Moscow

Three days after the Shuttle mission was over, I left for Moscow for a week for work. I'm working on a multi-lateral project with the Europeans and the Russians. The same project I went to France for in May. This tri-lateral meeting was held in Russia.
I'm so glad I finally got to go there! It was so neat to see where our Russian counterparts work, and to see their MCC. I also got to see a lot of neat things on the weekend we got there and in the evenings after work. I'll give a brief description of everything and it should go along with the pictures that follow!
Saturday after we got checked into our hotel, me and two of the girls on the trip that were also in France with me (Melissa and Heidi - that's who 'we' will be in this whole post) went to Red Square. It was neat to see the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral is more beautiful than the pictures show. After that we walked over to Arbat street, a touristy street with street vendors. We ate shashlik (meat on a stick) at a restaurant there and finally headed home to sleep after being up for 24 hrs.
Sunday we went to Ismailavo, which is basically a giant flea market. Except they sell cool Russian stuff like Matrioshkas (nesting dolls). I got a bunch of souvenirs for the fam. Then we went to VDNK, a park and museum with a cool rocket statue. There was also a really neat red church at that metro station.
Monday work started of course. That evening we tried to do the Moscow River boat tour, but got there about 2 minutes late! We had met up with some of our European work friends so we found a restaurant and got a beer and some food instead.
Tuesday I don't think we really did anything except eat dinner at this really good Thai restaurant.
Wednesday was Heidi's birthday! We got dropped off the work van by the Kosmos hotel and had dinner there and then saw the Russian National Dance Show . It was amazing! This youtube video has some clips but it really doesn't do it justice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U9tBJnF0N8
Thursday we had our social with our work people. We went bowling, and I discovered that I am the worst bowler EVER. I got a 34 and yes, I was trying. On the second round I used 'unique' bowling techniques and I already had a 46 when we had to stop!
Friday we only worked a half day so we took the metro out to Tsaritsyno. It was a beautiful palace on beautiful grounds built for Catherine the Great, but apparently she hated it and never lived there. We couldn't really see why, it was amazing. Unfortunately my camera died while we were there, so I am waiting to get those pictures from Melissa and Heidi. After that we finally got to do the Moscow River boat tour (waiting on those pictures as well), which was lots of fun. We got champagne and relaxed and it was a little cold but I loved it! Then we got something to eat and have a shot of Vodka. We were near Red Square so we walked over to see it at night, which capped off a wonderful trip!
Here's the pictures! (Sorry there's a ton, I was lazy and didn't go through them, so it's everything I took. The last ones at Red Square are on my iphone, so the quality isn't great. Tsaritsyno and Boat Tour coming soon.)