Fallowing Traffic

It is very interesting to watch the traffic for this blog.  

This image is my traffic.  My first trip to Russia was from Dec 28 to Jan 10th.  It seams perfectly reasonable that after that time period people would stop visiting.  What I'm curious about next is my march trip.  I will be leaving for Иваново on March 12th and return on March 22nd.  Will my traffic pick back up?  It sure well if I tell everyone to come and look, but what if I don't?  I think it will be interesting to see.

My upcoming trip will not contain as many monuments or historical events.  However I will get a better look at Russia.  How people are living, what its like outside of the famous cities.  With a population of 400,000 this is no little town.  It will be very interesting.  I expect even less people to speak English on this trip.  My Russian is still very bad, but I'm making some progress.

Economy

Just in case any one is still checking on this blog.  I have found some interesting videos by an economist name Peter Schiffer

This is in 2007, they laughed at him and he called it exactly right.

And this is what he is saying now...

I hope he is wrong since its not a very good outlook, but I think he might be right.  I only wonder what the best way to prepare for hyperinflation would be.

Going Back

So I finalized plans to return to Russia.  I will be going from the 12th of march untill the 22nd.

This time I will stay in Ivanovo, its pronounced more like Eevanava, and is properly spelled Иваново.

My tickets are bought, I'm only waiting for my Visa to come, and then to board my flight...

Why the US and Russia will never get along

I had my eyes opened on my trip.  Russia is a great place.  The people are friendly and nice.  I will go again in march, and have nothing but positive things to say from my trip.

But

There are some things, that stand out.  I know understand why the 2 greatest nations will never be friends.

1. Fur Coats, 80% of the female population in Russia are wearing fur coats.  In the US, 50% of the female population are through paint on fur coats.
2. Waiting in line, they don't, we do.  There cutting in line is just done with shopping cart if necessary.  Here not so much...
3. Language, so they don't teach English any more than we teach Spanish in our schools.  We both pretend but it really doesn't happen.  You can't be friends if you can't have a chat.
4. Cold, I'm from Minnesota so the weather there was fine.  Also some of the customs and ideas the flow from a cold climate make sense to me.  If you are from Florida, they will not.  To much of the US is warm.
5. History, they have it, we want it.
6. Similarity's, there is so much that is the same it is uncanny.  People are just people after all.  But when you are told a group is evil and you learn they are just like you, then you ether admit it is all a lie, or you ignore the obvious.  Clearly more people ignore.
7. Did I mention Fur coats?
8. Also, many Fur hats.  The hats the have there are warm comfortable and soft.  But they are also a dead critter, and again we run into the PETA nightmare that is Russia.

SmugMug

So I'm uploading all of the photos taken to my mothers SmugMugg site.  So that beyond my commentary any one interested can look through all of the pictures that I took in there full detail.  The only problem is that to upload them all its taking about 30 seconds a picture, and since there are 1121 pictures it should take about 9.5 hours or so to upload them all.

Mom is that enough pictures for such a trip?  Was this a little better than they last time I went some where?

Post Production

So The trip is over, but I have have so many pictures I will have to do a bunch of updates to share them.On the last full day we went to a few different places. One of them was a large shopping center under red Square.  I don't know the name of it but its 3 stories underground, and its main entrance is from the metro.  Masha was trying to find a gift for her mother, but the thing she was interested in they didn't have the right version of.  The shopping center was very interesting, it was very large.  Just a little smaller than the Rosdail mail.  Totally underground, you can see the top of it on Google Earth, but it looks like a dome on the ground, which is a skylight.

We walked allot in Moscow on our last night.  Mom, don't be to upset, but I have things to tell you that might make you a little crazy.  We had a wonderful time.  I did not have a single moment of unhappiness or disappointment.  Masha was more wonderful than I could have expected or hopped for, and Russia was far more friendly and fun than I had anticipated.  It was very safe.  If you could see a monument you could see a police officer, and if you are in St. Peters or Moscow then you can see a monument.  I don't think I was ever out of shouting distance from an police officer for if I needed one.  Never was I given an unfriendly look, and many times people approached me and asked me questions in Russian, so I look enough like I belonged that people did not assume I was an American tourist as apposed to a Russian tourist.  I had a strange sense of belonging that I'm not used to.  I'm not sure if its the more social attitudes of the people or just being with Masha.

The only thing I will say is without an interpreter, it would be a difficult trip.  In Moscow many people speak English, but in St. Peters there was very very little.  If any one wants to go, I'm happy to go along, and I'm sure I could convince Masha to come again.  

So Chicago cancled my flight to minneapolis, so I got to spend an extra day on the trip.  I'm about to board a plane to Minneapolis finaly, and get home.

Moscow The Next Day

There is definitely something different about Moscow.  I would say that I liked St Peter's better.  Its a nice place, and everyone is friendly, its something about the buildings.  Mom you may not like this news, but I have committed my spring break to Masha.  I will come back in March to visit Иваново.  I'm not sure just what.  In both city's there are police everywhere.  An officer or a guard on just about every other street corner.  With so many monuments, and historical structures, it only makes sense, and most of them are in positions near such monuments and structures.  In St. Peters, there was never a problem with taking a photo of a building of any sort, however in Moscow some buildings are active government buildings, and guards are quick to let you know not to photo the building.  Of course we usually got a few pics first.  We didn't even get to find out what this building was, but its not to be photoed.

It seams each day we spend more time together and less time sightseeing.  Thursday was cold, and snowy and Mashas mother said to be careful and better to stay in and watch movies, so we did, one of these movies was Russian film called Moscow Vacation.  Today we are setting out to find an open air art market, a flash drive so Masha can have all the pictures also, and some other things.

Here is a picture of our final day in St. Peters, it was a very magical sky that night.

Moscow

So I made it to Moscow safe and sound.  The hotel is well, a little different.  They are very good extortionists here.  One hour of Internet at this hotel will pay for a month of Internet in MN.  And Masha says the same for her hometown.

So for those that are worried.  MOM... I made it safe, and sound, my computer is fine, and everything is going great.  Moscow does not feel quite the same as St. Peters.  I liked it better there.  It is still a very nice place people are friendly.

Some thing a little interesting about Russian theater.  Since there are no black people here, black face is still alive.

When I get back home, I will have to make a few large updates to this to bring any one interested up to speed.  Pictures and such will be coming then.

Another day...

No pictures just now, I don't have time to put them all online.  I will tell more about today latter.  We attempted but did anything but see the Hermitage museum.  We tired but did anything but stay warm.  It was the coldest day by far.  Tomorrow is the last day in St. Peters.

There is so much to tell, I feel like I will be updating this for weeks after I get back home.  We are averaging about 150 pictures a day.  So really I'm only showing a very small fraction of whats going on.  Of course many pictures are duplicities when there is a blurring or some mistake, blinkin and such.

Another Show

Our next day we sort of took a break from vacationing.  How does that work anyway?

We went to the Nutcracker.  It was another production of the Marinski theater.  This time our show was in the the propoer theater.  The one we tried to go to first the day befor.  We were a little late.  It was my fault for loosing our room key so we had to search for it.  We did not find it until we returned, and had to have the frunt desk let us in.  Of course it was in my coat pocket the entire time.

Again no camears allowed.  oops...