I think Moscow has a predisposition to bad weather; it’s like it wants to prove its dreary, melancholy attitude over and over again. True to form, the skies showed no signs of color apart from the ever-faithful Russian grey the whole time I was there. Truly, that city has a very heavy soul.
Despite the colorless weather, this weekend’s trip to Moscow went very well. After stealing more than our fair share of free candy from the train (it’s called scavenging folks, and in Russia it becomes second nature), my friend Erin and I navigated our way around Moscow pretty well. On Friday we went to the Novodevichy monastery to look at the second most famous cemetery in all of Russia (the most famous being the wall of the Kremlin). The cemetery was stacked full of people, all of whom seemed to be very important because of their elaborate graves (Russians seem to like to put pictures on tombstones in an overly dramatic fashion). Some of these people, however, actually deserve the fancy burial- literary giants Gogol (who was, fyi, unknowingly buried alive), Chekhov, Bulgakov, and Mayakovsky, Lenin’s wife, entrepreneur Tretyakov brothers, Nikita Khrushev, and my absolute favorite tomb, the grave of an old clown who happened to be the only person in the 11 time zones Russian spans that was allowed to make run of its Soviet leaders. I probably enjoyed this cemetery a little too much; I think my dark and fatalistic Russian side is beginning to show.
Next we ventured back to the center of town to walk along Old and New Arbat Street. Old Arbat Street is a pedestrian zone full of rip-off souvenirs while New Arbat Street seems to be, from the overwhelming presence of casinos and large bulky men, where the Moscow mafia hangs out. We then set out on a quest to find Georgian food, and after only our second try (first attempt proved, in typical Russian fashion, to have either closed and relocated to Siberia a la Purges) found a little restaurant called Mama Zoya. Georgians don’t have much love for vegetarians, so the meal sadly wasn’t worth the trouble it took to find it. Then we headed back to Red Square for some incredible nighttime viewing of St. Basils (the obsession grows with every visit) and back into the GUM, where the most expensive stores in all of Russia are kept. Next, Manege Square, where a little half-dome of the world is nicely lit up at night. There, we met two very nice Russian men named Denis and Constantine, who proved that Russians are indeed a good deal friendlier and open to foreigners when under the influence of a substantial amount of alcohol.
On Saturday I sent out to the outer rim of Moscow to Kolomenskoe and Tsaritsyno. Kolomenskoe is a large wooded area (which is such a lovely change from downtown Moscow, where you’d assume nature is only a figment of the imagination) with some very famous and beautiful old churches (one of which was covered with a large tarp for scaffolding) and an old log cabin of Peter the Great’s. It lies right on the bank of the Moscow River, so being there really does feel like you’re nowhere near Moscow and its heavy (and currently very dirty) soul. Tsaritsyno is the ruins of a palace constructed by Catherine the Great that was never finished, so it just looks pretty eerie now. Then back into the city to look around, saw the first McDonalds to open in Russia in the last days of communism (and currently serves 70,000 people a day, or 1/140 of Moscow’s population) and what seemed to be the nicest (and consequently most over-priced) grocery store in the world; there were actually multiple chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Moscow really is a world away from the rest of Russia in its extravagance and obvious amount of wealth. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that this city encompasses 80% if all the wealth in Russia. Talk about inequalities.
After the dining fiasco of the previous night, we returned to our wonderful Ethiopian restaurant, which seems to get tastier every time (or maybe Russian food is just starting to get to me). Do we have these in Tennessee?
All in all, a very fun and interesting visit, but I’m still so glad to be in Vladimir instead of a crazy big city like Moscow (aside from the fact the Vlad has been off school for a week due to a minor cold and driving me absolutely insane). Less than seven weeks left, and a lot of Russian left to learn and, hopefully, a lot of warm, snow-free weather to experience.