Day 2

Day two began south west of Moscow, riding ATV's through a rural neighborhood. We then drove back into the city for tour of the Krem and Red Sqare. There were several old churches within the walls of the Kremlin, containing old paitings and the toumbs of former Tsars.

St. Basil's was even better looking in the the daytime, with its awesome geometrical onion domes. Lenin's mausoleum was closed because it was sunday, but it was cool to see his large stone resing place in Red Square, between two rows of newly planted pine trees.

Next, we met Roman's dad, Alexander, at a Ukrainan restaurant for "lunch" at 5:00. The food was mainly pickled things-- plums, tomatos, cucumbers, lettuce. We also ate borsch, wild mushrooms, liver, and cow's heel (which is like pulled meat in clear mint jello). To drink, we were served a red yeast drink. There were also small glasses of "old" Ukranian liqor that were either horseradish or honey flavored. And then the main courses came...

We followed this epic meal with a walk down the park in front of Moscow State. This University is housed in a large sprawling building that is attributed to Stalin. He gets credit for overseeing the construction of seven buildings in Moscow that were built to display the power and strength of the Soviet Union. These buildings are now just beautiful displays of massive architectual prowess, with a red star on top.

We left Moscow at midnight in a sleeper car train headed north.