The trip to Moscow was fantastic. We took the night train there (8 hours) and the bullet train back (3.5 hours). At 250 km/hour that was the fastest train I'd ever been on.
Moscow was a whirlwind. We went to Red Square, Tolstoy's house, The Tretyakov museum (both the classical and the contemporary collections), and walked along the artsy Arbat district. We had no fatalities, no medical issues, and no encounters with law enforcement. Translation: I was a successful group leader.
Over the past few days I've been rushing around trying to do some last minute things pre-departure.
So now I have random pictures that I'll be posting before Thursday.
Here for example is one that I took at the supermarket recently (it's such a big supermarket that they call it a 'hypermarket.'
There is one entire aisle -- something like 500 linear feet of shelf space -- dedicated entirely to vodka. There must have been 70 different kinds of vodka (you know "vodka"-- the flavorless spirit).
The side of the aisle facing the vodka was for "other:" whiskey, bourbon, tequila, rum, gin, . . .
Alcoholism is definitely part of what has Russian men dying, on average, at 57.
Bottoms up, boys!
Enjoy
