Moskva Krasivaya

Marina's friend Valya is lovely, and ever so nice. She indulged us today and trekked to Red Square and the Kremlin. She snuck off and got our tickets to the Kremlin and the audio guides and English for us. We thought she was just checking on them, then we realized that she had gotten our tickets. She brought us flowers, and then she bought us a guide in English to the Kremlin and Red Square. It was very sweet of her. She said she hadn't used English in 40 years, but I thought her English was good. It was a bit of Engl-Ussian between us. We spoke some Russian and some English. while Pete just looked on and waited to be told what to do!

We then ate lunch at, of all places, Sbarro. Everything is so expensive. This was a cheap way to get lunch and sit down in an air-conditioned place. Oh yeah, did I mention how hot it is? Its hot. Hot enough that I wanted to jump in the fountains at Aleksandrovsky Sahd (Alexander's Park, next to the Kremlin and Red Square). Valya was egging me on to do it- I think she would have been amused and horrified if I had actually done it. There were kids who did stand in the fountains and get wet...why not me???

So, we decided to go to on a boatride on the Moscow RIver. We took the metro, then walked about 1/2 mile to the river. Unfortunately, it was 4:25, and the next boat wasn't due for 20-30 minutes, so we are going to do that another day. I was quite tired by this time and my feet were ready for a break. So, we shlepped our selves back to Old Arbat Street (Ulitsa Arbat) and are now "home".

A note on our apartment. Its tiny, but all we need except there's no AC. We didn't expect to have AC though. The exterior is nothing exciting, and the stairwell is a work in progress. Yesterday, when we got here, the elevator worked but had no light. It holds two people uncomfortably. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is a working light in the elevator today! Also, we have a little balcony which is nice.

Now, for the news you've been waiting for. We are getting picked up sometime between 8am and 9am by Vlad tomorrow. Masha is supposed to call us and let us know. I'm going to look up orphanage #2 now and see what I can find out.

I will post pictures for today after I've had a rest.