It's our fourth day in Russia and we've seen so much that a blog seems to be the only way to communicate it all -- after all, Facebook can only handle so much. So here's the update so far... This morning after breakfast at McDonalds (I know, I know, that's what I thought before I got here -- but it's actually better, in my opinion, and the McCafe is a Starbucks-ish spot that will give them a run for their money, at least here), we went to the little local market -- OMG, the produce was amazing!! My mom became instantly enamoured with a small tub of gooseberries and some pressed dried figs. I got some cherries that, while not Flathead cherries, are as close as I've found. Sadly, the scarf lady wasn't there this morning, so I still have a borrowed "visiting Russian Orthodox churches" head scarf. Today we did sight seeing around Moscow with Nick and Shelley (my cousins). Sightseeing is MUCH easier when you have a driver. Nicki actually has two drivers, both named Igor. They're both amazing dealing with Moscow traffic, which I don't think is as insane as some places but it's enough to be getting on with anyway. This morning we went to the Cathederal of Christ the Savior near the Kremlin. If you think of the golden onion does in Russia, this Cathederal has some of the goldest and onioniest (pictures to follow when I figure out how to down load them from here). The story behind this particular Cathederal is that Stalin had it demolished and, after his initial plans went awry, it ended up being the site of the world's largest swimming pool for 50 years (according to Lonely Planet guidebook). The Cathederal was rebuilt over two years and finished in 1997 using, from my cousin's information, mainly private funds from the people. It seemed to me, after visiting St. Basil's, that this Cathederal gives you a chance to see what the artwork in the historic cathederals looked like long ago. One thing I've noticed about landmarks in Moscow, and it comes up again in the Lonely Planet guide, is that a lot of times there's a debate in Moscow as to whether monuments, etc., are beautiful or horrendous. Next stop on our trip today was a bridge crossing a branch of the Moscow river near the Kremlin. We'd notice that on some artwork in the city that there were random padlocks attached wherever they'd work (think of those random tennis shoes on phone wires). Today we found out what it symbolized -- in Moscow when a couple get married they visit this line of metal tree sculputes and put a padlock on the tree to symbolize their marriage, then they toss the key to the lock into the river and drink a champagne toast. In the 15 or so minutes we were at the bridge, five different couples went through this ritual. There are a lot of pictures and the wedding dresses are gorgeous. The dark spot on the event is that there are women begging for money on the bridge during this special time for the couple (and, truth be told, random tourists taking pictures). We saw Moscow State University (the OTHER MSU) as well as the Olympic ski jump at this bridge. This is another place popular with newly married couples to drink a toast and celebrate. Hopefully you can see this link to a flash mob on this bridge You can see MSU as a huge hazy building in the back of one scene and the ski jump in another. The dome shaped building in back on many of the shots was the site of the Moscow Olympics. You'll also see a newly married couple drinking their toast. Our final stop on today's tour was Old Arabat street, a great place to just people watch. I did my first haggling for prices over some art work of St. Basil's Cathedral. The first man was very nice and spoke English well. With the second guy I really got to play it up a bit -- he was a hoot. Tomorrow we're going to Izmaylovsky Market. Tonight Nick and Shelley are having a get together so we can meet some of their ex-pat friends here. I'm guessing that the US Ambassador to Russia won't be here so I can't roll out my six degrees of separation to impress you with later (he's from my hometown and I went to high school with his brother).