Numbed In Moscow

N 55 48.608 E 37 31.001 - Sunday 21 September 2008, 9.53 am

Well, it is funny, it is finally here, kind of the part of the trip that we have been thinking about and planning for months. Everything up until now has sort of been playing around, just getting to here. Tonight we head off to Siberia, get on on Sunday evening in Moscow and get to Irkutsk on Thursday morning. That whole month in Scandinavia was just so that we could go to St Petersburg and then to Moscow instead of taking the train from London through Western and Eastern Europe before Moscow. Well, ok, I guess we saw a lot and did a lot there.

Moscow is a big bad city that's for sure. Tourist information centers, ha, don't need those here. Find your own way. We only really had two days here and some of those days were taken up by random little missions. So, I'll have to judge Moscow by Novodevichy Convent, a walk up the Moscow River from there, the Kremlin, and the area around Sokol. Ok, I really judge Moscow by the big ugly incredibly tacky sculpture stuck in the middle of the river slightly north of Gorky Park. 300 feet high of sheer ugliness. Apparently it is of Christopher Columbus (although he looks more like a cowboy and is astride a series of little toy boats) but the original commission fell through so the artist sold it to Moscow city instead (a perfect example of corruption in action) and it was re-branded as Peter and discovery by ships or some nonsense like that. Whatever it is, it would make anything currently in Las Vegas blush.

The walk on the river was interesting. A little dull but enlightening. I felt almost like I was in Manhattan somewhere. Where we are staying, near Sokol Metro, it feels pretty Soviet. Lots of huge bare concrete apartment towers. The one across from us looks partially derelict. There seem to be people living on the first three floors but the rest of the building seems abandoned. But over by the river, it must be the nicer section of town and the apartment buildings have more of a Manhattan feel, brick sidings or at least adornments instead of just bare concrete.

We heard lots of horror stories about Moscow, especially from that damn Australian woman on the train in Norway, really got C all nervous about Moscow and Russia in general. But so far it seems fine. Getting off the sleeper train from St Petersburg, the man who shared our berth with us was really nice. He was heading to a meeting but took the time to walk us to the Metro and rode with us the first stop (we got off and he continued onto his stop). Just a nice way to start the stay in Moscow. And lots of people offered to let C sit on the Metro when she had her heavy pack on.

The pushing and queueing though, dang, they are sharks. But that seems to be the case in St Petersburg too. I'm starting to recognize that look, somebody behind you, looking and calculating, is there any possible way I can shove my way in front of you? Then the familiar feel of pressure on the back of you, nudging you aside, out of their way.

My main question so far is what is the obsession with ripping receipts. Anytime you buy something anywhere, before they give you the receipt, they rip it. Am I not allow to return it now, since the receipt has been spoiled. Or is it supposed to indicate that I received the merchandise. I understand museums ripping your ticket once you use it but for merchandise, I haven't figured it out yet but everybody does it.

I'm just sort of finally getting Cyrillic. I have a small list that I tend to refer to about 800 times a day, walking down the street, on the Metro, etc. Still trying to get my brain to substitute R for P and L for n and the rest of that. Sometimes it works and I get Foto or telegraf or even vagon (which seems like German/Swedish/etc) and I can figure it out. Although I have discovered a fatal flaw in this plan. Sometimes you decode the letters, transliterate them, and you end up with Russian, 'poyest' just doesn't help me at all.

We have had some interesting experiences with Russian. Some people are quite nice about you trying and butchering their language. They don't understand but they try. Some just don't want to play help the foreigner learn Russian at all, they don't like the game. But two of those experiences have been in post offices and I guess post offices are always staffed with borderline psychopaths. In the one post office (supposed to be able to make international calls from there), the woman was screaming at a customer in line ahead of us and then we have to go up and meekly ask, umm, how do we call Australia from here. Stamps, do you want stamps? We sell stamps here! The next post office, the woman could barely contain her irritation long enough to sell us some post card stamps.

So, Moscow then, what we have seen is pretty good. The Kremlin, well and the convent too, how many icons can you see and take in? Gilded everything, gold paint, golden domes on cathedrals, it is pretty and the icons are pretty amazing but I know I haven't really gotten much of Moscow at all. it is a shame but I guess Moscow was more of a staging point for the train journey and hopefully our almost a week at Lake Baikal will be amazing. I think we are much happier being out in the country than in big cities.

There is so much that I could write about St Petersburg (pretty and all) and Moscow, but I should instead get packed up for the train so we can be out of our apartment here by 12. The apartment I guess has been its own introduction to Russia. It was supposed to be sharing the bathroom and kitchen with somebody else in the other double room but I guess nobody booked that one during the time we where here, so we have had the whole thing. But being in an actual apartment in one of the concrete towers instead of some hotel or a dorm in a hostel, well, I'll write about it later maybe. And someday I'll get through more of the pictures. Internet access across Russia hasn't been as easy as other countries, especially not free wifi at lots of public places like in Norway. Anyways then, next stop Siberia.

By the way, Golden Telecom Wifi in Russia really stinks.