Today, Evgeny and I headed out for what we thought would be a simple errand to run–to meet his boss and pick up a package. We arrived at the office, and called for the boss, but there was an important meeting that he was attending–at a completely different location. So we went to breakfast so by the time we were finished, we could meet his boss. I had a great crepe with fresh fruits, and Evgeny had a mushroom soup–with Hot Chocolate.
We then headed to the other location that his boss was at, and we drove by one of the Stalinist type buildings again. This one is a huge apartment building that the old Soviet Politicians used to live in, but now has just been burdened by maintenance costs of simply living there. It’s still a beautiful building showing an amazing power of architecture, but surprisingly up close, is much smaller than it seems from a distance.
After we met Evgeny’s boss, we headed back to pick up Grisha and Masha, and it was already noon! Once we got everyone rounded up and dressed for outside, we headed out to take our red Lada, and turn it into Evgeny’s company–and exchange for a rental. This was quite an ordeal as it was a company car, but apparently the Deputy of Transportation at Evgeny’s company ordered that the car would be brought back to the company by the end of the day. Since this was a company car that had been promised in the beginning of getting the job, giving away the car caused Evgeny to request a solution–which worked out well–we were allowed to go rent a car for the rest of the holidays. So, we went to give the car back, which apparently will just sit on the street outside the company until Jan 9, and in return, we will be rolling in a nice Mazda 3, red, which is Masha and Grisha’s favorite color.
As this is Russia, and documentation has documentation which has stamps of stamps, we rented a car in just under an hour. Once we got the car, I drove the Mazda on the streets of Moscow with Grisha and Masha in tow, as we followed Evgeny in his tin can :) We dropped the car off finally, and ended up parking since by now, it was time for dinner. We stopped at Atrium right outside the station Kurskaya. Atrium houses Masha’s favorite restaurant, TGI Fridays. So we went there for a big dinner and waited for Katya to join. Katya joined for dessert, and after our dinner, the girls went shopping, and the boys went for a drive. I continued driving on Moscow’s Garden Ring–the city has 3 main rings of roads that connect like a spider web. After our drive, we ended up at Federation Towers again to show Grisha the construction site. We then headed back to pick up the girls so we could get our groceries for the New Year’s Eve dinner. For some reason, I was completely exhausted and despite not feeling like we had accomplished a lot for the day, I felt like I had been in a marathon, and could barely keep my eyes open for the drive home. I’m attributing the fatigue to my endless decoding of the Russian letters to sound out the words written on signs, advertisements, buildings etc.
Are you and Grisha BFFs yet? Y’all should be. :)
Ben – The site is amazing, my friend! The more time I spend on it, the more I see your little coding tricks here & there….
Very cool!
Envious,
Brian