Photo update! This time it's a pretty big one. I've had a lot of time to use a computer, and had all my cables and camera and stuff all together at once. It's sort of like an alignment of the stars. All of these are in chronological order, starting all the way back in Macedonia. That was about a month ago, I think. Hmm...

Disclaimer: I can't get the spellchecker to work. If I look dumb, I blame it on Microsoft. Firefox would never treat me this way.


Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. This is out at a monastery near the source of the lake. It was a very pretty spot - the one day of good weather that I had there.


They're building the largest orthodox church in the world in Belgrade, turns out. Being more orthodox than other surrounding nations is sort of important there.


Hanging out on the train on our way from Belgrade to Bar, Montenegro. This actually solved a long-standing question in my mind. You always see a single set of rails along the road going off somewhere, and I've always wondered how they get trains to go both ways on the thing. Turns out they just make short sections of double/triple/quadruple sets of rails, and the trains hop off the main track and wait off to the side until the train coming the other way passes. This was supposed to be an eight hour train ride, but it was four hours late. *sigh*


Finally on our way again. The advantage to the four hour delay was that I got to see a lot of beautiful countryside.


I made a day trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia, because it was only about three hours away from the place I was staying in Montenegro. I think it was well worth it, though it was super touristy. Here's a street artist sorting his stuff out.


A shot down the main street of Dubrovnik's old town. Very picturesque - it was quite a beautiful place.


There were a bunch of pigeons there.


A friend and I found this big, asymmetrical suspension bridge on the road out of Dubrovnik. It was pretty cool.


A picture of the old town in Budva, Montenegro, where I stayed for two nights. A lot of the coastal towns in this area have an old town that was built in this format, with the sea wall and everything.


Please frolic in pairs on the sidewalk while in Belgrade. Thank you.


This picture and the next belong with my October 5th post.


Sunset east of Belgrade - shot from a moving train.


Timisoara was rainy most of the time I was there. This is sort of an old town square. Most of the buildings there had a similar kind of feel.


The train to Moldova from Bucharest.


Me at a barber shop in Chisinau, Moldova. This was the zenith of my hair's length - it was very exciting. The barber was a really nice old guy, though he didn't speak any English. I arrived in the morning at Chisinau, and since I needed to wash my hair anyway, I decided I might as well get it all cut off again for $3. He made sure that I really wanted it all cut as short as I said (9mm), apparently worried that I would be unhappy with how short it was. The barber was appreciative of my deodorant (he put some on his neck), and he tried to help me put on my pack afterwards, but he couldn't lift it.


I found a very blue church in Kiev. Kiev had some spectacular cathedrals.


I shamelessly photographed someone else's wedding. If you know these people, don't tell them.


The cathedral and bell tower at the Caves Monastery in Kiev. This place was fascinating. All of the bodies of the deceased saints of the monastery are wrapped up in cloth, placed in glass-topped coffins, and placed underground in a huge cave network. Pilgrims filter through the passageways, with only candles for lights, and pray to the saints.


The Tsaritsino Palace on the southern edge of Moscow.


St. Basil's cathedral in Red Square. It looks like a piece of candy.


The Tsar Cannon in Moscow's kremlin. It was built for the defence of Moscow, but it was never fired in a war. The one time they did fire it was to blast the remains of a false leader back towards Poland.


One of the cathedrals inside the Moscow Kremlin.


This is just a park somewhere, but I liked the fall colors. It's a beautiful time of year, especially when the sun decides to shine.


A footbridge in Moscow has a series of metal trees along it. This is one of them. Newlyweds come here and place a lock on a tree, then throw the key into the river. Cool tradition.


Some urban jungle.


A picture of the kremlin from a bridge over the Moscow River. Downtown Moscow is gorgeous.


Some Russian Orthodox art on an iconostasis. There weren't any people in the chapel at the time, so I threw reverence to the wind and snapped a bunch of pictures.


A picturesque church in downtown Moscow.


In keeping with the Lost sightings theme, I found a nice portrait of Jack and Kate to go along with the ad I found of Sawyer. This street painter was on Arbat, a large pedestrian thoroughfare in Moscow.


The Starbucks menu comes in Cyrilic, too. Way too expensive, though.


The Moscow Metro. I heard somewhere that it moves nine million people per day. I believe it.


The Novedevichy Cemetery in Moscow. A lot of famous people are buried here...actors, politicians, war heroes, etc.


Kruschev.


A cat at a museum found my bag interesting.


Pedestrian lights in St. Petersburg. I think they were trying to drive me crazy.


A canal in St. Petersburg. All of the downtown buildings looked like this. The place had a very European feel.


The Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg. Rather similar to St. Basil's. A very pretty church.


Some of the artwork in the cathedral above. The place was so richly decorated it was overwhelming. This is all mosaic work, not paintings.


A closer shot of one of the mosaics.


The Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, on the island where the city was sort of founded. The 'dome', if you could call it that, is very distinctive.