Big Red

My most recent trip I teamed up with the dynamic brother duo of Timmy and CC for something more than a trip, but rather a competition of two great rivals.

So, let me take you back to a more simple time. A time of Good vs. Evil, West vs. East, and Democracy vs. Communism. That is right, time to go back to good old days of:

USA vs. Russia

The plan was to spend 1 week split between St. Petersburg and Moscow, enrich ourselves with culture, and show these guys how we roll. Let's see how the action unfolded.

First, a little pregame pow-wow in London, the Americans do look confident.

USA 7 – Russia 0
The 3 of us getting over the first major hurdle and being let into the country at St. Petersburg and getting to enjoy our 1st taste of Russian beer.

USA 10 – Russia 0
Enjoying our first meal in Russia at La Cucaracha Mexican restaurant.

USA 10 – Russia 3
Sadly, the enchiladas were covered in Velveeta cheese, c’mon. Although I guess what should we expect, but even more sadly this was one of the best meals in St. Petersburg (it ran very close with a pizza place we went to).

USA 13 – Russia 3
Scoring a sweet apartment. It had a full on sauna inside. I will spare you all the pictures of our nightly sessions, but it was pretty cool.

USA 20 – Russia 3
Seeing the sites of St. Petersburg. We really did not have much idea of what to expect, but everything was certainly big, and the weather was amazing.

USA 20 – Russia 10
Buying train tickets for Moscow. The line was long, it was hot, some lines were slow as the tellers went on break at random intervals, people spoke loudly to us in Russian, and the maps were crystal clear.

But after a little over an hour we were able to figure out we needed our passports (which we did not have with us) to buy tickets which might cost an insane amount of money. Good times.

USA 23 – Russia 10
Getting everything figured out and on the train to Moscow. Woot woot.

USA 23 – Russia 13
Having the dude next to me polish off 3 big cans of beer in 20 minutes BEFORE the train actually leaves the station. Other than that, the 6 hour ride was a breeze.

Halftime - St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with a lot of water through canals and a river, but it just lacked something truly special and awe inspiring. The history of the city was pretty cool, and I think that is now the farthest north I have ever been, which is something I guess. Although the game is well in hand, maybe Moscow would be different.

USA 30 – Russia 13
Seeing Red Square and St. Basil's at night...gorgeous.

The only thing is that one side of Red Square looked a bit like Disneyland at night…not so intimidating.

On a positive note, we also got to continue our culinary world tour by sampling an excellent Chinese place just outside of Red Square.

USA 30 – Russia 16
A Russian cop tried to shake us down outside the Kremlin. Luckily, we did not actually have our passports (yes, again) and he gave up. Sometimes being dumb helps.

USA 37 – Russia 16
Seeing Moscow and Red Square during the day. It was something to see the Kremlin, the center of Communism (formerly, of course) and Russian government. The amazing thing is that a lot of the area inside the Kremlin is churches and a park. Unfortunately there were no Putin sightings, maybe next time. The other odd nugget of knowledge is that Red Square is not in fact red....it comes from the middle ages when red meant beautiful. Go figure.

USA 40 – Russia 16
The big advantage we found in Moscow was the night life (it probably helped that it was the weekend) and all we had to do is stand there and look stupid yelling things at each other in English and eventually someone would come and talk to us. Plus Timmy had his old man hat.

USA 40 – Russia 19

Our last activity before leaving was to see Lenin’s tomb. The fact that he died 90 years ago and his body is still being shown is maybe one of the creepier things I have ever seen. Yeah, I would have gotten a picture from inside but I think I would have been shot.

Final score 40 - 19, USA in a route. All that is left to do is celebrate....

and to cross our fingers and hope that they would be gracious and let us out of the country.

What an great trip. For some reason Russia was never on my unofficial lists of places I wanted to visit while living over here, but it was certainly an amazing experience and Moscow has planted itself firmly on my list of favorite cities I have visited. For another perspective (he gets more down and dirty) of this whole trip, check out TIMMY's BLOG, I higly recommend it.

Cheers!