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Alright. Been a heck of a long week. I am writing now and it is Sunday night at almost midnight. Paul and I just got back from a GREAT weekend in Suzdal. Right now just chillin to some Cudi and checking mail and whatnot.
Memory is a bit hazy about this week. NOT because I was drinking, but it was actually a lot of the same. Run in the morning around a new part of the city, nap, maybe go downtown for some sightseeing, and then cook up something at home. Paul has been busy at work all week, and he is actually stuck there until about eight every night, so I have been busy meandering around this rather smoggy Russian capital. And sleeping, somewhat. For some reason sleep is not coming very easily, especially between the normal nighttime hours. I actually ended up pulling two all nighters here at the apartment only because I have been unable to fall asleep. Usually I just end up sleeping from noonish until 6 or so, which makes for some very odd touristy times. Might be the street noise or, as Paul believes, the fact that it is only dark for 5 hours
per night. I'm not sure. Either way I end up sleeping during the day and reading a ton, so its not a big deal.
I'll stop rambling. Monday, or maybe Tuesday (???), I woke up before Paul and went for a run down along the southern bend of the Moscow River. Actually ended up taking a couple hours or so because I got lost a few times. The first stretch was along the huuuge street name after Lenin. I think its "leninskaya" or something. Either way, it is not terribly special considering that EVERY town in this enormous country has a street named after him. And usually a statue to mark the start of it. What a badass. Anyway, I ran down this street until I hit Sparrow Hills, a very cool park area that sits on the southern bend of the river. I later learned that this area is the highest point in Moscow, which made sense considering that from the wide market at the tip you can see all of the city, on a clear day. Best part was counting the "seven sisters" of the city. They are a group of gothic skyscrapers built by Stalin in
the late 40's that absolutely tower over the rather flat city. The Moscow State University is a great example of this, and was the main reason I ran to this part of the city as it towers over this southern part of the river. Across the river sits the 100000 seat stadium that was built for the Olympics here in 1980. I ran over to that site of the park, and actually ended up talking to some Russian guys under this ridiculously sketchy bridge that connects the two sides of the river. They noticed my Nike shirt and were going nuts about how awesome Nike is, thankfully in English. I agreed. They liked that. Then they invited me to come play basketball on one of the courts that sat under the big bridge. Didn't take a picture, but imagine one of those skateparks that you might see in a movie like Hardball, or something with Denzel Washington, under a bridge, and stick a court in its stead. Very ghetto but a ton of fun. I played for about an hour and then waved goodbye and ran home.
Wednesday I woke up around 2 (went to bed at 8am or
so...) and went towards the Kremlin to catch an english speaking tour of the city. Couldn't find the god forsaken bus thanks to shoddy directions I found on the web, but did manage to find the office for the tour and bought a ticket there. Ended up wandering around the theatre district for a while before heading home. Paul and I grabbed pizza and beer at a nearby joint because we were too tired to cook. Went for a run around the neighborhood.
Thursday I woke up and sat and read lazily in the apartment. It was raining and I hadn't got a ton of sleep, again, the night before, so I opted to stay in and relax. I have already finished the first two Jack Reacher novels (I read a lot at night because I am not sleeping) and opted to start Dracula by Bram Stoker. Stayed in and read all day and planned my Friday. We decided to go get drinks closer to the Red Square and found a little hole in the wall cafe that served authentic Russian "cuisine". Ordered some pielmeni (sp?) and borsch with some Heinekens... on tap... and Paul nabbed us some shots
of Russian Standard. He had talked it up a ton as the best vodka in the world, so I agreed to take a few down. Very chill night but it was nice to eat out downtown. It wasn't nice to have to pay 30 bucks for the meal, but we learned the lesson that its not smart to eat too close to the square.
Friday I finally made it onto that tour bus, and got a great idea of what the city has to offer. Flipped through the center of the city before heading south to Sparrow Hills and then on to the newer financial district. Apparently Moscow is planning, by 2020, to be the financial capital of the world... so they are hastily putting together a downtown similar to the one we would see in the states, ie tall skyscrapers close together. The apartments in the area run in the range of 10000 US per month, but it was nice to be in a much cleaner part of the city. We stopped at the Victory Park, for Russia is very proud of "their" victory over Germany in WWII, and Napolean when he was on his power trip, and
thus devote a tooooon of city space to commemorating these two wars. I sat next to this guy from Chicago in town with his wife (who wasn't there for some reason) the entire trip. We made fun of the Russian alphabet, Napolean, and our tour guide the whole time, and afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat together. Really really chill and made the tour a bit more entertaining. Couldn't sleep again, must be the off base diet I am having here, but managed to catch some shut eye around 9 am till noon when Paul and I left to catch our train.
So now we were on Saturday, and Paul and I decided to take the train to the Golden Ring city of Vladimir (about 3 hours east) and then catch a bus to Suzdal, which had been hyped a ton by some guys he works with at the Embassy. Ended up meeting four French backpackers who were stopping in Suzdal for the night on their way to Beijing via the Trans-Siberian railroad. Very interesting people, and they were more than happy to have us around especially since they didn't speak an ounce of Russian. So actually they
where medvedev lives
and putin will again in a few years...were probably just happy to have Paul around... Anyway, we agreed to head into the city together, and ended up deciding to find a hotel together. Very interesting group, three girls and one guy, who were starting their last year of graduate business school in France and Belgium. We haggled for prices a bit until we met this random lady walking down the street who told us of a hostel of sorts that would only charge 500 rubles per night. That's about 16 bucks. DONE. Big dormitory style, which was an experience in its own right, but it was awesome to have some friends to hang out with.
Went to grab food around 9 or 10, and ended up spending under 10 per person to eat good Russian food drink a tooon of vodka. Actually, we had the bar entirely to ourselves, and one of them ran back to the room to get speakers since we didn't want to listen to the Russian soap opera on TV. First song: Gunther, The Ding Dong Song. You have got to be kidding me. I thought it was a joke. Europeans, namely French people, actually listen to this shit. In fact, every
song they played (translated by Paul) was raunchy as hell. It appears that our stereotypes were in fact not false. Either way we had a ton of fun. Walked out when the lady arbitrarily had to close the bar, at 1050, to a sunlit sky. Horsed around on the main plaza (they like to take wayyy more pictures than anyone back home), and tried to get home in one piece. Had to carry one of the girls, Carol, home because she could not walk. Fun fun fun. Woke up at around 1130 because the hostel told us we had to be out by 12. Ended up being a pretty funny seen as we all rushed to rinse off in the group showers before stumbling out at 1215 much to the ire of the attendant. Poked around the churches of the city for a bit, as well as the Suzdal Kremlin before hopping on the bus and parting ways with the eastbound Frenchman on our way to Moscow. One thing, Suzdal was amazing. We learned that back in the ole days the merchants of the city mandated that there were to be noe less than 30 churches built in the city,
so now you cannot turn a circle without seeing at least 2 or 3 Orthodox onion-shaped spires. I was in heaven. Plus we had company to aid in our enjoyment.
Train ride back was another story. We got stuck in traffic on the way back to Vladimir and did not arrive until 558 or so. The final train to Moscow left at 6, and Paul HAD to be back for work Monday, so we sprinted off the bus to the ticket window. I figured that we had no chance, since the clock outside already said 605, but when we got to the window the lady waved us on, without letting us buy a ticket. So we sprinted onto the train literally 15 seconds before the doors closed and sat down. Problem was that these trains, as with most, have attendants that walk up through the cabs scanning each ticket, which we at this point did not have. Our original plan was to just bribe the lady, but instead we opted for a more savvy, and illegal option.
In Russia it is very common, amongst the youth, to hop on trains without buying a ticket. Then when the attendant
comes through your car, assuming you have a ticket and need not worry, you usually see a few kids stand up and walk to the next car. When the train makes its next stop, around 15-20 people go sprinting back down the train outside and into a car (that the attendant has already gone through) before the doors close. Rarely do these kids get caught, because the one, or two, attendants usually done have the manpower to stop it. I would assume that by this time you might be catching the drift of our secondary option. It was actually really fun. We would sit down for an hour or so, I reading my book and Paul watching a movie on his Ipod, and then one of us would nudge the other because a few kids had gotten up and gone streaming through our car. We would then pack up our stuff and follow, and then watch the attendants to make sure we were always one car ahead. Then, when the train stopped, we would hop out and sprint 2 cars down. People around us would usually smirk because we always managed to sit back down in our same seats. When
peter the great monument
apparently the artist made this thing for america and instead of peter he had columbus up there. but we didn't want it, so he reshaped the head to be peter and sold it to moscow. they dont like it either, mostly because they dont like peter for moving the capital to st. petersburg... and it's ridiculously gaudy. we got to the station, we had another predicament because the only way to exit is to go through the ticket gates which scan your ticket and then open the doors allowing you to exit. However we had witnessed others simply sprinting behind someone as they exited, before the gates shut. Worked to perfection. Saved $10, even though we weren't necessarily trying to, for the ticket lady in Vladimir had simply waved us on when we were actually trying to purchase a ticket from her. Gotta love this country.
O and I forgot, McDonalds in Moscow at least is god awful. I ordered a Big N Tasty with fries there on Friday, and could barely finish it. Their version of Thousand Island dressing is this sour mayonaise spread which deserves to be packed up and shipped to Siberia, or a gulag for that matter. They also used a white cheese, which is slightly more common, on the burger. The combination, and complete lack of anything other than meat, cheese, and sauce, made for an abominable burger that would have been shut down by the FDA for bad taste alone. It is as if we package the scraps of
our McDonalds burger dressing, leave it sitting in the heat for a few weeks, and then smirk as we ship it off to Russia for them to enjoy. And enjoy they do, for the line is always out the door here. Perhaps they are so enthralled with the capitalistic fast food chain that their taste buds disappear while they eat. Ekh.
Few days left in Moscow. Gonna head to see Lenin at some point and also am shooting for 2 hours at one of the nicer banyas nearby. I am sure that will yield a hell of a story. Having a blast.
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