Piroshki!

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We really enjoyed our train rides from Irkutsk to Ekaterinburg, and Ekaterinburg to Moscow. We lucked out with quiet, amiable train compartment mates and timely trains. they're really efficient here! Yesterday we arrived at 6;30 AM, dropped our bags at a hostel and set out into the city. First on the list, of course, was going to visit Mr. Lenin, and then we wandered around the Kremlin. We went to the Ismailovsky park market in the afternoon, then the new Tretyakov gallery, where we saw all kinds of great Soviet art: statues of tractor factories, paintings of happy women harvesting grain, a carved chess set of the white against the red (white pawns in chains, white king's face a skull, red pawns happily clutching wheat).

We will try to get tickets to St. Petersburg for the night train tonight and hopefully will be able to go to the theater while we're there (the Bolshoi here is under construction :-()

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