Our Final Frigid Days in Russia

Alright, I'm going to buckle down and finish up our tales of Russia... now that I have procrastinated to the last day before we leave again. :) Our second day in St. Petersburg, my brother Edward sent us off to the Winter Palace/Hermitage for the day, while he perused the flea markets for old Soviet cookware. The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian Tsars from 1732 to 1917 and now houses the huge State Hermitage Museum of art and culture (see pic). As with most of the museums in Russia, the entry fee cost several times as much for foreigners as for locals - even though most of the exhibit explanations were written only in Russian. So we couldn't understand what we were looking at, and we had to pay considerably more. And then there of course was another fee to use cameras in the museum (also common). But such is life.

Brian and I really could take or leave the art (hehe), but just seeing the interior of the palace was worth the entry fee. There are over a thousand rooms, most designed in an extremely ornate Baroque-style, using gold, marble, and malachite (a dark green mineral). Here is a picture of the Guard Room, with an example of the impressive gold columns found throughout the palace. It would take multiple days to get through the entire museum.

The following day we headed out to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and Cemetery, which contains the tombs of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Dostoevsky, and other famous Russians. My goal was to find the grave of Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer of one of my favorite pieces, "Scheherazade". I searched and searched to no avail, then went back and checked the map... and finally located a shed, covering his grave for the winter. :( So here's a picture of Rimsky-Korsakov's "winter shed".





An extreme cold front was beginning to blow in, so we decided to make the rounds of some of the city's cathedrals. We walked to the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (see pic), which is the only building in St. Petersburg with the traditional Russian medieval architecture (like in Moscow). The rest of the city was built in a European Baroque/Neoclassical style.






Afterwards, we ventured into the Kazan Cathedral and St. Issac's Cathedral, before hiding out from the cold for awhile in the Gostiny Dvor department store. Here are pictures of the inside and outside of St. Issac's.


For dinner, we made the frigid walk over to Idiot Vegetarian Restaurant, where I had delicious patties made from broccoli and brussels sprouts covered with sunflower seeds and sour cream. (see pic) Then we shuffled back to the hotel in the extreme cold - here's a pic looking down the sidewalk at some of the "Christmas" lights. (New Years is the big present-swapping holiday in Russia; the Russian Orthodox Christmas is observed on January 7th due to the Julian Calendar.)

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and ventured to the Museum of Hygiene, which we didn't get a lot out of since we couldn't read the exhibits. We then made the mistake of trying to buy stamps at a Russian post office - I have a feeling that Brian and I are going to have a lot of trying times at foreign post offices, haha. After over an hour of chaos with Russians screaming and no one knowing what line to be in, we finally gave up and luckily were able to find stamps elsewhere. That night, we took the overnight Nikolay's Express train back to Moscow (see pic), sharing our 4-berth coupe with a nice Russian man who surprisingly spoke fluent English. (The urine-cicle photo is from this train.)

We arrived back in Moscow the following morning, where it was currently -27C (-17F). My eyelids and nosehairs were crunchy, and the snot from my incessant runny nose froze all over the front of my face. Yay! Even the Russians were complaining about the temperature. There was only one thing worth braving that kind of cold for - more khatchapuri! So sure enough, we met my brother down at the Georgian boat restaurant again for dinner - this time the entire Moscow River had frozen over. Here's a picture of the 3 of us getting ready to go back outside - we could pass for trick-or-treaters. :) The next day Brian and I departed Moscow and arrived in balmy 40F Tennessee, 57 degrees warmer than where we had just come from. I'll take it!

Russian Oddities

"Married with Children" tv show - Russian style. A friend of my brother's roommate used to be a writer for the American show, and was in Moscow helping to develop new episodes for the Russian version. Another popular sitcom over there is the Russian version of "The Nanny".







We saw this sign at the weekend market by the stands selling blue and white Uzbek pottery.










No offense, but I think I'll stick with Hanes.





Cosmonaut survival kit: These are the things you will need when fending off the bitter cold, bears, and drunk Russians when the capsule has once again gone ballistic and landed way off-target.






We had a heck of a time figuring out this microwave - rather than entering the cook time, you have to enter the type of cooking to be done, and the weight of the food in grams... I just pressed buttons until it started running. :)






One of the stainless steel "jail-type" toilets in the Hermitage.










I paid 17 rubles to use this lovely hole in the floor in the Moscow train station.











I just hate when I sit down somewhere and get stabbed by hypodermic needles... don't you?









I think this is my most prized picture of the entire Russian trip: One of the many urine-cicles hanging out of the bottom of the train bathrooms (they empty onto the tracks) on our frigid ride back to Moscow. :)

С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ! (Happy New Year!)

Brian and I have actually spent the past couple of days in North Carolina for my grandmother's 93rd birthday, amusing ourselves by watching the old women zoom down the nursing home hallways in their electric wheel-chairs, sportin' the one-armed gangsta lean while trying to run down the other women who might be competing for the one or two men in the place (my grandmother got her foot run over!). Sigh. We spent a nice Christmas in Tennessee with my family, and will be heading back to Austin for a few days before taking off for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands next weekend. But first, I need to get caught up with the blog. Back to Moscow (cue the fog and spirit fingers)....

We had to delay our departure to St. Petersburg by a few days to wait on Edward's visa paperwork, so we passed the time by visiting the Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery, which contains the graves of Yeltsin (a large flag monument, see pic), and Prokofiev (see pic). We also tagged along with Edward to a large shopping mall near his place and the large outdoor food market where he gets his odd blue "pumpkins", and finally started getting accustomed to the Metro subway system (with gorgeous stations - see pic). Finally his paperwork came through, and we departed on the overnight Smena train to St. Petersburg, an 8-hour trip. The three of us had a 4-berth coupe to ourselves, which was nice, but the thick cigarette smoke on the train kept me up most of the night. Blech!

We arrived in St. Petersburg at 6:45am, and made our way to the hotel, which of course wouldn't let us check in yet, but after a jumbled conversation with the night security man, we were told to leave our bags in someone's room (and half expected to never see our luggage again). We then ambled down Nevsky Prospect, cold and hungry, looking for anything that might be open - the sun wouldn't rise until 10am. We finally stumbled upon a 24-hour baked potato place, and got a "unique" breakfast - here is the picture of my potato, covered with 2 cheeses, mushrooms, and pickle pieces. It actually wasn't all that bad!

We killed some more time in a coffeeshop, then ventured to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, which documents Soviet polar exploration. As we were heading through the rooms, one of the older gold-toothed female museum employees started mysteriously following us around and started lecturing Edward (in Russian) on what is wrong with Russia today. She claimed that all the young people just want to have "sex sex sex" instead of having large families, leading to a dissipation of sexual energy, and that subliminal messages in commercials (the work of the 25th cadre) were encouraging young people to start smoking, which makes the babushkas cry. Edward frantically translated for us during the long conversation - once he got one part translated, she would come back over and start up again.It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but was probably the most interesting part of the museum visit. :)

After that lesson in Russian culture, we headed to the center of town to the Kunstkammer Museum (the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology). I, of course, wanted to see the most famous portion of the museum - Peter the Great's "natural science" collection of deformed animals and fetuses, decapitated baby heads, and children's skeletons. It did not disappoint! (see pic)

By this point it was beginning to get dark (~3pm), so we headed back to the hotel to see if anyone had absconded with our luggage. Luckily, it was still there, and we were able to check into our 2-BR apartment, which ended up also having a party shower! (see pic) This thing had party lights, a radio, 14 shower heads, a rain shower, a massager, and a jacuzzi. Sadly though, the tap water was brown in St. Petersburg (say hello to giardia!), so the party shower mostly just went to waste. Now if only I could get one of those back to Austin...

Two Texans in the Snow! (aka "How We Almost Got to Visit a Russian Hospital")

The day after visiting the cat theater, we met Edward at the Metro station and headed out to the newly renovated Cosmonaut Museum, which Brian was especially excited about. We saw Gagarin's Vostok capsule (actually very spacious!), several models of orbiting spacecraft, landers, many engines and other space-related gear. Here is a pic of Edward standing next to (the stuffed) Strelka and Belka, the Russian dogs that went into space. It was here at this museum that we first started to noticed the pervasive stench of vodka permeating the air, particularly around men... and this was at 10am on a Sunday morning. According to my brother (and NPR), the average Russian consumes 18 liters of pure alcohol a year. Guess that explains the 3L bottles of vodka and the 5L bottles of beer we saw in the grocery store! (see pics)

That afternoon we headed over to a Christmas party thrown by Taryn, a high school acquaintance of mine who is now working in Moscow, and had some fantastic American-style Christmas cookies and Siberian Corona (a real brand of beer!). Here is a pic of a giant spinning Siberian Corona bottle on the side of the road (see pic). Since we were on an American food kick, Brian and I hit up Pizza Hut for dinner, incredibly thankful for their dual-language menu!

The following day we met up with Edward to head to Gorky park, an amusement park on the Moscow River that contains a test vehicle for the abandoned Russian space shuttle program. It was snowing a bit, but we weren't too concerned, as the mayor of Moscow has implemented a "cloud seeding" program this winter to ensure that Moscow doesn't receive any heavy snowfall, which apparently is much cheaper than plowing the streets (this program of course is inciting much consternation in the small towns surrounding Moscow).

Anyhoo, turns out Gorky Park is closed in the wintertime. But I did get a picture of "Crapdogs" (Edward insists it says "Stardogs"), the hotdog stand outside the gates, though (see pic), and could see the shuttle from afar (see pic). Since our trip to the park was unsuccessful, we took a minor detour to a fantastic Georgian restaurant in a boat on the river... and it was here that my love affair with Khatchapuri (a Georgian cheese bread) began! (see pic) The following week I would end up braving the -27C temperatures to return to this restaurant (it was so cold the entire river had frozen) just of the for another taste of the Khatchpuri. :)

Throughout the day, the snow had continued to fall, accumulating on the ground and snarling traffic. The sidewalks were beginning to get a bit slick, but I suggested to Brian that we take a quick jaunt over to Red Square so I could see St. Basil's in the snow. Turns out that was not such a smart idea. Brian's legs went straight out from under him while crossing the street, and he landed smack on his back and head in the middle of the road. I quickly shuffled out there and did a ridiculous policewoman impression trying to get the traffic to stop while Brian tried to limp out of the road. I'm sure it was quite a sight! Somehow his tough noggin' survived hitting the pavement, but he had back spasms the rest of the evening and the next day. We debated going to the doctor, but he decided to tough it out. Now I see why the guidebook recommended boots with cleats!

We were pretty much apartment-bound the next day while Brian recovered, but I did venture out and finally got my picture of St. Basil's in the snow. (see pic) The headline in the newspaper read, "Unexpected Snowfall Paralyzes City". I'm just glad Brian wasn't paralyzed, too. :)

It's all Cyrillic to me!

Even though we had my brother around most of the time, Brian and I would have been well-served to learn a bit more Russian than we did. Our Russian vocabulary consisted entirely of "please" (puzhalsta), "thank you" (spasiba), and a thumbs-up sign. :) Of course, one of the toughest parts is suddenly being faced with a completely foreign script. Street names, metro stops, menus... everything is in Cyrillic, especially in Moscow (St. Petersburg gets more tourists, so English is a little more common). Still, it was certainly easier to decipher than the Asian languages will be - a good warm up for Thai in January, haha.

We were able to pick up a few tips, which helped us to be able to read some signs and names - these may also help in deciphering some of our pictures. Some of the letters are similar to English: A, b, K, M, O, T - and a C is usually an "s" sound. Some are similar to Greek: Г = G (gamma), P = R (rho), П = P (pi), and Ф = F (phi). The rest mostly just require memorization - the few we learned were И=i, B=V, H=N, Л=L, and Д=d.

These are pics of some familiar US brands we came across; it's a pretty neat feeling to actually look up and comprehend a Cyrillic sign! Brian was SO excited when we saw the Cinnabon - we had been standing in a blizzard, waiting for Edward to pick up some visa paperwork, and it suddenly appeared to us across the street like a vision. AND - it had wireless internet! Best cinnamon bun we ever tasted. :)

привет Россия! (Hello Russia!)

We arrived in Moscow in the evening and somehow managed to locate my brother Edward in the large Paveletsky Station (this is where his large handlebar mustache comes in particularly handy!). He helped us get over to our rented apartment, just across the river from the Kremlin and Red Square. The next day, Brian, Edward, and I ventured over there in the deceptively balmy weather (oh, if we had only known what was to come), and got to see Red Square all decked out for the holidays with a giant tree and skating rink (see pic). Even Lenin's Tomb had some small Christmas trees out front!

One of the buildings on the square was undergoing renovations, but no fear - a fabric facade was hung around the building so we would know what we were missing, haha. (see pic)







We walked through St. Basil's (aka "The Candy Building"), popped in GUM (the upscale shopping mall), and then made our way over to the Kremlin. The highlights definitely were seeing the Tsar Cannon (40 tons) and the Tsar Bell (216 tons), the largest cannon and bell in the world, respectively (see pics). Sadly, the bell cracked during a fire before it ever was rung.







After the Kremlin, we headed to Old Arabat St., a pedestrian shopping boulevard. Here we had sweet condensed milk blini for lunch (see pic) - these became one of our staple meals, as blini stands are everywhere and we could order just by pointing!






The next day we got up early and headed out in the snow flurries to Izmailovsky Weekend Market. Here I found a handpainted set of 'cat lady' nesting dolls (see pic) that I tried unsuccessfully to bargain for, so I enlisted my Russian-speaking brother to get me a deal. I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but it involved the babushka yelling, some laughter, and no price reduction for me. Sigh. Apparently she told Edward that the "discount" he was asking for was equivalent to the price of a cheeseburger - and "this is art!!!" As you can see, I bought the dolls anyway. :)





We grabbed more blini for lunch, and then made our way across town to the renowned Moscow Cat Theatre, a fast-paced show with clowns, dancers, and 120 'trained' cats performing tricks (see pics). Most of the cats are rescued strays, and (as was apparent in the show), cats cannot actually be trained - they will do what they want, when they want. But if one cat wasn't behaving, it was just removed and replaced with another cat who would perform for treats. I personally think that my own kitty Ginger could be a star, but sadly she's a bit pudgy for a lot of the apparatuses, haha.

That evening we headed over to my brother's apartment, where he made us a traditional Russian dinner of mushroom pelmeni (dumplings) and vegetarian Borscht (plus some homemade eggnog!) (see pic). It's no Italian pastries and pizza, but I could actually get used to this Russian food...