Mississippi Day 3 (White Castle, LA): Nottoway Plantation, A Missed Lecture and A River Themed Performance

Today started out super foggy! I could barely see anything directly in front of me.

We went to the Nottoway Plantation-- the world’s largest antebellum plantation. The Nottoway Plantation is a 15 acre plantation built in 1858 by John Randolph and architect Henry Howard. The main house is a huge 3 story 53,000 sq. foot mansion with 64 impressive rooms. It also had luxuries like indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, gas lighting, and a bell system which wasn’t unheard-of for the time but reserved for the extremely wealthy… Like “indoor plumbing” wealthy. Sometime after the property was built the plans were destroyed. Nobody knows if it was an accident or if they were destroyed to prevent an identical plantation from being constructed.

Currently the Nottoway Plantation is a functioning hotel, museum, restaurant and bar. There was also a Christmas Market going on were local artists sold their wares. There wasn’t much I was interested in so we explored the rest of the plantation. We found the pool, servants’ quarters and the Randolph family cemetery.

After we got back, we had lunch then attended a river lecture. I actually fell asleep during the lecture so there isn’t much to report about that. We were also going to dine at the specialty restaurant on board but it turns out that our reservation is for tomorrow. Bummer!

Tonight’s headliner was Bobby Durham (Not to be confused with Bobby Darrin). Bobby is a soloist local to Louisiana. He opened with an original song then Mighty Mississippi, Columbus Stockade Blues, That Lucky Old Sun, When my Dreamboat Comes Home, Deed I Do, Skylark, Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler (Let The Good Times Roll), Blues For Dixie and ended with Jambalaya (On the Bayou). 

After the show it was bedtime... No room service, just bedtime.

Also, we have not come across any White Castle's while we were here- neither the restaurant nor an actual white castle.

Mississippi Day 1 and 2 (New Orleans, LA): Exploring The French Quarter, Shopping, Paddle Boats, Snacks and More Snacks

After 2 planes, and a taxi ride we arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana! The Crescent City! The Big Easy! NOLA!

On this trip we’ll be sailing up and down the lower portion of the Mississippi River.

Yesterday we wondered around the French Quarter, looking for a Cajun or Creole place to eat. There are so many restaurants out here and not enough time to try them all! We ended up at the restaurant next door to our hotel. There was a lot of people out and about-- the culture out here is a lot different than in California. I absolutely love it! After we ordered our food, went back to our hotel, ate, lounged around for a bit and went to bed. Tomorrow we’ll have half a day explore some more. I was going to write a blog entry but there’s wasn’t much to write.

Today was fun! We checked out of our hotel and continued to explore the French Quarter during the day. There’s so much shopping around here! I recognized a lot of design elements from the French Quarter in Disneyland. One thing that was disappointing was the lack of public restrooms. There are absolutely no public restrooms around here! We spent a lot of time going back and fourth between our hotel restroom and the only public restroom in the area.

After an eternity of shopping we went back to our hotel to hang out for a bit and headed out to get a snack. Somehow, we ended up at a business park with a food court… There was an actual food court at the business park!!! As cool as that sounds we weren’t able to get a snack because they were closing. Their schedule caters to the building's occupants so they close when everyone leaves. We ended up getting a sandwich at a spot downstairs.

When we arrived at on our ship we unpacked, ate and went to the nightly show. This is the first time I’ve been on a paddle boat and it’s the coolest thing. I’ve been on cruise ships, river boats but I’ve never been on a paddle boat. We explored the boat and went to the theater for the show. There’s a 24 hour snack lounge on this boat. Oh no!

Tonight’s show was called RiverSong, a cabaret show with a Mississippi River theme. They performed Take A Ride On A Riverboat by LeRoux, Roll On Mississippi by Charley Pride, Is It True What They Say About Dixie, Moon River, Old Man River, Lazy River, Cry Me A River, Basin Street Blues, an instrumental arrangement of Down By The Riverside, Take Me To The River, New Orleans by Hoagy Carmichael, River In The Rain, Muddy Water from Big River Musical, The River of Dreams by Billy Joel and they ended with two versions of Proud Mary!

After the show we got room service and retired for the night. Yeah, we were to lazy to go to the snack lounge. What a life we live...

Russia Day 12 (Moscow, Russia): The Last Day

Today is our last day in Russia!

This morning we headed back to the city center of Moscow and went to the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Archangel. The Assumption Cathedral’s design is based on the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir and made with heavy limestone. This cathedral has been destroyed by many fires and had to be rebuilt several times. This is also where Ivan The Terrible was coronated. The Cathedral of the Archangel is where most of the Tsars of Russia are buried until they were moved to St. Petersburg. The iconostasis in this church is unique because it’s a collection of icons from cities that Tsars have conquered.

After our tours of the cathedrals we decided to stay in the area and take a later shuttle back to the ship. We went back to the Red Square and explored the World Cup Fan Zone. There was a gift shop, vendor demo booths and an exposition game going on. It wasn’t too busy when we were there, most of the fans were probably exhausted from last night’s celebration or at work. We had a hard time filling our time before the shuttle picked us up. We went back to the GUM, another mall and some grocery stores in the malls. All of that walking around was exhausting!

When we got back we immediately started packing and went to a farewell reception. This reception was a little more intimate than other farewell receptions. Since we weren’t traveling with a large group of people and staff, we really got a chance to know everyone.

This trip has been filled with pleasant surprises! I learned a lot about Russian culture, visited some incredible museums, cathedrals and palaces, walked amongst some of the most passionate soccer fans in the world and met some pretty awesome people. 

I can’t wait for my next trip. Here’s to many more!

Russia Day 11 (Moscow, Russia): Soccer Fans, River Tour and Victory Park

I feel like a lot happened today.

We didn’t have any excursions booked until late tonight so we had most of the day to explore. Each metro station has a shopping center around it so we headed out to our metro station on our own this morning. This one has quite few shopping centers around it, some more commercial than others. The ship to the metro station is quite a walk. There’s a mix of retail stores, grocery stores, a few souvenir shops, salons and a number of markets out here. It’s not very often you find a grocery store in a shopping mall. This seemed to be very common in China too. We actually went out to the shopping centers twice today. The first time was to explore and we went out a second time after lunch to actually shop.

Our excursion tonight was quite interesting. Russia won their soccer match tonight and advanced to the next bracket in the World Cup so everyone was out celebrating. The streets were packed with excited soccer fans and it seemed impossible to get anywhere. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before! The scenery out here is the also incredible night. We’ve seen these Buildings, boulevards and cathedrals before but to see them illuminated at night is something magical.  We started out in the Red Square and made our way across a bridge where we were right in the middle of Russia’s victory celebration! Our guide made a joke that Russian’s don’t express emotion very often so for something like this to happen is something incredible. We made our way to a few tour boats and drifted along the Moscow River. We saw the most beautiful buildings and bridges on our tour, which were also filled with celebrating soccer fans might I add. I honestly don’t know how to express the excitement that was happening tonight in words.

After our river tour we went to Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill, the highest spot in Moscow. Victory Park is a memorial commemorating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. There’s a few museums and memorials here but the highlight of this spot is the fountain that’s Illuminated red at night, it’s absolutely beautiful. We didn’t do much exploring but the view here is amazing.

By the time we got back it was after midnight and we were exhausted! It was way past my bedtime.

We have another early day tomorrow!

Russia Day 10 (Moscow, Russia): The Red Square, The GUM and A Concert... With A Suprise...

Today is our first day in Moscow!

We arrived late in the afternoon so we had a pretty lazy morning which worked out perfectly because our excursion was a walking excursion. We met up with our group when it was time and we left for the metro station.

The public transportation system here has a lot of history and it’s extremely efficient! Efficiency must come with complexity because I wouldn’t be able to navigate the metro system without a guide. Trains run every 90 seconds and also connects with Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotellniki. We started off at off at Rechnoy Vokzal then we got off at Mayakovskaya and continued to the Teatralnaya station which is the stop for the Red Square. The Mayakovskaya station is one of the most famous metro stations in the world for it’s beautiful architecture and 34 mosaics. It was also the command center for Moscow’s anti-aircraft regiment in WWII.

The Red Square is the center of Russia’s government and the city center of Moscow. A lot happens around here. Ivan The Great believed trade should be conducted person to person so The Red Square became Moscow’s trade center. Today, it was set up for The World Cup’s Fan Fest… It was packed, hot and it rained most of the time we were there. Tourist and soccer fans filled the center of the square, the GUM and neighboring malls and stores. The GUM stands for Glávnyj Universáľnyj Magazín or Main Universal Store in English. This mall is best known for its revolutionary architecture and contains stores for some very high-end luxury brands. This is where my sister and I spent most of our time.

Because it was storming we continued our walking tour by bus. We were ushered into another nearby mall while we waited for our bus to arrive. This mall had more affordable shops and a lot of shops that were unique to Russia. This mall was also very crowded. Why couldn’t we have found this mall earlier?!

Before we went to our next scheduled stop we stopped at another cathedral, Cathedral of Christ The Savior. This cathedral is where Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture premiered, conducted by Tchaikovsky himself. The Iconostasis of this church is unlike any other, it doesn’t just separate the alter from the church but the paintings actually wrap around the whole cathedral. It's beauty has been compared to that of the Vatican.

We also attended a concert where they performed traditional, folk and popular Russian songs. The musicians were very talented, each had a formal music education and were vetted in one way or another.

After the concert we went back to the ship for a very late dinner and bed. Little did I know there was a surprise in store for me. After dinner the wait staff brought a small cake and sang happy birthday to me. They took the cake back and cut it and brought it back out to us on individual plates. The presentation was incredible! Thank you, everyone!

What a way to spend a birthday!

Russia Day 9 (Uglich, Russia): A Home Visit, The Church of St. Dmitri On The Blood and Russian Made Watches

Today we are in the city of Uglich where the Russian watch brand, Chaika, were manufactured.

We visited a local family’s home today. They were very hospitable, shared their home-made goods with us and told us a little bit about how they lived. They are a family of jewelers with 2 kids. One kid is away at university and the other one still a young student that lives at home. Before the watch factory closed down the father was a watchmaker. He and his wife are currently jewelers and their young daughter also dabbles in jewelry making. In the Russian culture it is customary to toast 3 times with moonshine, brown bread and pickles during a visit so we had drunk 3 shots of homemade vodka chased with brown bread and pickles before we left. He also showed us his garden where we wondered around while sipping some homemade dandelion wine he made. All of this happened before 10AM!

After we left the host family we went to the city center which has more churches I’ve ever seen. We started out at the Church of St. Dimitry on the Blood where the body of Tsarevich Dimitry, the last heir of Ivan the Terrible, was found. This church resides on the edge of the Volga River. The bell from this church was the first inanimate object to be sent to exile in Siberia. It was the bell that was rung to announce the death of Dimitry and was whipped and exiled like a human would be.

The next place we went to was the Transfiguration Cathedral. This 5 domed cathedral is the main temple of Uglich and is a popular pilgrim place for Christians. The body of Tsarevich Dimitry was held here before it was brought to Moscow.

Before I headed back I went to a few watch shops that sell Russian Made watches. It was interesting to see but nothing really peaked my interest. When we got back to this ship we had lunch on the top deck where we were served traditional Russian food. They had Pelmeni! We didn’t have anything else planned for the rest of the day besides dinner so we basically had the rest of the evening to ourselves. I ended up going to the bar to catch up with social media, emails and to work on the blog for a bit.

Tomorrow we arrive in Moscow! The last city of our trip

Russia Day 8 (Yaroslavl, Russia): Walking around town, A Couple of Churches and Shopping

Today we’re docked on one of the most significant ports on the Volga River. We went to another church and a street market and wondered around for a bit.

Yaroslavl is not a very well-known city but it’s a unique city that has made the UNESCO World Heritage list and has 140 monuments.  We took a walking excursion through the oldest part of Yaroslavl, Stelka.

We started out at The Church of Elijah the Prophet which has never been refurbished or had to be rebuilt and has the most vibrant, perfectly preserved interiors in all of Russia. The frescoes in the interior were painted by Skripin’s widow and a team of 15 people. Not only do the paintings depict the life of Elijah the Prophet but they also show what domestic, everyday life was like. It was revolutionary to depict the lives of peasants on temple walls.

The next stop of our walking tour was a farmer’s market, street market and shopping area. My mom loves places like this!  A lot of the booths here have World Cup merchandise. We spent a long time looking around the street market. The booths were arranged like a maze, they weren’t very consistent and some isles and vendors spaces were larger or smaller than others. The shopping area around the street market had more traditional souvenirs and your normal shops and cafés.

We passed by another church on our way back to the ship. I don’t remember the name of this church but it was a practicing church so men had to take their hats off and women had to cover their heads. There was a service in session when we got there. This was the newest in Yaroslavl donated by a patron in Moscow. Modern churches like this one have domes made of titanium instead of gold because gold is too expensive.

There were also vendors at the port when we returned to our ship but we didn’t have much time to stop and shop. We had dinner shortly after we boarded and lounged around until bedtime.

We walked a lot today!