These pictures were taken towards the end of March. The snow was starting to melt (don't worry, it snowed again. several times.) and the sun was out this day! Yay!
There are helpful signs like this all around. Well, sometimes helpful. Usually after you have been that way a couple of times and figured it out, then you get what the sign says.
And in meters? fuhgettaboutit.
Ahhh, Sunday morning - no traffic.
This means about a 30 minute drive to church.
I am dreading when we switch back to 1:00 church in January.
The drive will about double on a good day.
After you get on the third ring (Moscow has several "ring roads" - kind of like the 495 beltway in dc and the 695 in baltimore. then, a bunch of main roads that head outwards from the center like a wagon wheel - kind of like dc, which was rated the second most confusing city in the states to drive in. add to that a foreign language, people who don't follow the laws, cars parked anywhere and everywhere, and usually right in your way, one way streets, etc, etc, etc...)
Okay, sorry where was I?
After you get on the third ring...you go for a while, then you pass this red church (above)...
...go over the train tracks...
...under the tunnel...
...pass the turn around...
...and here's my exit.
Be sure not to hit the pedestrians who cross the street, without warning, from this little tunnel under the street. (I forget everytime)
Pass some babushkas...
(the weather was pretty warm this weekend, so they didn't have their fur coats. Next winter, I have a goal to get a good picture of a Russian lady in fur from head to toe.)
...make our way around the little back up at this corner...
...watch for the end of this little green and yellow rail, and turn right...
...and we are at church!
I'm getting a lot more comfortable driving around here, and things are more familiar, but when I first started driving to church by myself (Dave had meetings before church), these are literally the directions I followed.
And funny thing... I was giving a neighbor a ride, and I was feeling all confident and awesome as we chatted along the way, and then as I'm driving down the street looking for the green and yellow rail things, I totally missed my turn! They took them out! Who knows why. Probably because they knew I used them as part of my global positioning system, but I totally missed my turn. Thankfully, it was Sunday morning, so there was little traffic, and Dave and I had just been driving around that area the day before, so I was a little familiar. I went around the block, and looked for the green and yellow things, and missed my turn again! We did get to church on time and safely eventually. And you'll be happy to know that now I... "wait for the right lane to merge, and then make the first right." Try taking that out of the ground! Ha!
p.s. they do have street signs in Russian, which I can read, if I can find the sign, and get through the sounds of 20 letters before I pass them. not usually. the signs also have the words written in our alphabet, but it's really small underneath, and not any easier to find. big red churches are easier to see.
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