Restaurants, used clothing, cathedral and flowers

Who loves flowers? There is a cute flower shop on every street corner here. They aren't cheap, but they are beautiful! I have yet to go into a shop here, but I see people holding gorgeous bouquets all the time. Never give an even number of flowers here unless it is for a funeral!

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go out with Helen, Nathalie and Katherine. Our mission: go to a used clothing store called "Second Friend Store". (www.secondfriendstore.ru Кутузовский проспект, 12, стр. 1м. Киевская). It's a store where rich Russians take their clothes that sometimes have never been worn or worn only once. Brand names like Prada, Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs, Armani, Victoria Beckham, etc.

I tried on one Victoria Beckham dress that was awesome, but didn't work for me. All four of us tried it on actually, no luck. There were also some gorgeous leather purses, but they were too expensive for me. You will find some really, really weird stuff and some really great stuff, especially dresses. Sadly, nothing fit me, so I left empty handed. It's not far from Prology and Euro Mall, but it's in a really strange location through a guard point in a run down warehouse-type building. You're not allowed to walk the 50 metres from the guard point to the store...cars only! Natalie and Helen tried hard to convince the guard to let us walk through, but he would have none of it and said he'd be fined if he let us walk in. Nothing would keep us from our shopping though....there just happened to be a taxi sitting there in the parking lot outside the guard house, sooooooo, we all hopped in and drove the 50 metres!! That was good for a laugh, even the taxi driver thought it was hilarious! It was definitely an interesting place. Sorry, no pictures, I forgot to bring my phone!

After shopping we stopped at Tribeca for something to eat. Hey! Trying on all those clothes was hard work! Lol It started off a little rough. Helen asked for some wine, they didn't have any, she asks for another one and they don't have that either, she asks for the Asian burger.....you guessed it, that wasn't available. Despite that start, we all enjoyed our food. I had the Tribeca burger and it was delicious! Thanks ladies, for a great evening!

Tribeca Restaurant patio

Speaking of great food, last night Craig and I ate on the patio at Vаниль (Vanill) restaurant with Christ the Saviour Cathedral as our backdrop. Best of all, it's a 5 minute walk from our place. Expensive, yes, but tasty. We especially loved the calamari and a very fresh tomato and red onion salad! An interesting thing happened...this large, black, SUV pulls into the very busy intersection and blocks traffic. Out steps a man surrounded by 5 body guards (complete with earpieces) and they join us (well, at another table) on the patio for dinner. The body guards stood watch while he ate. Craig couldn't resist asking the waiter who that man was and the reply was "business man"! Lol We really need to stop eating out though or I won't be able to fit in my clothes!

Hmmm..."shashlik" (shish kebab)

Note the man standing there... keeping watch.

Speaking of the Cathedral, on Wednesday, I joined Alice and her Aunt Estelle again for a tour of Christ the Saviour Cathedral - It is stunning! We didn't pay for the right to take pictures inside, but now I wish I had! It has quite the history and it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world. The original cathedral was unveiled in 1860, but was destroyed by Stalin in 1931 to erect an enormous palace that never was built due to many issues, one of which being the foundation wasn't suitable for such an enormous structure. So they built the worlds largest open-air swimming pool (Moskva pool), but it caused humidity issues with ancient buildings, like the Kremlin nearby. Eventually the current cathedral was erected (in the 1990's - completed by 2000). In 2012 "Pussy Riot" were arrested and jailed for staging an uninvited performance in the cathedral...