food is delicious

Today's adventure: Arbat Street.

It all started when Jenna said last night that she and Celina were thinking of going to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch today (Saturday). I mentioned that I'd never been to a Hard Rock Cafe, so we proceeded to google it and lo and behold they had a menu online, and it contained NORMAL FOOD. Which sounded pretty fantastic. So it became Jenna, Celina, Jessica, and me, traipsing off into soggy Moscow in search of the Hard Rock Cafe located near the Arbatskaya metro station (and on old Arbat Street).

Soon we learned that there are two metro stations called Arbatskaya. They are not in the same place, they are not connected via an underground walkway, and they are not on the same line. Oh, Moscow.

Anyway, after walking in a circle we found Arbat Street! Unfortunately it was raining and the ground was bricks/cobblestones/whatever that is technically called, and it was covered in a lovely combination of melting ice and mud. It was just above freezing, but it felt downright balmy compared to recent weather.

We were pretty hungry since it was nearly 1pm by now, so we headed straight to the restaurant. Normally I couldn't care less about "American" food, but it's been a month guys, and this was fantastic. The waiters all spoke English and the menu was in English. We ordered a ridiculous amount of food. It went something like this.

Appetizers: we ordered 2 - nachos and a chicken quesadilla. CORN CHIPS AND GUACAMOLE!!!! you have no idea. and the quesadilla had pineapple in it and was quite good.
Drinks: it's not so annoying being not 21 when you're in Russia. all together we had a cosmopolitan, a long island iced tea, a white russian, and a coffee with bailey's. and of course some bottled water.
Main course: I got penne with grilled chicken and alfredo sauce, and a side caesar salad because I really miss salads. it also came with garlic bread, which was a nice bonus. the others got burgers and one got some kind of steak.
Dessert: vanilla ice cream. plain and simple and delicious, split four ways.

We were then thoroughly in a food coma. The whole meal took some 2 hours, but we didn't mind, it was great! Random music videos from the US playing in the background, yummy food, good company. The only non-ideal thing was the occasional cigarette at a nearby table, but such is Russia. It is now 11pm and I haven't had dinner and I'm not hungry. It was THAT much food.

After the meal, we all bought Hard Rock Cafe shirts and headed out to explore the Arbat. It was still drizzling, but we took some random pictures and popped into a souvineer shop and I bought a Russian hat from a street vendor!! I was very proud of myself for talking him down 50 rubles (yes I know that is only $2 and I probably could've gotten a better deal if I had attempted to converse in Russian, but he seemed eager to talk to me in English, so I wasn't exactly going to argue). Anyway, now that winter is ending I have a snazzy winter hat a la Russia. Pictures forthcoming I'm sure.

Then for some reason we decided to venture up to the north part of the city to go to an odd assortment of electronics and DVD stores. This took a while and I didn't buy anything, but there were a LOT of sketchy Russian DVDs and computer programs.

Next it took 2.5 hours to come from that place to the universityet metro station, get money from the bank that doesn't charge me a $5 fee, buy some food at ramstore, and get back to the dorm. Trolleybus 34 has been seriously hating me lately.

That's about it! Tomorrow is Sunday and I plan to go to church, and rumor has it we'll be going to the circus in the evening. the adventures continue...