After our trip to Suzdal, my family and I had another great dinner with my host family. It was very powerful to see my parents interacting with my host parents (with the help of my host sister and I acting as translators), knowing that even 25 years ago, it would have been totally impossible for a guy from Toledo, Ohio, to have dinner and drink cognac in Vladimir with a guy from Gus-Khrustalny, Russia. Wow. 

The next day, we left Vladimir on a train bound for Moscow. After we arrived in Moscow and we taken to the apartment we had rented (apartment rental is a great way to save on hotel costs in an expensive city like Moscow), we ventured out into the big city. We first took the metro to a big souvenir market a little outside the center of the city. We got there as the market was closing for the day, so my parents didn't get to see the full craziness that is Izmailovsky Market,  but my sister still bought a matryoshka. We then went to a hole-in-the-wall Georgian restaurant that I discovered on my first study-abroad trip to Moscow in 2010. And by Georgian, I don't mean peaches and fried chicken--there is a country called Georgia, after all. Georgian cuisine is flavorful and features a lot of grilled meat, thick soups, and roasted breads, and, after a year of bland Russian food (when the most colorful and exotic part of your diet is ketchup, you have a problem), the kharcho and khachapuri we ordered hit the spot. They use cilantro! 

We then strolled the Arbat, a pedestrian street that has long been a center of commerce and fashion. Today it is lined with countless restaurants, most of which are Western chain places (that odd moment when you stand between a KFC and a Dunkin Doughnuts in Moscow, Russia). We got coffee at Starbucks and did some people watching, which I think is the best thing to do on the Arbat. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs building--not far from where we stayed

On the ceiling of our metro station

The Izmailovsky market 

Browsing for souvenirs  

It's a strange place

Partisan statues in the metro 

Elektrozavodskaya--my favorite metro station 

I don't know why, but Russians always fold napkins and present them all fancy in restaurants and at home. Lots of effort where it doesn't count--so Russia 

The Arbat

There are lots of souvenir shops 

An eatery on the Arbat 

The commemorative wall to Viktor Tsoy--the leader of the 1980s rock band Kino 

 "In this building lived Alexander Pushkin from the beginning of February until the middle of March 1831"

On our next day, my family and I went to the ancient town of Suzdal, which is about a 20-minute drive from Vladimir. We were lucky to visit on a beautiful day when there weren't many people around, and, of all the times I've been to Suzdal (six or seven), this was by far the best. I would write more, but I'll let the pictures tell the story.

One of the most beautiful places in Suzdal

A tower in the wall ringing the St. Euthymius Monastery 

Inside the monastery

The monastery's bell tower. We got lucky and heard the bells, which is an affair that lasts several minutes.

Closeup of the bells. One guys plays all the bells using ropes and foot pedals. 

Another sleeping cat

Inside the Transfiguration Cathedral

Old frescoes on the walls

Old writing. To a reader of modern Russian, this is incomprehensible 

View of the monastery's garden 

Looking toward downtown Suzdal

A cathedral in the museum of wooden architecture 

A wood home in that museum  

The Suzdal kremlin 

A mailbox

I love these boxy UAZ  trucks

Inside the Suzdal kremlin  

A reconstruction of a typical village-style wooden church  

Suzdal has too many churches to count  

Another Suzdal local 

Inside the courtyard of a former prison used to hold political convicts, including one of the Decembrists   

More Suzdal churches 

Suzdal is also famous for medavukha, which is honey mead. We bought some.  

After visiting Vladimir's historic churches and seeing the city center, my family and I got in a cab and headed for my apartment, where my host mom had made us lunch. The cab ride took us from the mostly-presentable city center out into post-apocalyptic Soviet apartment building land (beat-up grey apartment buildings and trashy garages everywhere you look). I think my mom was in a state of shock: As we left the cab, she said something like, "We gave you such a beautiful place to grow up." But, as anyone who has lived in Russia knows, you can't get discouraged by the ugly buildings; usually the apartments inside are nice and filled with completely normal people. My host mom made some of the best borshch I've ever had, and, after this great lunch, we headed downtown again to see more sights. We met up with one of the other teachers and a few other people visited a beautiful botanical garden, the museum inside the Golden Gates, and a museum glassware produced in Vladimir Oblast. After taking a quick catnap at the American Home (our early morning was catching up with us), we went back to my apartment for dinner. My host family was waiting with homemade pelmeni and more of that delicious borshch. It was a great evening, and it was so cool that my family got to finally see where I live and meet the people who so graciously have hosted me this year.

View from the botanical garden

 Backside of downtown

Famous WWII-era recruitment poster

The group in the botanical garden

A diorama in the Golden Gates museum. It depicts the Mongol invasion of Vladimir in the 13th century 

A WWII bomb fragment

Inside the glass museum 

Walking up to the American Home 

It was a long day

Dinner

Fortunately it was already light when we got off the train in Vladimir at 4:15am. We crammed our luggage into an old Volga taxi cab and headed for the American Home for some breakfast and showers. I showed my family my workplace/home away from home and made an improvised breakfast of grechka and reconstituted condensed milk (hey, at least there was coffee). We relaxed for a few hours, and then we set off to explore the center of the city and see the historic Assumption and St. Dmitry Cathedrals. Unfortunately, the twelfth-century Assumption Cathedral, the most impressive of the two, was closed for some unexplained reason, but we got to see the other cathedral and walk along the walls of the Vladimir kremlin. Here are some pictures from the first half of our first day in Vladimir:

Side street next to the Golden Gates

Mister Gamburger--Vladimir's answer for a hamburger place. I don't recommend.  

The Assumption Cathedral 

Ancient onion domes

Locks on a fence. People often fasten locks to fences or bridges when they get married. Nothing says "committed for life" quite like a lock on a rusty fence.  

Downtown Vladimir

A church with apartment buildings in the distance 

The St. Dmitry Cathedral. It's famous for its carvings. 

Interior of the St. Dmitry Cathedral

 Looking up at the dome 

Vladimir's train station and our not-very-clean river Klyazma

One of the locals

 It's a rough life in the provinces 

Wall of the Vladimir kremlin (kremlin means "fortress"--most old towns have kremlins) 

Alexander Nevsky was here

A school bus

Sitting at my desk back at the American Home

Making breakfast 

On the rampart next to the Golden Gates

 Looking out toward Murom 

Main street Vladimir

Relaxing on the couch at the American Home