MONDAY - Tea at the GUM

MONDAY - The GUM (pronounced "goom" and an acronym for State Universal Store) is located to one side of Red Square, just opposite the Kremlin. It's a shopping mall for the very wealthy in Russia. There are many American brands you'd recognize there like Gucci, Tiffany, and others.

We came into the GUM to warm up a bit after taking some good daytime pictures of Red Square. It seems like Red Square, one of the highest points in the city, is always especially cold when we've been there and usually pretty windy.

Any benches are conspicuously absent from the GUM to cut down on people loitering inside. We decided to look around and finally to get some hot tea at a restaurant there to warm up. This was our first time alone in Moscow and armed with little Russian.

I knew the word for tea: 'chai' and also I fumbled my way through ordering some 'shokoladnaya' (chocolates) from the waitress there. She was very patient and finally understood, any chocolates she brought would be good.

Russians seem to enjoy their tea very weak compared to Americans and remove the tea bag very quickly. Ours was served with lemon and sugar. The chocolates were delicious and included one that seemed to be filled with chambord and a cherry, another with hazelnut cream, and the third with a sort of peanut toffee.

We felt very proud of pulling this off along with some shopping in the other mall nearby. I was especially proud of the way Jeri seemed to navigate the metro with ease. The day was a real confidence-builder for us.

After tea, we browsed the GUM stores for a bit more and then as twilight descended, went out for one last time, to catch some perfect twilight pictures of Red Square and the beautifully lit red stars that top the steeples of the the Kremlin walls.