Ростов-на-Дону: Rostov-na-Donu

A few thoughts from  
Tim and Margo
 
Rostov is the flagship city of my mission. Again, it was awesome to see all 
these places that I thought I may never see again. Coming back made me think, 
this is actually a pretty cool place to visit.

Rostov was one of my favorite cities.  At this point I think the "shock" (or whatever you want to call it) had worn off. In Rostov I felt truly immersed in Russia. I loved that there were not many tourists (not many is probably an understatement, because I think the only tourists were Tim and I), so we were just seeing Russians living their lives.  We saw a lot of people outside in Rostov because they were celebrating a holiday, which in Russia means no work for a few days and some serious partying at night.

  I loved walking down streets and having Tim remember where people lived or places he had been. Here's a pic on the Don:

Here we decided to stay in a hotel and found an excellent one. This was also the one of the first places we got to buy some of my favorite foods from the mission days. I know this sounds a little intense, but it really is the breakfast of champions: chocolate-stuffed cereal squares with caramel-filled croissants and peach nectar juice. Amazing. 

What made the breakfast Tim is talking about particularly special is it was our anniversary breakfast!   And Tim's not joking, it was seriously an AMAZING breakfast.  I still crave the cereal.  Mmmm "chocolate pillows"... why oh why do they not sell this in America?  We are missing out! 

Note on the hotel: such a good decision!  We loved staying with members and everyone we stayed with treated us SO well. Still it was nice to have a bit of time to ourselves.

Before coming to Russia, I asked Margo to look up something that she might want to see or do in Rostov. Seeing as Rostov is really not a touristy place, the only thing she could find were some ceramic tile murals on the walls of underground walkways. They show various aspects of idealized Russian life, the example below being a hospital with parents taking their new born children home. I only went to one hospital on my mission and let's just say it was not ideal. Some other highlights pictured below are a night at the opera (top right), a stop by O'Keu (bottom left) which is the new Russian Wal-mart type store, and my old apartment in Rostov (bottom right). 

I didn't go to Russia with many ideas of things I knew I wanted to do.  A few things did make the list: the Rostov murals, try to find a show, and try things Tim did!   
The murals were surprisingly fun to run into and added a lot to the underground tunnels.  They are definitely idealistic, even the depictions of war. 
The show. Not a classic ballet, but instead an "opera" which ended up being much more like a musical.  Let's just say, I didn't get much of the story.  It was still fun and I'm glad we went, but we've both agreed next time we'll stick to something more Swan Lake or The Nutcracker-esque.
I was super impressed with how much Tim remembered from his Russian days.  Tim definitely succeeded my expectations for sharing things he had experienced at each and every stop.

As in Moscow, there are Russian Orthodox churches everywhere. Most of these are newer and not as ornate, but they are everywhere. Interestingly enough, most of the churches (Russians would call them Temples) are surrounded by markets, with people selling stuff right up to the Temple door. Kinda reminiscent of Jesus and the moneychangers? One of my for sure "to dos" was to show Margo the meat market, which she handled quite well.

The market. What to say? Definitely SO different from anything I've experienced.   

Good times with old friends.

I am so grateful we were able to connect with the people we did. Although our time wasn't that long in any one place, I really feel a bond of friendship with so many of the people I met.

 Lastly, McDonalds is just way better in foreign countries. The food actually looks like the picture! The locations are always super sleek and modern. Although it does 
seem odd to eat the epitome of American food while in Russia, 
we needed something to balance out all the borscht.

If it seems like I am in every picture of food, it's because I am. We rarely (honestly pretty much never) make a MceeDs run at home so I almost laugh to think we went twice while in Russia.  For me going to McDonalds fell into the category of doing stuff Tim did on his mission.  I imagined them going here all the time, come to find out they actually didn't go that much. But if we are going for honesty here, and I did promise to keep this real, the day before we went to McDonalds a major craving for the good ole' burger, fries, and ice cream hit me. So yes, I was quite happy to make a Russian MD run.