Getting Into the Halloween Spirit

We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Austria and Czech Republic, and as with any long and wonderful vacation, there are lots of pictures, so it will probably be a bit until I can get that post ready.  In the meantime, life goes on back here in Moscow. 

We came back from lovely fall weather in Europe to something akin to what we would expect in late November in the U.S. - temperatures in the 40's and lots of clouds and rain. Fortunately, preparations for the holiday season, starting with Halloween are keeping our minds off the dreary weather. 

We decorated Aiden's rooms with window and wall stickers, including a glow-in-the dark skeleton, of which I haven't been able to get a great photo so far.  

We've done some similar work in our living/dining room.

In New York last year, we didn't really have any decorations, so it's nice to give Aiden a better idea of Halloween this year.  We do have a costume for him, but it's top secret until the time comes for him to wear it. 

At work, I've been busy making the transition from adjudicating Immigrant Visas to Non-Immigrant Visas, which is a huge shift.  Instead of in-depth interviews with about 15 people per day, I'll be expected to interview between 75 and 100 people per day and to make decisions after just a few minutes at most. It's a bit daunting, but the change will keep things fresh.  Of course, getting the news that I was promoted while we were away on vacation also helped to put an extra spring in my step as I go back to the office. It's my first competitive promotion since joining the Foreign Service and it isn't all that common to be both tenured and promoted at the first opportunity, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. The major downside of the switch is that I start earlier now and don't get to see Aiden in the morning anymore, which stinks. And no, I don't get out earlier, but hey, that's the job.

I still don't have any clearer idea on how my bids for my next job are going.  Since I already speak Russian, I'm able to bid on jobs now, even though it isn't technically my turn, because I don't need the language training that's built into the schedule. But I've learned that bidding is something of a one-way street, where we feed a lot of information about ourselves to the decision-makers (a process called lobbying), and they don't tell us much about what they're thinking.  I know it varies depending on the job and who's doing the decision making, but my experience has been fairly opaque. Of course, it isn't the end of the world if it doesn't work out because I'll still get to bid on the regular cycle next year.  It could be very exciting to see what's available next time around, but then again, it would be nice to know where we're going next now and not have to go through this rather stressful process again.

Aiden got sick just as we were returning from our trip and had a fever for several days after we got home.  He was doing better by this weekend, but we still thought it best to keep him indoors for a full recovery.  It was probably good for us to get a bit of rest too, but of course we still needed to restock the fridge, etc... So I volunteered to go to the store, which is always a bit hectic and tiresome, so that Steph could stay home and relax. 

Everything was going fine until I went to the scale to weigh my produce.  Here in Russia, we have to bag the fruit, weigh it, and select the appropriate type of produce so that the scale can print a sticker for scanning at the check-out counter. I happened to be buying some locally grown apples because they are delicious and less than half the price of the imported kinds, but couldn't find the button for Russian apples on the machine (that was because it wasn't there).  As I was looking for it, though, a rude older man behind me, who assumed that I was an ignorant foreigner, grabbed the apples from my hand and slammed them down on the scale. 

To his surprise (and mine a bit too, I'll admit) I turned around and snapped at him in Russian that I know how to weigh the fruit but that I was buying local apples and they weren't shown on the screen and I didn't feel like paying twice as much for my fruit.  I told him that if he could find them for me, I'd be happy to finish up and let him have a turn.  I gave him enough time to recover so he could apologize and then found a store clerk who helped me get the right price sticker. I felt pretty good about that too.

Today I went to the bazaar to go pumpkin hunting.  It's a neat time of year to go with a lot of different types of produce being recently harvested. It's too bad they don't allow pictures inside because between the stacks of produce, piles of fish, and huge butcher's area, it's a fantastic place.  After getting some fresh bacon, sausage, nuts, and raisins, I snagged a cup of seabuckthorn berries (which turned out to be quite bitter and will need to be incorporated into a smoothie), I went back to a guy outside who had some pumpkin. 

He tried to sell me a 17 pound monster, but after some nudging, he went inside and found a perfectly nice 10 pound pumpkin with a decent shape and good color.  As you can see below, Aiden was quite taken with it, and came surprisingly close to picking it up. 

Unlike at home, there are no varieties here grown just for jack-o-lanterns, so these are good to eat. I think it will make a great jack-o-lantern, and probably will have enough meat that I can scrape some out for pie.  

It Starts And Ends With A Meal...And Siberia In Between

Before I left for my outreach trip to Siberia, we decided to go out for a family dinner.  On the way there, we passed a plaque on a building saying that a Soviet film director by the name of Boris Vasiliyevich Barnet lived there for a time. 

As far as I know, Barnet is not a very Russian name, so it was quite a surprise and quite a coincidence that he lived so close to where we do, even though we are not very likely to be related, even distantly.  

Another surprise was our dinner.  Stephanie suggested a Thai place she had seen on one of her walks, and which a person in our building had recommended.  We were both a little skeptical about it because most of our experiences with ethnic food here have been rather bland, which would be very disappointing in Thai food.  Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised.  The curries were rich with plenty of spice and the pad thai was very authentic.  Aiden even went along and cooperated through the whole meal.  It was a little pricey for Thai food, but well worth the opportunity for something different. 

My flight to Krasnoyarsk didn't leave until 11:45pm Sunday night, but the dispatcher at the motor pool insisted that I needed to be picked up no later than 8:15 to get to the airport by 10:00.  Even though I thought traffic was unlikely to be that bad late on Sunday night, I gave in to his more experienced point of view.  I wished I hadn't.  Even with a stop to pick up my colleague, we arrived shortly after 9:00, over three hours before the flight.  Not how I wanted to spend my evening, but then again it's better to be three hours early than a minute late. 

My flight was on Aeroflot, which made Stephanie nervous given the general perception about Russian airlines, but it was a modern plane, very comfortable, with far more leg room than we get in the U.S. I even slept for a bit after the meal. Yes! A meal! On a domestic flight!  The flight was only a little more than 4 hours long, but given the time difference, we arrived at 8:00am local time. 

Though tired, I was treated to a wonderful sunset as we descended into Krasnoyarsk. 

I also snapped a pretty cool shot of another plane flying parallel to us in the distance...

And enjoyed views of the fog rolling between the hills outside the city.

We arrived to a warm welcome, with our trip facilitator, a local government employee, there to receive us and take us to our hotel.  Since our whole night was condensed into about 4 hours, I was glad that I had a couple of hours to refresh myself before going to our meetings.  After a quick rest, I went with my colleague to a little restaurant down the street.  It was a neat place down in a brick basement with vaulted ceilings.

For lunch, I had a deer meat cutlet with mashed potatoes and pickled fern.  Apparently it's a delicacy in Siberia - they pick the young shoots and preserve them.  They were like green beans with bits of broccoli growing out of the end in appearance, but they had a completely different taste with a bit of sweetness. Best of all, the meal was about half of what we would have paid in Moscow.  The restaurant had a lot of interesting knick-knacks, but I was particularly impressed by the bronze man coming through the wall.

Our guide met us after lunch and took us to our scheduled meetings with local government officials.  I met with the local Ombudsman for Children's Rights, representatives of the Ministry for Education, and representatives of the Courts. I guess at this point it makes sense to mention that the purpose of my trip was to learn more about the international adoption process and discuss issues regarding the implementation of the new bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russia on the subject.  It was during one of these meetings where I had one of those strange moments where I thought, "Hey, I'm a diplomat!"  It was pretty cool.  I also had a meeting with representatives of  the governor's office for international affairs, where I learned a lot more about the whole Krasnoyarsk region (one of the largest in Russia), and their plans for economic development.  All in all, the meetings were very productive and informative.  The government building also had a nice view over a park and the surrounding hills.

That evening, before dinner, I took a quick walk to a nearby park close to sunset.  Krasnoyarsk's population is approaching a million, but I can't say that there was much to see architecturally. Or maybe I just didn't get to see it.  Our schedule was busy and we didn't really have time for sightseeing.  Still, there are certainly some beautiful spots in and around the city.

That evening, I provided American Citizen Services at the hotel restaurant, collecting passport applications and such.  There was a surprising number of applicants and it kept me busy.  Even though they came a little early, they were very nice and allowed me to keep eating my dinner in between reviewing the various forms. By the time I was done I was pretty exhausted and went gratefully to bed.

I purposefully set my alarm a little earlier than needed the next morning so that I could get out for a quick walk.  The night before, I saw a little footbridge over to a little island in the river. I wasn't disappointed.  It was a clear, still morning and the fall colors were starting to come out in the trees. Another surprise was how warm it was in Siberia.  Much warmer than it has been in Moscow recently.  I was assured that it gets plenty cold when winter comes, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

The second day was comprised of visits to various orphanages in the area.  I don't think anyone would argue that an orphanage is a good environment for children, but it was clear that the staff care for the children very much and give them the best care they can.  At one location, we got to watch the kids doing their music class, which was a lot of fun.  At one of the orphanages I was surprised by the presence of a local TV news team.  I didn't know they would be there, but when they asked for a short interview, I could hardly refuse.  I bucked up my courage and did the interview in Russian, and it went better than I thought - I didn't see it, but I understand that I made the local evening news.

Late in the afternoon, our meeting schedule came to an end, and our facilitator took us on a brief sightseeing trip.  There are a lot of amazing natural features in the area, but we only got a glimpse.  We took in the sights over the river from an overlook point...

Click on the panorama to see a full sized view.

 And then we drove up the river to see a huge dam for a hydroelectric station.  Unfortunately, the light wasn't in a good angle to see it, but there were rocks a couple of hundred feet out that we learned are blasted out of the dam when they have to open the sluice gates in times of heavy rain or snow melt.  We also got a glimpse of a unique system for moving boats past the dam, where they are taken out of the water and put on a train that carries them up or down.  The dam is too steep for a system of locks.

On our way back to town we past a reminder of the Soviet past in the area. The words on the monument below say "Glory to Labor."

For dinner, we went to a great little restaurant outside of town and sampled lots of local fare.  Different kinds of fresh river fish both sashimi style and grilled. We also had pelmeni - meat filled dumplings that are a local specialty - and deer steaks.  Our facilitator also had us try a couple of local liquors, including one made from the shells of cedar seeds (also known as pine nuts).  And so with full bellies of delicious foods, we made our way back into town to catch the overnight train to Novosibirsk. I was a little worried we would miss our train because our trip coincided with a visit by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church (a rare and special event) and traffic was bad, but we got on board with time to spare.  Thankfully my roommate was a quiet sleeper and I got a good night's rest.

In the morning, my colleague and I went to the restaurant car for breakfast.  It wasn't anything amazing, but not bad either.  The only annoying thing is that they didn't list prices for coffee and a cup ended up costing $6 - and not for good coffee, for Nescafe.

Overpriced coffee aside, we made it to Novosibirsk, a larger city one time zone closer to Moscow, and made our way to our hotel.  This time, there was no welcoming to committee.  We freshened up and then took a taxi to the government building.  We met with basically the same groups that we did in Krasnoyarsk, but overall, they were less accommodating.  We told we weren't allowed to visit any of the state-run orphanages.

Since our meetings weren't quite as lengthy, we had a bit of a gap to fill and walked back through town toward our hotel, taking in some of the sights.

We stopped at a nice place for lunch where I was greeted by a bear.  Anyone who saw my pictures from Dushanbe knows how friendly I am with bears, and this case was no different.

We continued our walk after lunch and saw many things.  For example, you might think that Siberia would be very provincial, but the heels are just as high as in Moscow.  I don't know how women stay up in those things.

We also passed one of the most famous architectural sights in Novosibirsk, the State Opera House, which is quite impressive.

And Novosibirsk is comparatively young - less than 200 years old I was told - but there are still examples of traditional Siberian architecture, like this wooden apartment building.

Of course, there's Soviet architecture too...

The next morning I got up early again, and had a wonderful breakfast at the buffet, where I first saw the news about the tragic events in Libya.  It was difficult to understand what had happened from the Russian news, which seemed more intent on showing pictures that would never be shown in U.S. media out of tact. The anchor went on to say that most Americans didn't know where Libya was on a map, but they certainly would now. It's times like those that being in a foreign country really feels foreign. 

After breakfast, I headed to a nearby park, where I was greeted, or menaced by a squirrel, depending on how you interpret the body language.

The park was nice and quiet, and a good place to think about things a bit, and after awhile I went back to the hotel to get ready.  We had been told that we could not visit the state run orphanages, but we managed to find a private one instead.

Our taxi driver informed us that we would be charged by the minute, and then proceeded to drive as slowly as possible, making no effort to avoid traffic jams.  So we cut a deal with him for a set price for the trip in both directions and proceeded considerably faster.  Perhaps too fast, because we were frequently on the wrong side of the road and I was dismayed to see that there were no seat belts.

Nonetheless, we got to the orphanage safe and sound, and it was very interesting to see a private facility.  This one was run by Catholics, and was very nice. They were very hospitable and even gave me a picture frame that one of the children made.

When we returned to the hotel that evening, I met with one of the adoption service providers and an American family who was in the process of adopting a child with down syndrome.  After meeting with all of the government officials, which was interesting, it was also helpful to get the perspective from the other side of the process.

Right after that, I had to leave for a speaking engagement at the American Corner, which is a place set up by the Embassy where locals can get exposure to American culture, learn English, and get access to American books and movies.

On the way there, I passed a little chapel that I learned is at the geographical center of Russia.  Pretty amazing.

I always enjoy the speaking engagements, and this one was particularly good considering the current events of the recent days.  It allowed us to talk about freedom of speech, and why it's important to protect free speech even when someone says something you find offensive.  The participants were engaged and asked great questions.  But it made it very clear to me that the idea of freedom of speech in the U.S. is not well understood around the world.  It showed that we still have work to do.  But I like explaining things, and I think the discussion went very well.

Our trip back the next morning was smooth, except for the fact that the driver from the Embassy was still more than an hour away when we arrived on time.  I can't help but point out that I was told to leave almost four hours before my flight on a Sunday evening, but the driver only left an hour before my arrival in the middle of a work day. A tad frustrating.

Since we didn't want to wait for an hour, followed by a two hour car ride back into town, we cancelled the car and took a train to the nearest metro stop and rode the subway home.  In the long run, I'm sure we actually saved money for the government by allowing the car to turn around.  In the future, I'll just take the train to begin with.

That evening, we were invited to a cook-out at my boss's house along with other officers from the section.  It was a great way to come home from the trip.

Here is the full set of photos for anyone interested.

Since I got back, I've been busy at work trying to wrap up my responsibilities in the Immigrant Visa section. We leave this week for a two week vacation in Europe and when I come back I will move to the Non Immigrant Visa section.

Stephanie and I are also gearing up for our 5th Anniversary.  I'm sure we will celebrate while we are on our trip, but we decided use our 'date night' for the month to go out to lunch at Cafe Pushkin.  Cafe Pushkin is an upscale restaurant in a historic building, with period decor dating back to the time of Pushkin himself. Even the waiters and waitresses wear period serving uniforms.

We knew that Cafe Pushkin is expensive, but what we didn't know is that it also lives up to its reputation for great food - and frankly the price was worth it.  I had no idea that borsch could be so rich, or that beef stroganoff could be so tender.  We also had buckwheat blini with salmon caviar, a huge meat pie the size of a dinner plate with veal, pork, and mutton, and an assortment of other classic Russian dishes brought to new levels of deliciousness.  Wash it down with a home made black current drink and top it off with an amazing pistachio desert, and you have what I call a fine dining experience.  I would highly recommend it. 

Well, that's it for now.  Just a couple more days till we're off on another adventure. 

Something New Everyday

What a difference since our trip to Vladimir and Suzdal! We're seeing a whole new side of Russian weather now.  About a week after we got back, the weather suddenly changed completely.  We went from day after day of sun and 80+ degree weather to day after day of clouds, rain, and highs in the low 60's or even upper 50s!  It's a nice break from the heat, but it was very sudden, and it makes me a little nervous about what we can expect in winter. 

There have been lots of other changes and new experiences recently too.  I noticed on the way home one day that one of the advertising billboards was replaced with a sign cautioning drivers to give pedestrians in the crosswalks right of way. I was pleased at the thought that my daily commute might be a little safer from now on until I realized that it faces away from oncoming traffic.  I guess I'll still be dashing across the street for the time being. 

Stephanie and I also finally got up the nerve to leave Aiden with a babysitter and go out for a date night.  We found a woman who works as a nanny for another family at the embassy. Stephanie saw how good she was with the little boy she takes care of at the embassy playground, so we decided to give it a go.  Everything was fine, Aiden warmed up to the babysitter very quickly when she arrived, so we felt good about going out. 

For our date, we went to a highly recommended burger joint and were glad we did.  I had a Hawaiian burger with ham, pineapple chutney, wasabi cheddar cheese, and coconut mayonnaise.  It was incredible.  Stephanie had a caprese burger with buffalo mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes and it was also good.  They also had very interesting flavors of lemonade (which in Russia is used to describe any fizzy fruit drink).  Stephanie had one with pear and basil, and I had seabuckthorn and ginger.  Interestingly, I looked up seabuckthorn when we got home and learned that it is an orange berry that we got to try when we were in the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan, where it grows wild. 

After dinner, we went next door to a nice little bakery for dessert - and also picked up some delicious cupcakes (french toast, peanut butter chocolate, and strawberry cheesecake) to take home.  As much as we missed Aiden, it was nice to have a night out just the two of us - the first time since we came to Moscow.  When we got home, Aiden was already in bed.  The babysitter said he was the easiest child she has ever watched, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the near future. 

Another recent new experience was getting ice cream in a tube.  We saw it in the grocery store - like the tubes of cookie dough, but several times larger.  It was cheap so we tried it and it actually wasn't bad, although it was a bit difficult to squeeze the last bits out. 

I also had my first experience as duty officer here and luckily it wasn't too bad. The duty officer has to take any calls that come in after hours for a week. A lot of different events can trigger a call on the duty phone, but it usually involves an American Citizen in trouble.  I served as duty officer twice in Tajikistan, but there are so few American citizens there, that it's usually pretty quiet. Moscow can be much busier, but as I said, I got lucky and only had three calls - none of which were in the middle of the night. 

After completing my stint as duty officer, I led my first Conversation Cafe at the American Corner here in Moscow.  The Conversation Cafe gives locals a chance to speak directly with American officers in a discussion style format and the topics vary depending on the questions asked.  It's great practice for answering diplomatically as I fielded questions on everything from the U.S. elections, to the Russian elections, the global economy, and my favorite contemporary authors. I had a great audience and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

One of the perks of working at a large embassy is that nearly every government agency is represented here, including NASA.  Last week, we had a special treat when one of the astronauts in training for a future mission to the Space Station gave a presentation on his experiences in the space shuttle. Astronaut Butch Wilmore talked about what it's like to launch in the shuttle, and life in space, and a whole lot more.  He also shared some amazing video, including one of the earth at night, showing the light from cities across the globe and the Southern Lights over the south pole.  He even signed a picture for Aiden, which I'm sure will be very exciting for him when he gets to be a little older. 

Aiden has also had a lot of firsts.  He has learned some of his body parts (head, ears, feet), and has made his first animal sound.  He picked up my impression of an elephant by blowing air out between his lips and raising his arm like a trunk.  Unfortunately, also got his first black eye while playing on the playground equipment - he turned around too quickly while on the slide and hit his face on the side. I wasn't there, but Stephanie said he was pretty brave about it, and it's already fading.  All part of growing up - which he is doing at an unbelievably fast pace.

And now I'm preparing for my first consular outreach trip, heading to Siberia for a week next week to meet with local officials regarding international adoption.  Things have been busy at work, so it kind of snuck up on me, but I'm sure it's going to be an interesting experience. 

Vladimir and Suzdal

This is the story of our long weekend adventure to Moscow's Golden ring, a couple weeks ago.  Well, it was really more of a relaxing weekend getaway than an adventure, but that's what we needed.  The Golden Ring is a group of historic cities outside of Moscow that feature a lot of historical buildings, some dating back nearly 1,000 years.  

We launched our excursion on the high-speed train from Moscow, which we almost missed because there were no signs saying that we had to go through a separate building to board the train on a raised section of the platform.  We arrived in Vladimir after an hour and a half trip (the regular train takes almost 4 hours), most of which involved our chasing Aiden up and down the aisle of the train.  From the train station we had to lug our bags and Aiden up a huge flight of stairs to find our hotel. 

When we checked in, we learned that our room was in a separate building, with no air conditioning and no breakfast, which was not the impression I got from the website. Our trip took place during a particularly hot bit of weather, but we had to decide between letting the room become stiflingly hot, or opening the window to catch the nascent breeze and listening to the squeaky gate every time a car pulled into the lot outside.  Fortunately, we were only staying one night. 

Before we knew it, it was morning and I went down to a convenience store to grab some breakfast and we packed up and headed out for a day of sightseeing.  Our first stop was a bus trip to the nearby town of Bogolyubovo to see an ancient church in the middle of a field.  There were no signs, so we had to sort of ask our way there.  The cat in the picture below was slightly more helpful in pointing the way than the surly babushkas we asked. 

However, after climbing a four story overpass to cross a railroad (the elevator wasn't working), we passed through a small copse of trees and saw the church in the distance.

The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl dates back to the middle of the 12th century and sits on a little rise above a pond.  Apparently, every spring, the pond floods and the church looks like it's floating on the water. We didn't get to see that particular phenomenon, but it was still a beautiful place. 

The church was quite different from most we had seen, particularly because of the strange carvings on the outside.

Bogolyubovo is also home to a monastery that dates back to the 12th or 13th century.  It was also very beautiful, but the nuns were rather rude.  When I asked one politely about the age of a mural on one of the buildings, she said "It's old" and hurried off before I could say anything else.

Back in Vladimir, we had a wonderful lunch of assorted blinis and went out for more sightseeing.  Vladimir dates back as far as the 10th century by some accounts, but was clearly an established settlement by the 11th. We started at the golden gate, which is pretty much all that remains of the city walls dating back to the 12th century. Vladimir was a major political and religious center until the Mongols sacked it in the 13th century, after which it never fully recovered.

From there, Stephanie took Aiden to a nice park and I ran down the hill to the bus station to get tickets for our onward travel to Suzdal.  When I had huffed and puffed back up the hill, we toured the Cathedral of St. Demitrius and the Cathedral of the Assumption.  Both date back to the 12th century, but are more recent than the Church on the Nerl.  St. Demetrius has a similar style, but with many more carvings.

The Cathedral of the Assumption is much more like what we're used to seeing in Russian Orthodox Churches, and actually, one of the cathedrals in the Kremlin was modeled after it several centuries later.

So after our whirlwind tour of Vladimir, we all got on the bus and headed for more relaxing environs in the village of Suzdal. The bus ride was only about 45 minutes, but we happened to be on the sunny side, so we ended up huddled under one of Aiden's blankets like a bunch of vampires trying not to be incinerated. When we got to the Suzdal bus station there was some confusion because the bus driver tried to get us to stay on the bus to go into the town center, but I was pretty sure that our host was going to pick us up there.  Luckily I followed my instinct and she was there.

She drove us through town and to her house, a traditional Russian cottage where we would be staying for the next four days.  It was a beautiful little house with a yard bursting with flowers - such a nice change from the bustle of Moscow. Our host family took wonderful care of us, feeding us huge breakfasts every morning and giving us advice on sightseeing.  Suzdal is a town of about 11,000 people, but it has five monasteries and 32 churches.  It's only about 2 kilometers from end to end, so it was easily walking to all of the major sights. 

We got settled into our room and went a few yards down the street to a little restaurant for dinner and then got a good nights sleep to recover from our time in Vladimir.  The next morning we headed into town to see the Cathedral of the nativity, but stopped at an overlook to get some views of the city. It was so green and peaceful except for the...

Old drunk (probably) man playing his accordion and singing at the top of his lungs.  It was sort of obnoxious on the street level, but from the overlook it provided some nice background music for a little video.

The Cathedral of the Nativity is one of the oldest churches in Suzdal (13th century) and  is inside the Kremlin, which contained the original village. Inside the church were frescoes from the 13th through the 17th centuries.

After visiting the cathedral, we crossed the river on a little wooden bridge to go to the wooden structure museum.

The museum incorporates real wooden structures from the 17th and 18th centuries from the Vladimir region. It included churches, homes, and windmills.  Aiden had a really good time walking around the grounds and getting filthy playing in the dirt.

I found one structure, akin to a giant hamster wheel, particularly interesting. Apparently villagers would actually walk in the wheel to draw large buckets of water up from the well, pretty cool. I would have loved to try it.

Stephanie noticed a sign pointing to an additional exhibit in an old stone house.  On the first level, there was a period example of a small tavern or traktir, and upstairs there was a replica of a merchant family's home.  It was really interesting to see how people might have lived.

By the time we finished with the museum, we were all quite hungry and thirsty, so we headed back into town for lunch.  One of the highlights was having the famous white mushrooms, which aren't like the ones in the store.  They're huge mushrooms that grow in the forests of Russia and are a culturally important dish.  They were delicious, with a texture similar to fresh oysters.  To go along with it, we sampled a tasting menu of the local honey wine, medovukha.  To be honest, despite different additions like pepper, hops, mint, and other spices, they all tasted fairly similar, but I was feeling pleasantly buzzed by the end of our meal.

The biggest challenge throughout the trip was getting Aiden to eat.  We brought a small amount of baby food with us, but worked pretty hard to find things for him to eat on the menus.  Luckily, he likes potatoes and the Russians are experts with potatoes, so we used that as a starting point, and got him to eat fairly well.

In the evening, we mostly just enjoyed walking around the neighborhoods and enjoying the different designs on the traditional houses. The weather cooled off fairly nicely so it was very pleasant and the area was quiet enough that we could let Aiden out to walk around a bit.

Better yet was the discovery that the restaurant near our B&B had a nice cool basement room, where we could let Aiden run free while we ate.  It made for much more enjoyable dinners than keeping him strapped in his stroller. High chairs don't seem to have caught on yet in Suzdal.

I also discovered a taste for cured pig lard, which went extremely well with a cool pitcher of medovukha, although I learned the hard way that being a parent has made me something of a lightweight. A liter of honey mead was a bit much.  Luckily, we only had to walk a few meters to get home.

The next day we headed down the street (literally) to the Pokrovsky monastery.  It was so neat to just be able to walk out the door and see such historic sights.

From there we wandered around to the Nevsky Cathedral, named for Alexander Nevsky, a Grand Prince of Vladimir in the 13th century who was famous for his negotiations with the Mongol oppressors and was made a saint shortly after his death.  Again, it's just incredible to be able to walk around this sort of history.

We made our way from there along a bluff above the river, with old wooden houses and great views of the Pokrovsky Monastery below...

...and eventually reaching the impressive Spaso-Euthimiev Monastery, which dates back to the 14th century.

While there we were treated to a ringing of the bells - and later encountered a little girl who was very taken with Aiden and said that her father is the guy who rings the bells.  Whether or not that was true, it was interesting to see how one man rings all those different bells through a system of ropes and pulleys.

Afterwards, I went inside the main cathedral, which was beautifully decorated with 16th frescoes painted by the greatest master artists of the time, which are incredibly well preserved.  Stephanie was a little churched out at that point and didn't go in, but armed as always with my camera, I was able to bring the frescoes to her later.

While there, I was especially lucky to catch a brief musical performance by some of the orthodox priests...

The next day started out rainy, so we spent the whole morning just relaxing in our room and playing with Aiden. Our host had made us a huge stack of blini, so we were stuffed anyway and wouldn't have been much for walking around.  It was one of the best parts of the whole trip. By the time Aiden woke up from his nap, the skies had cleared and we went into town to look around and do some shopping.  Stephanie found a neat little tourist trap, with entertainment and good places for pictures.

While browsing the offerings of an antique dealer, I found this lacquered print of a Palekh painting (a style that originated in the 1920's during the Soviet period).  The seller and our host agreed that it depicts a scene from one of Pushkin's fairy tales, but weren't sure which one.  I haven't been able to figure it out either.  Regardless, for $7, I think it was quite a find.

After that, we stopped at the Rizopolozhensky Monastery.  The monastery dates back to the 13th century, but the actual buildings are more recent, from the 15th century - funny how 'more recent' can still be one hundred years before the first European settlements in North America.

This monastery isn't one of the  better kept examples in Suzdal, but it did have a very strange icon that shows  a rather sinister expression on Mary's face.  I wasn't able to find out anything more about it, but it was different from anything else I had seen.

We were going to have dinner at a place in town, recommended by our host.  But when we went in, they were incredibly rude, even by Russian standards. They didn't even acknowledge us when we came in, and when we finally got seated, they sort of threw the menus at us. So we just got up and left and went back to have some more white mushrooms at the place we had gone before. As we were heading back, the clouds started to roll in and we got back just before a big storm rolled through.

But as the storm passed, everything was cast in a very eerie red light as the sun set, so we went out to have a look around.  It was almost like being on another planet.

On our last morning, we followed a little path along the river, passing a car where two people seemed to be in the middle of doing something I was glad Aiden's stroller was too short to allow him to see. Luckily, we were moving fast enough that we passed before Stephanie or I had to see too much.  We aren't prudes, but it was 10 o'clock in the morning on a Monday - not exactly what we were expecting to encounter.

Anyway, we crossed the river on a little wooden bridge, shortly after passing the vehicle of iniquities. We made our way up to a church that looked interesting from across the river, but appeared to be abandoned.  It was still interesting.

On the way into town, we walked along a bluff with some great views over the lower village and found a nice restaurant with quite outdoor seating for our last meal in Suzdal.

We made one more stop at the main square and trading arcades. but weren't really impressed with the things they were selling.  There were some baskets that Stephanie was interested in, but we couldn't get any information on where they were from.  They could have been from China for all we knew, and that would sort of defeat the purpose of souvenirs.

So we headed back, gathered our things, and our host was nice enough to drive us back to the bus station.  This time we made sure to sit on the shady side of the bus, and our trip was much more pleasant. We had a short wait at the train station in Vladimir and then, before we knew it, we were back in Moscow. It was a wonderful trip and we saw a lot of wonderful places.  Of course, there are many more photos for those who wish to see them...