So, how do you like your bleakness? Broad avenues?
glorious city squares?
vibrant nightlife?
romantic canals?
luxury accommodations?
or courteous motorists?
Okay, to be honest, St Petersburg was impressive, and beautiful like I had heard... but it just didn't feel like Russia. Although, there certainly wasn't a lack of impressive buildings:
and amazing landscape and luxurous palaces:
Due to the intense language barrier and the Frommer's guide having consistently failed us, we were reduced to using the map at the train station to try to figure out how to get to Moscow.
hmm, now if only I could read Russia... surely the ticket lady can help, no? okay, maybe we'll try again tomorrow... Two days later, with tickets in hand, we boarded out chariot to Mockba...
Okay, now were talking, that's a little better- that train sure wasn't rushin' anywhere, but it sure felt Russian!. Hmmm, that's not funny. From the train I got a look at the country side. Bleak yes, but not necessarily Russian. Kind of reminded me of Canada.
Despite Frommer's best effort to deter us, we quickly found our flat in Moscow and hit Red Square for an intimate night viewing.
The next morning it didn't quite look the same... Red Square? more like street color square.
"Oh, wait, what's that Frommy? 'Red' refers to the middle-ages when that word meant 'beautiful.' Cool." In fairness, we did get that one gem from the book.
Now this is RUSSIA! And as Chris aptly pointed out, "a view like this really takes you back to the days when all you heard on the news was, "This is Andrea Mitchell, reporting live, from the Kremlin. '"
Everything was better in Mockba- the sights, the city, and the nightlife! ;)
Even my Russian was better by the time we got to Moscow- "Piva big", "Metro?" and I'm pretty sure that says McDonalds...
We had an interesting visit to the Revolution Museum (recently renamed the State Museum of Contemporary Russian History) where we learned a lot about how things weren't too bad living under the ideals of the Bolsheviks and that life in the USSR wasn't that bad either. Yah, quit your complaining Lativia.
These were pretty good...
On the recommendation of our good friend Rick, we took the metro out of town a bit. Say as far as zone 3 in London or, I don't know, Tacoma from Seattle... bleakness.
Without a doubt, Moscow joined the ranks of my most favorite cities. You can look at the people- even those my age- and just imagine how very different their life must have been from that of their western counterpart. Great city, great people.I want to thank Rick Steves for contining to host information on his website after his Russia book had gone of publication. I want to thank the department story in Prague for selling me the cool old guy hat. And I want to thank the Russians for learning just enough English to allow me to negotiate a visa from their embasey in London; understand that I'm lost; explain that I really do want to order a side of mashed patatos with that thing that turned out to be a fancy mashed patato entree; order beer and vodka; and say spaseebaa to the nice young ladies.
Before catching our flight, we hit the square only last time, paid our respects to Lenin, 
and declared victory over the Russians! (maybe I shouldn't have said that)
After a night train from Prague to Krakow, I was pretty excited to enjoy a little polish sunshine. As you may recall my last trip to Krakow in Januaryish left me seriously frostbitten. 
The nightlife was as interesting as I remembered it. I had the pleasure of exchanging tales of loneliness with a nice young lady who shared the pain of trying to meet nice eastern european ladies... no pics, just one interesting story.
Budapest style. We spent an afternoon at the House of Terror, and got a taste of what six plus decades of Nazi and Soviet rule must have felt like- not fun. 
We spent the rest of our time in Budapest getting a feel for the city and witnessing a bit of history in the making- say hello to the Hungarian boy-band craze sweeping the, um, really small city square outside our apartment...
And after they were finished with the cruise, I took them to sunny Scotland...
