The shopping tour and a German afternoon

Claudia had a friend coming in from Germany. She wanted to know if Katrin and I wanted to join them for some sightseeing Saturday afternoon. I'm always happy for a chance to speak German so of course I said yes. But before I met them, I had to do some wash and some shopping. I figured I would bike to the big Ashan store first to get some exercise in the deal. And I had been dreaming about spinach lasagna again, so I thought this would be a great way to spend my morning.
The weather was absolutely beautiful it was a pleasant 25 minute ride. And interestingly enough, everyone and his brother was out raking leaves and picking up trash. Whole school classes were out at every school I passed. It must have been a Russian version of Earth Day.
In any case, I get to the store and am happy because I am early enough to beat the crowds. I buy all my cheeses and the other things I need, find a short checkout line, get through quickly.....and realize I forgot to buy spinach. I didn't see any lockers where I could lock up my purchases and go back in (Most stores here have them.), so I said screw it and rode home. I figure it's a good excuse to ride again tomorrow.
I got home, did my wash and then took the subway to the Kremlin, where I met Claudia, Kathrin and Christine. We drove to the tonier part of time to walk around and look at the beautiful architecture. Kathrin knows a lot about architecture and the history of Kazan, so we got a real guided tour. Afterwards, we went to the best restaurant I’ve eaten in yet. I had a salmon/spinach pasteta with caviar sauce. It was luxurious. Good food, good company, nice afternoon.
We split up then, and since I wanted to go to couch surfing later, I decided to hang around in town instead of going back home. I went to Kofein cafe and started to blog and text. The I headed over to the Cuba Libre bar right down the street  where the meeting was going to be. There were a lot of familiar faces and I met Ali from Syria. He’s studying neurobiology here. He made the point that, because of the political situation, there is a limited number of other countries whic invite Syrians to study there. Syrians definitely don’t have it easy at the moment.
A lot of people showed up. There was a lot of good music and dancing. I called it quits early and headed out. This morning I’m going to have breakfast with Ravil and Sonia, if Sonia didn’t stay too late at the party! Afterwards I’m going to walk through Gorky Park with Anna (and probably a million other people because the day is so nice) then I’ll come home and throw some lesson plans together.