Today we went to Sergeiv Posad, a monestary outside of town which is the home of Russian Orthodox religion. It took twice as long to get there as it should have due to traffic. Once we arrived, we discovered that it's mostly under construction, so most buildings are covered with scaffolding. We were escorted into a museum which was largely a duplicate of the armoury. We did get a couple of minutes in a couple of churches. We also got to wash our faces in the well of holy water, considered to be a fountain of youth.
Then we walked across the street for lunch at an authentic Russian restaurant. Due to the location, and the casual environment, it should have been a reasonably cheap place. But we spent probably about $75 per person. So our $15 kebabs are really looking like a good price. Service was also terribly slow. It was after 4pm byt the time we were done. We were supposed to get a chance to shop at the market in front of the monestary, but because lunch took so long, most of the stalls were closing up. It was a fraction of what we saw on Saturday in town, though. So I wasn't too disappointed. Back in town, some of us got dropped off at a metro station with a guide to go to a shopping area. UG went back to the hotel to get in a workout before dinner. Dinner had to be rescheduled until 9pm to fit in the shopping.
Shopping was at old Arbat street, which holds a few touristy souvenir stores. Most of the group is leaving tomorrow, so this has been their only opportunity to get the kitsch to bring home to their families. And these are the stores recommended by the ILS hosts. The price tags gave me a heart attack and I resigned myself to window shopping. But from what the others were getting quoted, I realized that the price tags were just the suggested price. Everyone got at least a 50% discount. I was still uncomfortable because I couldn't see too much difference from the market wares, and I'd rather tell the vendor what I want to pay than ask for a discount and try to determine if that's as low as he'll go.
UG left his deodorant in Baikonur, so I had the interpreter come into a drug store with me to get some. They only had one bottle of men's, so I grabbed that. It's a roll-on. Do they even still sell roll-on in North America? Of course, UG hates it. It's pretty strong smelling, my eyes water if I walk into the bathroom after he uses it. I think he'll be looking for something else for the rest of the trip.
Dinner tonight was the best so far. The restaurant was the White Rabbit, an Alice in Wonderland theme. It's on the top floor of an office building, with great views of the city. The decor was swanky and lounge like. We sat in love seats instead of chairs. I started with a $30 bellini. Have I mentioned that Moscow is expensive? UG and I both had lamb chops as mains. He ordered a caprise salad to start, which came with the largest ball of cheese he's ever seen in a single dish before. He ate about 1/8 of it, and the waiter chastised him lightly for not eating more. I had another berry mille feuille for dessert. Mmmmm. Half the group decided to order a hooka afterwards (Middle Eastern water pipe with flavoured tobacco). I would have been up for that, I've tried them before. But UG wasn't interested, neither were the hosts, so we headed back to the hotel. The rest had a 4am ride to the airport for their flights home. By the time we left the restaurant, it was almost 1am, and they were planning to just stay up.
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