Planning to leave for the morning, Vlad took Dandee outside while Marianna finished getting ready. A little girl came up and the dog charged at her. It scared the little girl and her mother and us – the little girl was so sweet and recovered immediately.
On the way to meet Nicky, we stopped at their new home in progress to water all of the potted plants. We drove from there – it seemed like forever – across Moscow and outside of Moscow – the towns have grown together like at some places in the states – and picked up Nicky at a bus stop after 2 p.m. He is as tall as Vlad – or taller – and slim – a very nice young man, it seems. He was self-conscious about his English, but visited with us a bit. The way back to the apartment seemed less than half of the way to the bus stop. Perhaps the house they are building was not actually on the way.
We got back to the apartment, and Vlad and Marianna left us to rest while they went back to Marianna’s folks’ apartment – with the dog and Nicki. They told us to rest – we would go out for supper and then they would drive us around Moscow by night.
We had a good rest, I finished my book, and we played part of a game of Boggle before they got here to pick us up. We went to a pizza place – (my dressing up in a long skirt to eat out was quite unnecessary – but comfortable.) The first pizza place wanted to charge extra if we sat there at their one table to eat it – and objected to Vlad and Marianna bringing in their own pop and cups – we were uncomfortable about that also!; Vlad was (interestingly) quite upset about this. He really wants to show us a nice time.
After we found another pizza place where we could sit and eat (Dominoes), Vlad took us on a long night drive through the city of Moscow. It’s huge – and full of large beautiful buildings. Most people seem to live in apartments – we don’t see many private homes.
As it got dark and all the colored lights came on, we enjoyed the beauty of the city – at one point we stopped at a place where we could look over the city and its lights, It is a favorite stopping place, and there were many motor cycles and young people enjoying the view and the area. In all our driving, we didn’t see any misbehaving of any kind. We also felt safe.
We drove all around Moscow – we didn’t get “home” until 1 a.m.! Moscow at night was comfortable for driving. Vlad says that in the daytime it’s hard to get anywhere because of the traffic tie-ups.
We got back to our “home” at 1:30 a.m. Or later. What a great “tour!”
Marianna told us that all young men who don’t go on to college must go into the military. A military training facility is near their country home, and we see army jeeps and displays many places. It hits us strongly that we mustn’t just consider ourselves superior – it would be a terrible think to go to war with this country – or any country, of course.