We've got pictures!

Last night was our first night in Moscow and our first hostel experience. There wasn't much available, so we booked a spot in a 10 person mixed dorm. Luckily we only had one roommate...unluckily he is the loudest snorer on the planet. Yikes! Thank goodness for ear plugs. The hostel isn't as nice as our last place, but we have unlimited internet access which is awesome and we've met some pretty cool people from all over. We have two new ones today, both male, so its just eden and the boys.

Today we wandered around Red Square. We went into St. Basil's cathedral. We had hoped to go to the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb, but had bad timing on both accounts, arriving just after each had closed. We will go back tomorrow and hopefully have better luck. Brandon informed me that Lenin's tomb houses his real body WHICH YOU CAN LOOK AT. I had no interest in seeing it until we found out we couldn't. I figure I better not miss the chance...I guess.

Here are the pictures we promised.

We asked three different people (two russians and one american) to take our picture. After seeing the results we decided to do it ourselves. Believe me, this was the best one.
Inspiring. Marx is like my twin.
This is red square, lenin's tomb is sheltering his "preserved remains" on the left, on the right is a HUGE shopping center with HUGE prices. The church behind her is probably famous. St. basil's cathedral is in front of the lovely Eden.
Red Caviar flavored chips. Eden has yet to sample this delicacy. They are probably turning to dust in her backpack. maybe she is waiting for a special occasion...like malnutrition.
Here is Brandon looking sexy in his new sun glasses. He didn't want me to post this, but I sure showed him.
This is a beautiful river when the ice is not covering it. Note, don't go to St. Petersburg during winter*.



*Winter is from august til June.
This is the line outside the World Famous Hermitage. Yikes. But it was very nice inside, probably our favorite museum so far.
The winter palace/Hermitage
The church in the background is The church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, it was pretty nice, Look for the picture on our first post to see that we really did go where we said we would. You may not recognize it though, it is missing the river of ice. See ya'll next time!

Today is our last day in St. Petersburg. It's kind of sad. We love our tiny hotel (only 3 rooms!) and are starting to get an idea of where things are. Such is the nature of backpacking though! On to the equally awesome city of Moscow tomorrow. Today was kind of a chill day for us. We hit all the major tourist sites yesterday and today we did some shopping and relaxing. So far our favorite Russian food was...KFC. We had Russian food the last few days and decided to throw in something familiar. It was heavenly. Tomorrow we will take the express train and be in moscow for three days. We hope to be able to update while we are there. Take care!
B&E

Greetings from St. Petersburg!

We arrived safely and without any problems in st. petersburg, so mom, rest assured we are fine! Now that that is out of the way, here is a small recap of our adventure so far. Thursday we spent the day wandering around new york before our flight out to russia. We tried to go see the Gugenheim (sp?) but it was closed dowwn, so we headed to the Met instead. After that we ate some delicious pizza in time square and soaked in the awesomeness that is new york. Then we headed back to the airport and prepared for our long flight over seas.
The flight was 8.5 hours long, with plenty of screaming children. The food was edible, but totally unpleasant. Luckily my boy scout skills had me prepared with a variety of snacks to tide us over.

We landed in moscow at the new terminal, which is clean, friendly and actually very plesent. We took another flight to St petes and arrived to a frigid city just as the sun was about to go down. It is almost march, but there is ice everywhere and Eden is having a hard time staying warm. We did treat ourselves to a nice candlelight dinner in a jazz club, with a live jazz band. Eden was instantly drawn to the "cute little old man" playing the piano, she must miss her job more than she thought she would. We had chicken shish-ka-bobs and pepsi. Fantastic! Today we are visiting the sites in St Petes. It is freezing and the lines are long and outside, but the city is amazing, the people are friendly and there is Mt. Dew in abundance. So far our adventure is going great and all is right in the world. We will probably head to volgograd in a day or two.
Talk to you then, B&E

Planning our totally awesome trip!!!

We are just doing a test run to see if we are actually computer savvy enough to blog. Here goes!

The first thing we would like to do is post pictures of places we plan on going in our travels....just to give y'all a little taste.

Starting in St. Petersburg



Then on to Volgograd


Moscow is the final stop on our tour of Russia. We may branch out to some other smaller cities that make up the "Golden Ring". Hopefully its not this snowy when we are there!


Then we are jet setting it to ROME!


Then Cinque Terre....


Venice is our last stop in Italy.


We haven't figured out the order, but here are a few other destinations we would like to hit. If you can name all 8 cities we will bring you back a souvenir of our choosing...it will be fantastic...we promise.