From Russia With Love

Today is Moscow's birthday! I have no idea how old it is so don't even ask. But let me just tell you that Moscow's birthday equals day o' fun for the whole city. Everyone comes to life and all these Russians who never smile or talk to strangers come alive and are laughing and singing and it's just fabulous.

And today was quite the day o' fun for me. It was amazingly beautiful weather (trying to soak it up...) and a couple of us decided to go to the souvenir market before heading to the park for the big birthday celebrations tonight. When you get there it just looks like you're going to an amusement park or something so you know it's going to be a good time. It's an open-air market and you just walk around and see all these matruska (just don't even worry about me spelling this stuff, I'm not going to get it right) dolls, furry hats (they're not the real fur ones but if you want one let me know because I will buy one for you!), and all this other Russian stuff. Oh and flags and old stamps and you can just buy anything there. Then there's this whole section up above with big floor rugs hung everywhere and I felt like I was in Aladdin or something. No seriously, it looked like it. So shopping really takes it out of ya so we saw some food vendors and they all are trying to sell their food (but it's all the same thing anyway and they're all right next to each other...how do you choose?) and they give you samples but the first guy who saw us was so nice and his food looked and tasted the best so we bought from him. We were some of the last people around so they were all competing for our business and it was so funny and we were just laughing. We even took a picture with the chef guy (he let us behind where they cook the food for a better picture) and he gave us his e-mail address so we could send him the picture.

After the market we headed to Victory Park where the party was starting. There was this huge sign all rainbowy and it said Happy Birthday (in Russian, obviously). Of course we took about a million pictures. So then we walked around and waited to meet up with the others and there was a stage set up with a concert going on (I think it goes on all day). We met up with these others and we were allowed to go in the Orthodox church that was there (well we didn't really know if we were allowed in but the doors were open so we went in). But I'm pretty sure the girls were supposed to cover their heads and we didn't have anything to cover them but I always go with the theory that if you can't do it someone will tell you not to or to leave and no one did...The fountains lit up once it was dark so we enjoyed some ice cream and played a little in the fountains (again I don't think you're supposed to get in there but if they didn't tell us to get out...well...). We waited for fireworks but some of us left before they started because we were just waiting around and getting sleepy and we knew the metro going home would be packed.

Going into the metro, one of the escalators stopped running (sometimes they do it and you have to walk up it. Too bad this was the station where the escalator takes 3 minutes to get up if you just stand on it and don't walk-trust me, I timed it) and people were laughing and cheering for the people that had to walk up it. Then there were these guys singing really loud and everyone was smiling at each other and laughing. It was like everyone was just in a great mood and letting loose.

The only thing I would have changed about today is that I really missed having my friends and family from home there. I kept pulling out my phone to text things to people about funny things going on but then I remembered that I can't text from my cell phone here. I really wish they were here to experience this with me!

All in all though, a great day!