Russia and this week

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. But, I don't have internet in my room and it's hard to remember to blog when you have limited time. Plus, everyone who reads this can get in touch with me in other ways and probably view pictures on Fb anyway.

I just got back from my Russia trip on Wednesday (see pics on Facebook), after my train back from Stockholm broke down somewhere in Småland and we had to wait for over an hour and the next train came and we all crowded onto it for the last 45 minutes of the trip and ended up getting back to Lund 2 and a half hours later than expected...ugh. And I lost a glove on the ferry back from Finland. So Wednesday wasn't that great until Sarah bullied me into going to VGs...then it was great fun. I love the guys that live in her corridor.

Russia was brilliant. It was so strange and foreign. When I first came to Sweden, I was a little uncomfortable, but being in Russia was much stranger than that. The Russian people aren't really nice to strangers, but our tour guides were great for the most part and everything was either beautiful and restored or rebuilt or being restored or rebuilt. The Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow is actually an exact replica of the 19th century cathedral built on that spot, just finished in 1995. All of the buildings in Russia (well, not ALL, but you get it) are very big and imposing. huge vaulted ceilings and statues and mosaics and everything.

Our hotel in Moscow was the nicer of the two...it was actually part of the Olympic Village for the 1980 Olympics (that the US boycotted). Moscow is HUGE. The official population is like 10.5 million, and from about 2 hours outside the city center is pretty much solid apartment buildings and stores. One of our bus stops was a Russian Wal-Mart type place, which was definitely the biggest store I've been in since the USA, except for maybe IKEA. I literally was getting lost in there. The other thing similar to the States was that a bunch of things in Russia are open 24h or really late, which is really unlike Sweden. The only things open on Sunday in Sweden are IKEA and the grocery stores, and maybe one cafe.

Anyway, bus trips are never much fun, especially overnight drives, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I may never go back to Russia again and I already got to tour the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb (CREEPY) and see all this crazy stuff. So while I'd've liked to stay longer, I'm happy with the way it turned out.