London, the 3rd time, the best of those times!

On my way home, I decided to stop by this little village, unknown to most people called, London. All I can saw is, "Yes, please!" I had the most amazing visit. I got to drink wine in the middle of the afternoon by a beautiful river, a private tour of parliament, a warm and inviting house to enjoy, not to mention, the best company and conversation in the world. I will definitely book with the Maddy-Kate-Fiona-Jen-Jon Tour Agency again!












Thank you so much! I had such a great time. I won't be able to out do you in New York but you gotta let me try. I hope to see you all here soon!

Saying Goodbye to Moscow

Leaving Moscow was one of those bitter sweet moments in life. I could make lists upon lists of reasons why leaving was the best decision I had ever made but at the same time, I did not want to leave aspects of my life there.




Moscow taught me lots of things. I learned, surprisingly, that I like people. It was fun to break down people's barriers, tease out a smile from their grim street faces, and destroy stereotypes of what you expect from certain types of people. In the end, I learned that Moscow has some of the best people in the world. With every interaction I had, it made my decision to study social work even easier. I would recommend to anyone, that if you need to test yourself, find out what you are made of, then spend a year in Moscow.


So to say goodbye to Moscow properly is to say goodbye to all of it's wonderful people (of course, not all of them are pictured here, the kiosk ladies would not let me photograph them! hahaha).

Irkutsk, Russia

What reaction does the word "Irkutsk" provoke in you? Perhaps nothing, perhaps disdain, or even perhaps delight. Well, what about the word "platzcart" aka 3rd class? Anything yet? Ok, well what if I put those two words together and tell you that is how I am taking a holiday? I already performed this experiment and the first reaction was: Why? and then What? Oh, perhaps I traveled there just for the pure joy of seeing people's utter astonishment! Every person had the same reaction when I told them about my upcoming adventure.


Well what ensued was a very pleasant journey by train by 3 days, with a few interesting stories. Then a visit to the deepest lake in the world, where the only fresh water seals in the world live. Finally, a great time in one of the nicest Russian cities I have been to.


When Ruth and I sat down in our carriage and gave each other excited grins, we noticed a noise that was getting closer and closer. When we turned our heads we notice it was 20 eleven year old boys getting on the train. We prayed they would pass through out carriage to the next, but alas, they didn't. All the Russian conversation we had planned was slipping through our fingers. What we got instead was constant entertainment. They were a rugby team that had won their championship game and were victoriously heading home. They wrestled, fought, covered each other in ketchup, ran, jumped, climbed, patched their seats with band aids, and ate, ate, ate. Any desire to have kids vanished. We survived somehow and we ended up drinking and speaking with their coaches.


We had beautiful weather in Irkutsk for the first two days. Then we it rained for two days. Irkutsk was a simple city to figure out and also surprising in a lot of ways. First, the people were really friendly. In a book store a young security guard (kinda cute) talked to us for like a half hour trying to help us find some books to read. It was great. We also saw a film at the coolest theatre I had ever been to. It had huge reclining chairs and phones to order food as you watched. Fantastic! Also, there were many more traditional style houses in Irkutsk. Some of the frames around the windows were quite impressive.


Oh and the Lake, I shouldn't forget about that. It was big! Really big! I was surprised. The best part of it, I must say, was seeing the seals in their tiny and pathetic museum of Lake Baikal. They were super cute. There needs to be more work done to promote tourism around the lake. We had trouble finding trails to explore the expansive forest. It could be much more interesting if someone would just invest in it.


I don't know if I would recommend this trip to your average traveler but it was just right for Ruth and I.

Euro Vision and Adventures in the Garden

The Portugese Group:
As you might be aware, the Eurovision song contest just took place. I was amoung the "lucky" few who got to go and see it thanks to one of my lovely friends who took me with her. So the performances were good but it was over in two hours. Then we watched the voting and they told us Germany won. I don't know how things go, I thought it would be live but some things are pre-recorded. I have no idea what happened. Perhaps we just saw some part of the voting and not all of it. In any case, it was fun. I am probably one of the very few Americans who has gone to Eurovision. What an honor. I did like a few of the songs even. I liked the entry from Iceland and from Portugal.

The Greek Group:The French group:After the concert my friend took me back to her apartment for tea and let me play with her bird. It was a great day!

Then I spent an afternoon in the botanical gardens with two friends but it certainly wasn't what I had expected. First, no flowers. Second, we got a tiny bit lost. And when I say "we", I mean, I wasn't supposed to pay attention, so I didn't and was absolutely useless when trying to get back to the car. I did however pick up on the tracks of a horse that had gone our way. I knew those fake tracking skills I pretended to have would pay off someday! We had a really good time. We answered questions like, if we were lost and had to eat someone, who would it be. You know the important questions of life! It was just good to walk and talk with good company.

This is Seva and Tema.This is Seva and Tema reaching for a big stick. Sticks were a theme of our journey through the garden.The Russian Entry:

The Sultanate of Oman

After a long absence I am back with one of my lastest trips. Todd and I took a week break from the snow and clouds of Moscow for sunny and hot Oman. It was a great trip and it destroyed some of my fears that Egypt had created about the Arab world.

First, we flew to Dubai. We wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Why were so many rappers singing about flying there for the weekend? (Well I only know one. Justin Timberlake sings about it and for that I am ashamed.) To be honest, I don't really see the appeal of the city. Everything is new and expansive. You can't walk anywhere. The free, public beaches were the only thing that really appealed to us. Since, most of the people in Dubai aren't native, we fit right in when we went to the beach. Plus, we went to one which is nicknamed the "Russian" beach and it felt like we were hanging out in an alternate, sunny Moscow. It will be interesting to see the progression of Dubai.

From Dubai, we took a bus to Muscat, the capital of Oman. It is amazing to see that a country that had very little infastructure could grow so much after only 4o years. The current Sultan overthrew his father in the 70s and since then, he has tried to modernize the country. Now, there are paved roads, everyone has a higher standard of living, and they participate in global economics and politics.


We went snorkling and sightseeing in Muscat. Then we took a guided tour for three days to the mountains. It was interesting to see mountains without trees. I've seen pictures of it but it was really surprising. Also, it was funny to see goats roaming the hillsides. They are expert climbers. Unbelievable. Not to mention, they are really quite good at stealing your lunch. That is what they did to Todd and I! Who knew that goats were so agressive. Lesson learned.

Our guide was a really nice man. He spoke Arabic, English, and Swahili. Apparently, Oman had some involvement in the slave trade, so there is a close connection to Africa. The people in general in Oman were quite nice. We never felt harassed and they respected us. Of course we had almost no interaction with women, which is too bad. Todd did, however, make some young girls run from him when he came close to where they were sitting. He wanted to use the ATM but I think they thought he was going to grab one and haul her off! It was really quite hilarious. :)

This certainly wasn't a backpacker's holiday. We saw very few Americans that weren't military but I would recommend it. It was a great, safe place to see Arab culture. Plus, it is a fantastic break from the cold if you are living in a northernly country.

More of the Old World - Turkey

There were two places I really wanted to see while being in Russia (other than Russia) and they were Egypt and Turkey. Having seen them both, they are now considered the dark and light sisters of my travels. I was nervous and even not looking forward to my trip to Turkey because Egypt had been so painful. When I told my Russian class about this, the Turkish girl in my class assured me that this was not the case. She invited me to her house and showed me pictures and even taught me a few words of Turkish (which I promptly forgot). Even so, I was a bit anxious on the flight over.

Turns out Turkey is a great place. The atmosphere was relaxing, the climate was inviting, and the people were friendly. The country is still fairly liberal when it comes to religion but you can see the struggle the people are dealing with, just by walking down the street. You see groups of women where one or two are wearing headscarves but their mothers aren't. And pleasantly enough (at least in the west of the country) you don't find those disconcering patches of black in the scenery, where women are totally covered. Also there is something so relaxing when you see a group of students, boys and girls, hanging out after school at a park. There is no one there veiling the girls and trying to keep them seperate from the boys, they are just being kids. Needless to say I didn't feel nervous about being a woman in predominately muslim country the way I did in Egypt.

All that being said, the trip was good. We flew into Istanbul and spent three days there. On the first day, which was January 1st, the weather was warm, the sun shining, and we were terribly excited. But unfornatuely, the days following that were overcast and rainy. But we had come from Moscow, so the weather didn't get us down. We saw the Hagia Sophia, which is the most amazing historical places I have ever been to. It was a cathedral built by Justinian during the Byzantian Empire. When Constaninople was conquered by Ottoman Turks in the 1400s, the church was converted to a mosque. Inside you can see how they altered it but there are still hints of its original origins. There are crosses on the ceiling crossed out, funnily enough. There are even pictures of Mary and Jesus left up.

The Hagia Sophia was the inspiration for the Blue Mosque that sets right down the street from it. It was incredibly beautiful and the aritect spent all this life trying to understand and copy the design of the Hagis Sophia. It is still a working mosque so you have to time your visits carefully. First you line up outside, take off your shoes, and then they let you in. There is a portion that visitors are not allowed past but you can still see everything.

Later we went to the cistern under the city, which the Romans and Byzantines had used to store extra water. It is also the place that James Bond used to get to the Russian embassy but I couldn't quite make out the route he used!! It was damp and kind a spooky. The best part was seeing the big madusa heads at the base of some of the pillars. So now you can see three stages of religion in Istanbul, the Greek/Roman gods, christianity, and islam. Fantastic!

After the fun of Istanbul we headed down the coast by bus (which was an excellent way to travel, with great service) to Selcuk, to see the ancient city of Ephesus. It was quite an advanced city during its height had running water, public baths, and a library. Ephesus is also sited in the bible, in revelations. We stayed there just two days and one night because the town is small and once you are done seeing Ephesus there isn't much more to do. Interestingly enough, we were getting tired of Kebabs by this point and discovered a Korean restaurant! We were the only customers at lunch time but it was a nice change of pace.















From Selcuk, we headed farther down the coast to Antalya. This is a coastal city on the Mediterranean Sea. The first day we arrived it was raining but after that, the clouds cleared, and we finally had some warm and sunny days. We could see the mountains, topped with snow, and the sparkling sea. This town is now quite a popular resort destination, especially for Russians, who don't need a visa. But in the off season, it was relaxed and uncrowded. We managed to take a boat ride while we were there. We knew we had to go down to the harbor and talk to a boat owner about the ride. I was not looking forward to this because it takes some haggling and we might be made to pay more than it is worth. But we knew this was what we had to do. So we went down and talked to the first boat owner that approached us. As we were talking another man approached us and started telling us stuff too. And out of nowhere a third man ran up and started yelling at the second man. Todd and I were a little worried but the third man gave us a cheaper price and showed us to the boat. Later, the third man told us that there are rules about asking people and since we started talking to the first man, the second man couldn't interfer until we turn the first man down. Who knew touts had complicated rules to follow! In the end we got our boat ride for about $10.


Eventually we left Antalya for Istanbul, and then flew back to Moscow.

This is part of the walls that surrounded Constantiople during the Byzantine Empire. They were supposed to keep foreigners out, but looks like they weren't doing such a good job!

One of the most distinctive things about Turkey was that instead of pigeons everywhere, there were cats! So needless to say we have plenty of pictures with cats. Also, many Turkish people keeps dogs. I just assumed they wouldn't because of islam, but everyone seemed to have a dog.

This kitty was wondering from tourist to tourist inside the Hagia Sophia.

This kitty was following Todd and I around in Selcuk, poor thing didn't have a tail.

This kitty was hanging out in the ruins of Ephesus begging for food. Todd and I never had anything to give them but we saw a German man pull slices of sausage out of his pocket and feed them. Who carries around sausage?


I would totally recommend that you visit Turkey. It is a great place to see civiliations, religions, and technology collide.

Estonia and Finland

Since my last blog, summer has come and gone. Today it actually snowed for the first time. It was great. But as you know I haven't been idle just because it isn't summer. Todd and I played guide to his mother and her husband for a week in October. Then in November we took a trip to Estonia and Finland. Many of my students asked me why and all I could tell them was, why not. We got the time off work and we just wanted to see what those pesky Estonias and Fins were up to.

We left on a night train from Moscow to Tallinn. It took about 13 hours. And what was even better, Todd and I were not seated next to each other for the trip. We thought we could ask someone to exchange seats with us but turns out Todd sat next to a crabby old babushka who wouldn't budge. And the guy sitting next to me, literally couldn't budge because he was too big! So getting to Tallinn wasn't as romantic as it could have been. Nonetheless we arrived.

We booked a hotel close to the train station and when we arrived we saw that "close" was an understatement. It was right next to the train tracks! So it was easy finding the hotel. It had a great view of Tallinn as well. I guess that is what you get when you stop staying at youth hostels.

The "old town" of Tallinn is pretty cool. It has remained the same since the middle ages. So the streets are all windy and paved in bricks. It was very pictureque and relaxing but there wasn't much to do there. So we spent a day in the old town and then watched movies in English and shopped.

Helsinki Train Station

After two days we took the ferry to Helsinki. Todd was especially pumped to go to Finland because one of his favorite bands is from there, Lordi. Haven't heard of it? Don't investigate, really not worth your time. Anyway, we were expecting to buy Lordi Cola and all sorts of other stuff for Todd.

A candy bar we came to fondly call, racial slur bar!

Helsinki would be a great place to live but not such a great for tourists. There wasn't much to see or do that you wouldn't get in most big cities. They did, however, have H&M and reasonable prices even though they are on the euro. So we shopped! We also went to the aquarium and the reptile zoo place.



Then we took a train up to a town called Tampere. Apparently, this was the worker's capital of Finland and so Lenin had spent lots of time here trying to start a revolution. Needless to say Todd and I visited the Lenin museum and got a sweet photo of a couch Lenin slept on a for a few nights.




Eventually we made our way back to Moscow. Finland and Estonia were nice places to visit. And it turns out the Estonias were trying to speak Estonian or English but were overwhelmed with Russian. The Finnish weren't up to much because they had already mastered English! Now we know what they were up to!!