Blogs from Moscow, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 64

Ok, so here's one for all you mathematicians out there (Mum, you may not want to read this paragraph): Q: Kerry is in the biggest city of the biggest country in the world, he has been there for approximately 36 hours & in the last 6 hours has shared a dozen beers and two bottles of vodka with two very nice, yet crazy Russians. He does not know where he is, but to get there he took 1 underground train, 1 chairlift, 1 bus, and walked for approximately 2 hours. He did not backtrack. There are 9 interlinking subways in Moscow, each has aproximately 20 stops & trains go in 2 direction from each station. There are 6 letters in the Russian alphabet that make the same sound as the english alphabet. Given that Kerry will ... read more

Yesterday all of us went to New Jerusalem, a Russian village about an hour north of Moscow. It is called New Jerusalem because it contains a church and garden supposedly modled after Jeruslaem. It was constructed in the 17th century. Russian orthodox believers still make pillgramages to the area, especially for weddings. I don't really know what the temple in Jerusalem looks like, but I think the architecture in the area looked like fairly typical Russian Architecture. The buildings were beautiful but not noticiably different than others that I have seen. New Jerusalem also contains several beautiful old wooden churches and peasant cottages built in the 1600s. I enjoyed hiking around the area more than anything else though. The leaves are starting to turn and it was a gorgeous day. Birch forest surrounds New Jerusalem and ... read more

Godan daginn! Vid erum staddir i moskvu og bunir ad vera 2 naetur og i kvold holdum vid af stad i lengstu nonstop lestarferd i heimi. En sidustu helgi vorum vid i petursborg i tvo daga mikid labbad og listasofnin heimsott oll med tolu, Vid gefum Petursborg 8 i einkunn, Tallinn 7 og Moskvu 6 En i gaer skodudum vid Lenin kallin hann leit bara vel ut og eftir tad fundum vid einhvern irish pub tar sem vid eyddum vid ca 5 timum og vorum ordnir nokkud godir tegar vid komum ut.Tha var ferdinni haldid niidur a metro stodina sem er ekki su einfaldasta i heimi og i thvi astandi sem vid vorum,serstaklega Brjansi... Tokum vid lestinna i vitlausa att og tegar vid fottudum tad vorum vid kommnir uti rassgat og rammvilltir.Vid hoppudum uppi taxi og ... read more

Last Sunday I looked up online to see if there was a Quaker meeting in Moscow. I was attending the meeting in Ann Arbor and thought it would be really neat if I could go to one in Moscow. As unlikely as it sounds, there are indeed Quakers in Moscow. About 20 of them. The meeting was unprogrammed, which means that everyone sat in silence meditating. Three people broke the silence to speak. Their messages were simple (and in Russian) about how we need to try to love everyone even people who have harmed us. In unprogrammed meetings, messages are never planned. People who feel like they want to share what they have been thinking about speak. I enjoyed the meeting. It was different than I had expected though. Everyone was Russian except two Americans. And ... read more

For the last four days we have been enjoying Moscow in the September sun. What we’ve seen and done since arriving here is worthy of a blog entry in itself, so I’ll save it for later… For the moment, here’s how we spent almost four days travelling here by train; during which time we witnessed Central Asia unfold into Siberia; we saw miles and miles of Siberian nothingness; and we finally felt that we are back in Europe after two and a half months in Asia. We also experienced the humour and warmth of Russian hospitality, and the notoriously unfriendly face of the Russian service sector. The long road to Moscow Part One - The Turkestan-Siberian Journey Almaty to Novosibirsk Indie and I purchased platskart (3rd class) tickets for this two-night, 40-hour journey. The platskart ... read more