I was going to buy a bus ticket to China today, but first I had to make sure I didn’t fall into one of the potholes on the way:

When I finally got to the place, it was just a long corridor…

…with a mysterious office behind a door:

“Please come back with your passport in order to buy the ticket!” they told me.

Damn, I should have known.

…

I picked up a copy of the local classifieds, opened the center page and marveled at all the young maids they have here:

So much cleaning service, the apartments in this area must be really spotless!

…

Lately I have been thinking, might as well turn this site into a full-blown food blog: The Longest Meal or The Fattest Way, which one is better?

Anyway, I had another taste of that good Russian ice-cream today:

This brand is called “Инмарко” (Inmarko), and it hails from Siberia.

Who could have known that they made such tasty ice-cream up there in the North?

Tried my first serving of пельмени (pelmeni), too. They’re a bit similar to Chinese 饺子 (dumplings):

These were not home-made, but they tasted alright and we fried them – yummy!

…then, out of the blue, this weird stuff came to our door:

Here’s how it happened:

You can hear me stumble over the words: “У нас есть икра!” (We have caviar!)

I was very excited, but I eventually found out that I didn’t really like this stuff.

…

Here’s a new local brand of vodka:

It’s called Tigroff, and it’s supposed to be ginseng-flavored. Sounds interesting eh? Well, I didn’t really enjoy the smell, the taste or the aftertaste that much. It wasn’t disastrous, but it wasn’t exactly good either. Maybe a 3/10.

…check out the slashed bottle design though, RAWR!!

This is me posing with Рейчел (Rachel) the lovely family dog:

She is such a sweetheart!

I tried taking a similar picture with Сенат (Senate), the arrogant family cat…

…but it didn’t work out:

- he was just that split second faster than me.

That’s why I like them so much.

The beauty of cats.

Soundtrack: Madball – “Down By Law”