Russian Markets

It is always quite an adventure going to a market here in Russia. We found this huge market a few months ago and enjoy taking foreigners to it. You can find just about anything in the market, light fixtures, clothes, shoes, food, animals, fish tanks, tools and more. Here are a few pictures. Once again, thanks Anita for the pictures!

Pet turtle anyone?

Nuts and dried fruit.

Fresh fruit!

My favorite spot in the market, the honey. Fresh honey, some clear, some creamy and delicious!!!

Dried fish.

Kittens for sale!!

Brooms

Spices galore!!

Garlic anyone?

Garden seeds of many kinds! Many different kinds of cucumbers, tomatoes and dill!

Nizhny and Pies

A few different pictures from around our city. Things are really beautiful right now. 

Inside our Kremlin, hundreds of tulips and other flowers have been planted.

The Russian Pie. My new favorite cafe here in Nizhny. Too bad it took me 8 months to find it. 

They have quite the variety of fillings. Fish, cabbage, cheese, apple, lemon, cherry, red currants and meat. All delicious. Believe me, we have tried them all!

A close up of the lemon pie. One of my favorites.

Russia and High Heels

Moscow is really a lovely city in the spring time. I am glad we went back while everything was blooming and green. It is a nice way to remember the city. 

Last year when we were here, Brian and I went inside and looked at Lenin's body. For the month of May, it was closed to visitors. Maybe Lenin went on vacation, we aren't sure. But here is the outside of his "tomb". Right in Red Square.

A tribute to heels in Russia.

Having never really worn heels, I can't say if these would be comfortable or not. But from my short experience with one inch heels for the Bolshoi Theater performance, I can honestly say they are terribly uncomfortable. It can't possibly be good for your feet!!! Fashion is very important to Russian people and many young women wear very high heels. I credit most of these pictures to my friend, Anita. She went around "en-cognito" style and got some great shots. I'm loving my running shoes more and more. 

Convents, Graveyards and the Metro

These pictures are a few days old and from our last Moscow trip. While with our friends from the states, we headed to a little convent. It was a nice place to walk around in. There wasn't anything in English and we didn't really know the history of the place, but other than that, we enjoyed the tulips and the sun!

 Peter the Great (famous Russian Czar) exiled his sister here because she was friends with anti-czar protesters. Rather than kill her like all the friends, he sent her here to live out the rest of her days. Being the czar must be difficult.

Russian graveyards are definitely a unique experience. This cemetery in particular was a little different than the normal Russian one. It was much nicer and more spacious. A lot of the headstones are large with statues and figures of people or objects (tanks, animals). And had a lot of famous people are buried here. Those are the reasons we decided to check it out.

The bottom "headstone", if you can even call it that, is for Boris Yeltsin. The first president of Russia. He served Russia from 1991-1999. One time there was a takeover attempt on the white house and Yeltsin shot at his own white house with tanks. He was kinda hardcore. 

Here is another famous man within Soviet Union. His name is Yuri Nikulin. He was a famous actor and is basically the equivalent to America's Robert Redford. If you see a famous soviet comedy, chances are he is in it. 

Just a guess... but I think he could have possibly been a military guy... just a guess though. 

Don't quote me on this but I think  that Moscow may have the most decorative metro stops in the world. It is like you step back in time to when coat tails and big poofy dresses were all the rage. 

There is no 9 and 3/4 in Moscow that leads to Hogwarts (trust us, Wendy looked), however one can still appreciate the detail and beauty of this non-magical metro stop.

Come on, you just don't see things like this in our current time. At the top is says МИР (mir) which means peace in Russian. These soviet pictures are just really fun to look at.

 And this is a stained glass project of someone who just decided to go nuts!!! There is symmetry, yet the picture doesn't really tell us anything. Call it old modern art. Yeah I like that, "old" modern art.

The Bolshoi Theater

Claiming to have the world's largest ballet company (a company founded in 1776), this lovely theater was built between 1821 and 1824. We just about won the lottery with our tickets. One of Brian's adult students heard we were going to Moscow and asked her friend for a pair of tickets. The tickets were hand delivered to us all the way from Moscow a week before our actual trip to the big city. Brian graciously offered his ticket to my friend, Anita. So, we had our own little date. May 10, 2013. Romeo and Juliet performed in the Bolshoi Theater.

A staircase just for us? No, but it was nicely empty for my picture.

We were seated on Balcony one. Actually the third balcony up, but called number one. 

We had to show our tickets and then our ticket lady had to unlock our door to let us in our "box". Then it was through the lovely red curtain to see the amazing theater. Here is Anita, looking wonderful!

Our seats, closest two. Front row, seats 3 and 4. Close to the best in the house. 

Just enjoy the rich reds and golds all over the place!

I bought some heels just for the occasions. If I can even call them heels, not quite the Russian way with a six inch lift, but enough to make my feet hurt after walking for 15 minutes in them!

The dancers, the ballet was also wonderful by the way. No pictures allowed and I didn't break the rules this time. 

Here you can see we sat right next to the important box for the really, really important people!

Below, some evening pictures of the theater and Red Square. As many times as I've been there, this was a first night viewing!

the GUM. A large shopping center. A fancy mall. 

St Basil's Cathedral

The Kremlin

State History Museum

A little overload of pictures, but there were so many to show! Hope you enjoy!