Jesus looks down from the (mosaic) heavens
A scale model of the church
Oooh, sounds exciting!
What an unfortunate name
Russian Independence day party
Folk dancers! And, at the end, a special surprise.
A signing Russian quartet
Inside St. Isaac's
This church is huge
Marble everywhere
We like scale models
Kim looks at a mosaic. Russians like mosaics.
This church feels like a cross between Italian and Russian
More St Isaac's
The St Isaac's dome
Look how tall this church is
This wooden structure holds up the church we're in
Weird little booths
View from atop St. Isaac's, looking east
Looking north
A golden dome
Kim by a pillar
Awwwww
A shipyard! Cool!
Looking west
Cool gardens
Looking south
Our hostel is by that giant church
Stairway that goes even higher - sadly closed
Girlish Russian pop singer
Kim by a canal
Kim drinks our "margaritas"
Kim inside the Hermitage - a palace even more opulent than Versailles
A sweet chandelier
Angry baby relief
Kim likes fancy palaces
A Russian version of "Married With Children"
Our walking tour guide admitted the American version is better
Kim in the Novgorod kremlin
Novgorod kremlin
Elaborate statue in the Novgorod kremlin
Outside the Novgorod kremlin
Novgorod Kremlin bell tower
Pedestrian bridge
A tree lined path
13th century church
12th century church
12th century building
The trader's arches in Novgorod
More pedestrian bridge
St. Sofia's church in the Kremlin, the oldest surviving example of those onion-shaped domes.
Kim enjoys her "Sweet Pie" at our favorite cafe
Novgorod bus
It's leaving
And we are in the middle of nowhere
At least it's pretty
A windmill!
A working monastery
Gorgeous star domes at the monastery
Church in the monastery
The monks have a farm
Kim wears a scarf at the monastery
Really pretty Russian countryside
These trees in the sunlight sure are nice
Open air museum of wooden architecture
Some really old transplanted wooden structures
Peasant shoes
Kim stands by a wooden well
Old wooden church.
We never tire of Cyrillic transliteration ("Baskin Robbins")
We ate dinner in a castle!
The Moscow circus. (this one is sold out - so we went to the older one)
This says: "George Michael"
A disturbing story
"La Cantina" - a Mexican restaurant in Moscow
Moscow has "Matt Damon" fish too!
Matt Damon!
Maaaat Daamon?
Our overpriced meal at least included some gum
A camel at the Moscow circus
Kim loves the circus
Really - she was really excited
Robby and Kim at the circus
Yes, it is a real tiger. Bonus fact: it turns out we are both violently allergic to tiger
View from Moscow hostel at night
What a pretty city. Bye Russia!
