From Russia With Love

There's this Russian holiday that precedes Orthodox Lent (I think) called Maslenitsa. It's sort of a celebration or anticipation of spring coming so they eat all this blini which is kind of like a crepe and you can eat it with sweet things like we do or with fruit or they eat it a lot with sour cream or mashed potatoes, that kind of thing. They're pretty delicious no matter what's in them. But they're in a circle shape to represent the sun and they have these scarecrows that they burn.

So on Friday night, me and some friends went to the Maslenitsa Festival at Red Square! They had all these blini stands and everyone was in traditional Russian costumes. They also serve this drink that is hot honey beer and it tasted like hot cider! It was so delicious. It reminded me of how they drink that honey mead in Harry Potter. There was a huge stage with pop star-ish singers and people were dancing and there were also these people up in these towers playing big drums and there were strobe lights going (for some reason it kind of reminded me of Mulan...?). It was FREEZING but so worth it!

Here are some pictures compliments of Amy Wood and her iPhone :)
All the blini stands


Drinking the honey cider beer


The stage with the performers...Russians live for performing


An ice sculpture of the scarecrow