Advertisement
Published: June 22nd 2010
I have a few days to catch up on so let’s get to it. Saturday was just a fantastic day with so many great adventures. We met to head to the VDNK stop which is I place I’ve been wanting to explore. JT mentioned on the way that he found out about this place called Ostankino Palace which apparently has a 18th century theatre inside that is pretty spectacular. He arrived at VDNK and decided to head to the Palace first and it is a good thing we did because it turned out to be really amazing and took up the time that we had. The palace was just beautiful. We all had to put on slippers over our shoes. I made the mistake of not paying to take pictures so I will have to get copies from JT after the trip. There was a ton of really great art and sculptures in there and the rooms were all just really breath-taking. The theatre was really amazing. There was a girl there tuning a harpsichord and it looked like they had concerts an performances there today. It was just amazing to walk around and see what theatre would have looked like
Estate 2
Hanging with the locals!200-300 years ago. Then we got out the back of the palace to the estate grounds an it was just as amazing. I have lots of pictures from that. It was just so picturesque and made it very easy to imagine life during that time if you were lucky enough to live on an estate like that. JT mentioned this was probably very similar to what Chekhov pictured for the estate that Uncle Vanya takes place on.
By the time we left we had to head straight for the Arbat station as we had committed to attending a final project presentation of some 3rd year design students. They started the presentation with a little theatrical dance type kind of presentation with all the designers which was interesting, because the designers in America don’t really get involved in that part of our art. But here they wanted to make sure the designers are fully immersed in all aspects of their craft including performance. The presentations of their projects and set designs were a little harder to maintain interest in since it was all in Russian and it was a lot of standing around and so I didn’t get much out
of it, but I am glad I went.
The rest of the group wanted to go back to the dorm, but it was still early and I figured there was still lots of time to explore someplace new. I wandered the Arbat Street which was really hopping compared to when we were there yesterday. A lot more performers were out working the street, and I shot a video of some cool dancers. I found a place to eat, which was really good. Then I decided I was going to hop on the metro and pick a line and just ride it out to the end and see what I find. I picked the purple line which is number 7 and rode it out to the second to the last stop. I found myself in this really great residential neighborhood. There was so much green and park areas and tons of people out just enjoying the weather. I found a bench and just sat watching people for like 45 minutes. I tried to keep moving in a straight line since I didn’t have a map.
After the bench I went on and found this really great park called Kuzminski
Park. There was a map at the entrance and it looked like there were multiple entrances/exits into the park and most of them had metro stops nearby, so I felt like once I was in I could comfortably deviate from my straight line and still be okay. This park was so great, lots of trails and trees, and a ton of people out. I found this amazing lake in the middle that was just full of people out enjoying the cool evening. It was just such a pleasure being there. I followed the lake around and eventually found another entrance/exit to the park with another large sign/map of the park. I was standing there trying to figure out where on the map I was, which wasn’t very clear. I decided to wave the next person over, I asked if they spoke English and she said no, but waived here three friends over, another girl and two guys. The one guy, Boris, spoke a little English. I told them I was looking for the metro station and they offered to show me where it was. They were super nice and inquisitive, which was this amazing and fun challenge of trying to
communicate with each other because my Russian is non-existent and their English was very spotty as well. I felt bad for them because the communication was really up to their understanding of English since I couldn’t even begin to make an effort in Russian. We got to the metro and I ended up hanging with them for almost 3 hours because it was just so much fun learning what I could about their lives as Russians and getting a little exposure to Russian life outside of the theatre. It was funny and interesting. Of course they kept offering me beer and cigarettes and then trying to understand why I didn’t want either. At one point they became very interested in finding me a Russian girlfriend, and then I think the two guys at one point were trying to ask me if it were possible if I sponsored them as guests so that they could come to America. It was bizarre and cool all at the same time. Eventually it came near curfew and it was a good time anyway because since they had been drinking the whole time and were all getting very drunk the communication level was quickly sliding
downhill, so I said my goodbyes and hopped the metro back to the dorm. All in all in was one of my favorite days, because it was such a diverse and interesting day.
Sunday I went to church which again was fun. I met more Americans who were return missionaries, so there was never a lack of people to translate the meetings for me. Afterwards we had plans to meet as a group and go to the Pushkin Art Museum. I arrived about 15 minutes after our agreed meeting time and couldn’t find anyone and thought they must have gone in without me. There was a really long line so I went ahead and hopped in line. They showed up about 20 minutes later, apparently they were late, not me. No one wanted to wait in line so we went next door to the New Pushkin with 19th and 20th century art. It was really great and very manageable. We finished seeing everything in about an hour. It’s great because I am starting to really feel like my taste in art is becoming more defined and it is easier for me to vocalize and realize the kind of art
that I like and that speaks to me. It’s a really great feeling. Then we went up the street to the Roerich Museum who was a mystic from the early 20th century that explored a lot of Asia, Tibet and India and became an ambassador for peace around the world. It was a very interesting place.
That night we had a performance to attend so we walked back to the MXAT for a bite to eat. I wandered down to the Alexander Gardens near the Kremlin since we had about 1.5 hours to kill, and people watched. There were tons of people out. At one point a 12-15 piece brass band showed up in uniform and started playing music and all these couples started dancing, it was so fun. The performance was The Pickwick Club which is an adaption of Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. The show was such a joy to watch but since it was a comedy it was particularly frustrating since we didn’t get any of the jokes. But visually it was very cool.
Monday morning classes were cancelled because the group that had gone to St. Petersburg was arriving at like 10:00 am. So Peter
Schmidt, one of the design students, and I decided to go exploring. He headed out on the Red line of the metro to what appeared to be a National park. It was such a beautiful morning. Unlike the other places I had been, since it was a Monday morning the park was very quiet. We wandered several trails and went as deep as we dared heading for another metro stop that was to the northwest of where we started. At one point we had to cross some railroad tracks which was pretty cool, I went under and Peter went over. We found a pretty rough neighborhood of Moscow, and we were both glad we were there at 11 in the am rather than pm. As we walked about I said my rule for exploring was that if it was open then it was open, if they didn’t want me to go there then it should be closed or someone should be there to stop me. For the most part it has worked out well for me, since the way streets are laid out and all the alleys are way different in Moscow compared to the U.S. We did run into
one dead end though, but it was easily fixed.
Got back in time for lunch at the cafeteria and then off to acting. After class there was no show, so I wanted to be off again, but decided that if I was going to head out into distant areas of Moscow that I should have a map, so I found a bookstore and once I was well armed I found a destination and was off. I was a station on the blue metro line that looked like it was in the middle of an island. Really it just had the Moscow River on three sides. Looked fun. It was a long metro line ride, and when I got there I saw what looked like a huge red suspension bridge in the distance surrounded by what appeared to be a forest, so I decided I was heading for that. I headed down the hill and noticed that tons of people were heading in another direction, so I decided to follow the natives. It led to a beach on a really wide part of the Moscow River which looked more like a lake. There were lots of people out enjoying the
sun, swimming playing volley ball, sun tanning, etc. I walked the length of the beach and then came back on a higher trail so I could snap some pictures. Then I found on my map a metro station that I wanted to head towards which was on the other side of the river but down the way was a bridge to get across. Well the distance in reality was much greater than it appeared to be on the map. I was supposed to be back to the dorm to work on the Etude for the next day at 8:30 and the time was quickly passing. Pretty soon the path along the river that I was following turned to the right away from the river and I didn’t want to go that way since the bridge and the road I wanted was straight ahead. I followed the path, but since time was tight I was looking for a short cut.
To my left was a very steep hill and at the top was a green fence, but there was a trail leading up to the fence that was about 8 feet high. Looking on my map it appeared that the
road I wanted was on the other side of that hill and fence. So I climbed the hill, followed the fence around a corner, looked around to see if anyone could see me and then proceeded to break my rule (if it’s open then it’s open) and climbed the fence. On the other side I felt like I had jumped into The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. There was this paved path that followed the line of the fence. There were lamp posts lining the path and an old wooden gazebo. It was really beautiful and amazing. So I am feeling pretty good about my decision to break my rule. But as I explored the path it became clear that I was actually in the back of someone’s back yard which I didn’t think was a very smart or good place to be. So I started looking for a place to go back over the fence, but on a side that would hopefully put me closer to my road I wanted. The funny thing was the place I chose there was a guy on the other side. He had such a funny look on his face when he saw
this guy pop his head over the fence. I jumped down and he was sort of laughing and smiling, I think he tried to tell me where I had come from but I had no idea what he was saying. We walked together 4-5 steps and he said goodbye. His nonchalance about where I had come from made me think that maybe I wasn’t in any place to off limits. That thought quickly fled my brain though as the fence I followed on my new path changed from just a plain wooden fence about 8 feet high to being topped with razor wire to becoming a red brick wall with security cameras on top. Not only that but it went on for the longest time. So I must have been in the very, very back yard of some immense compound. As I walked along I just kept chuckling to myself over what I had done and where I had been.
Eventually I came to my road that I wanted which led to the bridge I wanted which also happened to be the red suspension bridge I had seen in the distance. But as I got closer it became clear
that this not going to be a pedestrian bridge. So there was no easy way to get across the river in a reasonable amount of time. I found another station that was back the direction I had been and just hadn’t seen on the map, so I had to back track. I did A LOT of walking that night. But, I had an amazing and interesting adventure there is no doubt about it.
Today was pretty much adventure free. No class this morning because it was the girls turn to sing. I slept in and did laundry, then headed to acting class. I pretty much came straight home so that I could get caught up on my journal and write on here.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 5; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mu
non-member comment
Amazing day haha! This neighborhood that you chose for your random adventure was in fact my neigborhood - Strogino :D However, you have mistaken the way to reach that 'over-the-river' metro station and went in the absolutely wrong direction... There's like a 3 km walk via the smaller bridge to the left as you face the river (just by the foursome of ugly highrises oh your photos). That red bridge you've spotted indeed had pedestrian lines, but it is connecting two other neigborghoods and there are no metro station on that side, and it's very distant (normally I reach it on my bicycle in 25/30 minutes so it would take about two hours for you to get there). The funniest part is that this walled place you reached in that forest were actually the govermental dachas, the closest one normally belongs to the acting Russian PM (Putin doesn't use it however, so currently it's a residense of the current head of Russian Duma). That's why there are razor wires and security cameras all over there :D