Two Texans in the Snow! (aka "How We Almost Got to Visit a Russian Hospital")

The day after visiting the cat theater, we met Edward at the Metro station and headed out to the newly renovated Cosmonaut Museum, which Brian was especially excited about. We saw Gagarin's Vostok capsule (actually very spacious!), several models of orbiting spacecraft, landers, many engines and other space-related gear. Here is a pic of Edward standing next to (the stuffed) Strelka and Belka, the Russian dogs that went into space. It was here at this museum that we first started to noticed the pervasive stench of vodka permeating the air, particularly around men... and this was at 10am on a Sunday morning. According to my brother (and NPR), the average Russian consumes 18 liters of pure alcohol a year. Guess that explains the 3L bottles of vodka and the 5L bottles of beer we saw in the grocery store! (see pics)

That afternoon we headed over to a Christmas party thrown by Taryn, a high school acquaintance of mine who is now working in Moscow, and had some fantastic American-style Christmas cookies and Siberian Corona (a real brand of beer!). Here is a pic of a giant spinning Siberian Corona bottle on the side of the road (see pic). Since we were on an American food kick, Brian and I hit up Pizza Hut for dinner, incredibly thankful for their dual-language menu!

The following day we met up with Edward to head to Gorky park, an amusement park on the Moscow River that contains a test vehicle for the abandoned Russian space shuttle program. It was snowing a bit, but we weren't too concerned, as the mayor of Moscow has implemented a "cloud seeding" program this winter to ensure that Moscow doesn't receive any heavy snowfall, which apparently is much cheaper than plowing the streets (this program of course is inciting much consternation in the small towns surrounding Moscow).

Anyhoo, turns out Gorky Park is closed in the wintertime. But I did get a picture of "Crapdogs" (Edward insists it says "Stardogs"), the hotdog stand outside the gates, though (see pic), and could see the shuttle from afar (see pic). Since our trip to the park was unsuccessful, we took a minor detour to a fantastic Georgian restaurant in a boat on the river... and it was here that my love affair with Khatchapuri (a Georgian cheese bread) began! (see pic) The following week I would end up braving the -27C temperatures to return to this restaurant (it was so cold the entire river had frozen) just of the for another taste of the Khatchpuri. :)

Throughout the day, the snow had continued to fall, accumulating on the ground and snarling traffic. The sidewalks were beginning to get a bit slick, but I suggested to Brian that we take a quick jaunt over to Red Square so I could see St. Basil's in the snow. Turns out that was not such a smart idea. Brian's legs went straight out from under him while crossing the street, and he landed smack on his back and head in the middle of the road. I quickly shuffled out there and did a ridiculous policewoman impression trying to get the traffic to stop while Brian tried to limp out of the road. I'm sure it was quite a sight! Somehow his tough noggin' survived hitting the pavement, but he had back spasms the rest of the evening and the next day. We debated going to the doctor, but he decided to tough it out. Now I see why the guidebook recommended boots with cleats!

We were pretty much apartment-bound the next day while Brian recovered, but I did venture out and finally got my picture of St. Basil's in the snow. (see pic) The headline in the newspaper read, "Unexpected Snowfall Paralyzes City". I'm just glad Brian wasn't paralyzed, too. :)