We are back at the Heliopark hotel. For the next three days we are staying at one of the five apartments the hotel has next to the river. We do not understand the business model of these flats… We have a one room unit with king size bed, sofa, desk and kitchen… and it’s 1500 rubles less than the “deluxe” hotel room we stayed in last week. We tried to book the apartment for next week when we have Rita but the hotel is completely booked up.

Last night we had a nice, normal evening. There is a small grocery store just down the street from here so we had chili, noodles and bread for dinner. (I thought I had bought mushroom pasta sauce.) Then we watched a movie (“The Notebook”) and went to bed at a normal time.

It’s snowing again today but we will venture out and do some sightseeing of the city today before spending our 1-2 hours at the internet café. Saturday we see Rita again!