I’ve been getting worse and worst at keeping to my regular updates; I guess it has just been a very busy spring. I’m embarrassed this post is almost 2 months post-facto. Just as the weather was getting nice in Doha and starting to be boat/wakeboard weather again, I decided to take a long weekend and check out Moscow. Loosely, the reason for going was to go to a festival called Maslenitsa. Apparently it is some leftover tradition that goes back to the pagan days and celebrates to coming of spring. As you can see from the clothes everyone is wearing in the pictures, it was not quite spring weather. In fact, most of the time I was there it was below freezing and lightly spitting snow. It was the first time that I had been in the snow for a long time (don’t see much of that in Doha). I’m not sure who this guy is but he was one of the characters running around the festival. There were lots of other people (well, mostly children) getting their picture taken with him so I figured I would too.

Besides checking out the festival, there was not too much on the itinerary, just sightseeing around the city in the day and going out at night. I went with a friend from work and we only had three nights in town and our long-delayed departure from Doha on the way out meant that we really only had two nights out on the town. Thanks to my sister and her family employee rate, we were able to get a great deal and stay at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel right next to Red Square. This is THE hotel in Moscow, normally going for $1000+ per night; we paid much, much less. Make no mistakes though, Moscow is an expensive city. We had some great dinners out and went to some great nightclubs but, even with the ruble having fallen 30% against the dollar, it all added up quickly. Part of it could have been that we had the concierge at a $1000 a night hotel giving recommendations. We were also able to meet up with one of our old coworkers and friends from Houston who helped point us in the right direction as well.

The picture above is in Red Square looking back at St. Basil’s cathedral. The hat was a purchase in the market earlier in the day. The fur hat was quite popular, I thought the old soviet symbol on the front was a nice touch. Below is another picture looking the opposite direction in Red Square. The Kremlin is on the left and the GUM department store is on the right. The GUM is a historic building that once was the state distribution center for simple consumer goods. Now it is filled with shops from all the glitziest retail brands in the world.