Moscow Day 1 & 2

We were able to stay in Mark's apartment through the weekend. It was a really nice apartment that had a cool view.

That first night we went to a little cafe that was just a few blocks or so from the apartment. I had a club sandwich and Mark had sushi.  It was good food and I was just so happy to be there with him after so long apart.

The next day Mark and I went to this huge market.  The sun was shining but it was cold, especially down in the stalls where it was mostly shaded.  The top part of the market is old churches and statues.

The market was basically stalls filled with Matryoshka dolls, war memorabilia and souvenirs. It was really fun to walk through and look at all the stuff but I got tired of haggling with every single merchant. 

Around lunch time vendors came out and started grilling kababos and they smelled amazing. Mark and I split a kabob and some delicious fried bread.

While we sat there a street artist came up and drew a picture of me. It was funny because we were out of cash and we kept telling him not to do it but he wouldn't listen. When we asked what he wanted for the picture he would just say a million dollars. When he was done Mark gave him our last couple dollars.

That night Mark took me to the funnest restaurant called Eshak. We sat back on these big couches (which is something that is common there in nicer restaurants).  I had steak and we both had borscht. Borscht is a soup with a beet base that has meat, vegetables and other spices in it. It is really hearty and delicious.

In the picture above you can see a shisha next to the table behind Mark. We saw this at many of the restaurants we went to. A man walks around with this pipe and people can pay to smoke from it. Another thing different about Russian restaurants is they expect you to hang out for a long time, hours even. They never bring the check unless you ask.

After dinner they had a live band. They sang American songs and they were really good. We had a ton of fun listening to them.