Many people smoke in Nizhniy Novgorod. It is very common.
The grocery stores are open 24/7. They sell cigarettes, beer, wine, liquor,...and yes, of course food, including legs of whole animals like cow or something.
Every store that we visited this afternoon had a security guard inside watching for shoplifters.
Young people (yes, teenagers) drink alcohol. We saw young boys on the street drinking beer.
There are 66 orphanages in this region of Russia. Each has about 100 children. This does not include the baby houses where children are kept from birth thru age 4.
The streets are narrow in this older city with lots of small economy cars of all makes, years, and colors. (Most are dirty. I don't think they have carwashes here.)
The drivers of these cars park literally "everywhere." When they pull up to the curb, the actually drive up on it.(I guess Kenny feels at home...remember vacation, kids?)
The Kremlin was interesting from the outside. (Check out our pictures.)
We asked our translator to look into a ballet for us to go to while we are here. We also may go to a concert.
Many internet cafes like the one we are in tonight has free wireless access. Two cups of green tea and two desserts later, we are all caught up with skype and internet for now at 8 hours ahead of EST in the United States.