Tuesday’s Entry (part 1) – Sunday in Vlad

We have met another great couple – Carl and Carol. They are from Louisiana and they will be getting their son to stay here in the hotel with them today. Ironically their son is in the same baby home as ours so it great to compare and gather information. They had planned on going down to the city on Sunday and invited us to come with them. We knew it was our only chance to go so we were excited to accept the invitation. Unfortunately we had not exchanged any of our money to rubles yet and it is illegal for anyone here to accept U.S. dollars for payment. Carl and Carol graciously offered to lend us some rubles so that we could make the trip with them.

First thing I have noticed is that the Russian women that are out and about and working in public places are all very beautiful. They have a natural beauty to them and they dress very stylish, wear fur coats often times, and amazing boots. The ice and snow here is thick and the women still wear stiletto heeled boots. Our translator, Lana, gave us her theory as to why they always dress like that. She said that because of the many wars that the Russians have fought there are far fewer men than women. Women are in competition for men’s attention here. (Justin thinks that is pretty cool –lol)

Here are a few pictures from our excursion.

Justin and I outside a casino we passed. Of course we didn’t go in but we thought some folks back home might get a kick out of it!


This is where we got on and off the train in the city of Vladivostok.


Part of the city of Vlad


So if you know Justin well, you know that he is a huge fan of ice cream. He was quite pleased to see a Baskin Robbins nestled in with all of the Russian shops!