Sad News and Head Colds

We did not write a blog post yesterday because when we returned to our hostel in the evening, I received word that my grandfather had passed away earlier in the day. He was in his 90’s and was suffering from Alzheimer’s for a long time, so the news was not unexpected but it was still a hard blow. I wish I could be with my family now, but we are plodding along with our planned itinerary and trying to enjoy our trip as best we can.

To add insult to injury I woke up this morning with a sore throat and sinus congestion. We made our way through our final day in Moscow (including visits to St. Basil’s Cathedral and The State Historical Museum), and we’re now finally settled into our compartment on the first leg of our Trans-Siberian train trip. We’ll be on the train for 26 hours and will cross two time zones (putting us 10 hours ahead of EST) before arriving in Yekaterinburg, where we will be for two days. After all of the sightseeing we’ve been doing, we are both ready to hunker down and spend a low-key day on the train. Fortunately, I packed a large portion of our medicine cabinet, so I am taking Nyquil in the hopes that a good night sleep will give me a speedy recovery. Cale will catch you up on our last two days in Moscow (including a really cool ice museum and a vodka museum).