Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

After many, many hours of flying we jumped on a train and took a short ride into Moscow. We spent the day riding the subway and walking all over Moscow seeing the sights. To say that Moscow is like no place I've ever visited is a huge understatement. People here move fast and with purpose, locals also seem to be born with an incredible ability to stay on their feet. This is in spite of the fact that every surface is coated with 2 inches of ice and snow and most of the floor surfaces are either tile, concrete, or some other extremely slippery surface. The subway system is completely insane, I had no idea where I was most of the afternoon and was overwhelmed by all the PEOPLE, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME

My first impressions:

Flying - Luftansa was cool, great movies to watch on the way and great service. Just wish I could have slept more, I don't want to see another airplane for 12 more days.

Domodedevo Airport - Insane, wall to wall people but really nice to be on the ground again.

Moscow Subway - Insane, wall to wall people. People do not make eye contact here and have no understanding of the concept of "personal space". Still everyone seemed polite enough and accomodated each other getting in and out of the car.

Moscow Red Square - Beautiful, incredible architecture. Tons of history, you can tell that the Russians take pride in this place. Also, absolutely frigid especially when the wind is blowing.

Moscow McDonald's - Insane, wall to wall people at every location. The ladies had to circle like vultures to get our table. Can't get over how crazy each place was, people standing in line, in freezing temps, for 20 minutes to get fast food. I found the taste of the food to be very comparable to the US. I had the Royal Deluxe (Big N' Tasty in US) and it was good. I've now exceeded my sodium quota for 2011.

We were dead on our feet by the time we jumped on the train to Tambov at 10pm. The 6x6 train compartment barely fit 3 men and our baggage. However, to lay down and be lulled to sleep by the motion and sounds of the train was very nice after 30 hours of non-stop going. We were awakened by knocking on the door from someone working on the train. She spoke in Russian but I'm pretty sure she said something like, "Welcome to Tambov, now get off my train".

Vadim, Misha, and Anatoly picked us up this morning and we piled into a van and Anatoly's car. It was a short drive to the church where we unloaded and sat down for very nice breakfast prepared by some women at the church. This meal was such a blessing with fresh fruit, cereal, meats and cheeses. We all felt especially blessed considering our last 4-5 meals were either McDonald's or airplane food. This is probably more food than some of these people have seen in weeks and they are very gracious hosts.

I'm being accused of writing a book so I'll sign off for now. More to come.

To God Be the Glory!

-Rader