You're Not Going To Believe This . . .

We've been having a wonderful time visiting Moscow.  We have the absolute best tour guide, host, and entertainer - all in one.   Today, Tami taught us how to use gypsy cabs which is another term for  hitch-hiking.  I would never hitch-hike in the states, but in Moscow, it's O.K. You just stand on the side of the road and stick your hand out and a car soon pulls over and you agree on the price and everyone jumps in and off you go to your destination.   Jack loves hitch-hiking and spent some time this evening (I should say, wee hours of the morning) talking to his dad, grandma and grandpa about our adventures.  

Today was Victory Day here in Russia.  A time when they celebrate and honor the end of World War II and those that served in the military.  It is a tradition to honor the World War IIveter veterans by giving them a flower and the children gave white tulips to one of the soldiers they met. Victory Park was packed with people.  Each adult held tightly the little hand of an assigned child.  To get to the park we took the subway - Chris drove and met us there.  The flowers were beautiful at the park and we enjoyed walking around.  The children especially enjoyed climbing all over the war tanks that were on display.  There was a beautiful display of fireworks to end the day of celebrations.  

And, that's when we realized that this was a once in a life time event to attend, because the crowd was overwhelming.  There were thousands and thousands of people.  We held tightly to the children's hands and stayed close together.  Chris had driven the car and parked there, so we divided up the gang into two groups - those that would ride in the family car and the other group that would hitch-hike home.  Tina and Chris took the little girls and headed for the car.  It took them quite a long time to get through the crowd - having to walk through a tunnel under the street - once on the other side they were ushered by uniformed police wearing helmets and holding a club to another area - an area they didn't want to go because it was in the opposite direction of the car.  Since they had children with them, the police allowed them to climb over the fence rather than go around in a different direction.  Chris climbed over the fence and the kids climbed through the spaces between the bars of the fence.  Tina had a little problem deciding how she was going to get over the fence and decided to try the way the children did it hoping she wouldn't get stuck.  She made it just fine!  The second group that consisted of Tami, Rachael, Jack, and me were pushed and shoved along with the other thousands of people to find another way home.  The subways had been closed because of the large crowd.  You could tell that people weren't sure what they were going to do.  The streets were lined with police - you weren't allowed to cross the street.  Finally, Tami noticed a bus that was going in the direction we needed to go, so we got on.  The bus was packed with not even standing room available before the driver finally took off.  Before reaching the designated destination, the bus stopped and everyone was ordered off.  Following along once again with the crowd (still thousands) and streets lined with police.  The police were making people go around a block rather than go across the street and fortunately, Tami, was able to convince one of the police officers that we had to go across the street and he let all four of us go.  As soon as we were able, we stepped out into the street and - yes, we hitch-hiked at 11:45 p.m.  

When we arrived home, Chris and the rest of the gang still weren't home and we didn't have a key to the apartment.  To make things worse, Rachael and Tami needed a "potty".  I suggested using the large bush in the front of the apartment building, but they both shook their head at that idea.  So I suggested that they knock on the door of the apartment that had lights on - which they thought was a good idea - only to be disappointed by no one answering the door.  So we walked about a mile to a little coffee shop.  Fortunately when Chris and the gang got home and realized that we hadn't made it home yet, he called and we begged for him to come and pick us up at the coffee shop.  

Soon everyone was home and having a great time talking about the adventures of the day.  It's now 2:15 a.m. and almost everyone has gone to bed.  Tina and I are still up but I think that's going to change real soon - as soon as I post this.  I'll probably need to edit this later. . . 

Tami put a few pictures on here for me, and I accidentally deleted some of them.  I'm not sure how.  We have lots of pictures and I'm sure Tami and Rachael will be posting pictures just as soon as we all get a little sleep.