Just back from Москва and what a trip…I think the phrase we came up with to describe it is Москва = Кашмар…not because the trip was awful/ужасний, it was just sooooo unpredictable, uncontrollable, unbelievable…
It has been relentlessly scorching in Russia now for weeks but of course any time I need to go anywhere for any particularly important reason (aka getting to the train station for my trip to Москва) the sky seems to be waiting for me to step outside and then attack me with a good old-fashioned storm…and that is exactly what it did on Thursday night, so I started off my trip with an unintended shower…но я приехала вокзал, сидела на поезде, и проводила наследуещые 8 часов внутре очень мальенкой комнати для 4 человека – although I didn’t mind because Jen, Jean, Alex, and I have reached the point were we are close enough friends that I can tell them to buzz off when I get into one of my OCS moods and no one gets offended, and it is really hard to sleep when 31 students are all crammed within one train car at the start of a four day weekend…so needless to say we were up practically all night…☺
Когда мы приехали Москву, we walked into a train station that looked seriously almost identical to the one we left in Petersburg (evidence of the intense creativity of the Soviet era), boarded a bus with a super fun/entertaining yet knowledgeable tour guide, and set off for breakfast - first good cup of coffee I've had in a while, and even then it was only sub-par…после завтрака, took a city tour of Москва and while it was super cool to see этот город from the inside of a very well air-conditioned bus and through the direction of a local, I did not nearly get to take as many pictures or explore as many sights as I wanted to because we just zoomed right on by…however, I did get to see some highlights: Лебедное Озеро (as in the lake that inspired Tchaikovsky and where he was when he brilliantly dreamt up his epic score), part of the relics of the 1980 Olympics (the ski jump is set on a hill perfectly overlooking all of downtown Москва), at least 4 of the 7 sister buildings (these huge gothic looking structures), старые и новые американскые и англискые посольстви (англиское посольство точше самое старое посольство в Москве) and Красний Площадь конечно – only problem was it was about 33 degrees and I was in sweat pants and a t-shirt sweating up a storm, but it could have been worse Thursday was 39/40 degrees in Moscow…made it back to our hotel which was part of a series of 5 enormous hotels built for the 1980 Olympics as well, and all I can say is that if that complex was the Olympic village for the games that year than I’m not wondering if THAT is the reason America boycotted them…seriously…it wasn’t just the non-existent central air/heating, the lack of room service, the broken sink that wouldn’t shut off, the fact that the hotel ‘ran out of’ maps, or the таракан that a fellow classmate found in her room Saturday morning (thank goodness it wasn’t mine, I might have just marched right on down and staked myself out in Sheremetevo Airport until August 14th right then and there) or the mere fact that they also ran out of space in the baggage hold on Sunday when we checked out and we had to bribe the hotel to just let us put our stuff in an old musty room….ok I’m exaggerating, the hotel wasn’t quite the vortex of doom that I am making it out to be because they did have a fabulous breakfast spread, free ice-cold water on each floor, an oscillating FAN in the room (which is huge since I haven’t stood in front of one of those in weeks), free Wi-Fi downstairs, and the beds weren’t half bad (eons more comfy than the couch at home although ironically not quite as good as the train beds)…but it was no five star hotel…
In any case, after a good 3 hour nap and some serious showering we headed out and explored…no one had any idea where to go what to do or anything (strike 17 against CIEE for not even providing us with maps on this trip but giving us about 80% of the time there free) so miss-lets-do-something-every-second-of-her-life (me) snatched the outdated map from the desk in our hotel room, racked her brain about anything Professor McBride had mentioned worth doing in Moscow, studied the metro map for a good solid ten minutes (and believe me that is not hard to do – third biggest metro in the world, absolute biggest in terms of how many people ride it per day…) and then made an executive decision for us and dragged my friends down to the Arbat…David was complaining to me earlier that no one ever wants to do the stuff he wants to or whatever, but I have found that on a trip like this you just have to just take the initiative if you want anything done and that means getting your bearings about you, picking a destination, and just GOING – people will follow, they always do….
Арбатская Улица is very overpriced but a cool little enclave in the city – a mix of fake Russian culture, American fast-food/pop culture, and universal culture (Russian souvenir shops sandwiched between a Starbucks and McDonalds, across from make-up and expensive clothes stores) but once again just as we step onto the fully uncovered street, the skies start pelting rain the size of bullets at us…good thing it only lasted a few minutes…walked down Cтарая Арбатская Улица, Новая Арбатская Улица, and then back to Красний Площадь…ran into the frat-pack of guys from our group and three of the coordinators along the way…took some awesome night photography on Красний Площадь and then sauntered over to the Большой Театр…it was really hard just being plopped in the middle of Москва with next to no direction (the leaders expected us to have guide books for Moscow, so I say thanks for including that tidbit of info in the original CIEE handbook) but if I learned one thing it is that central Москва is not as colossal as it seems on the map and practically all roads lead back to the Кремль in one way or another…
The other thing about Москва is that the metro closes at 1:00 instead of 12:00 which was an incredible relief from countless weekends I have been home at 11:30 on a Friday night ☹…and it was so nice to have a roommate again, especially since it was Jen, because we were in such close proximity to each other and had a chance to just be girls together – for instance, all of us got back at 1:20 am or so, and then Alex came over to mine and Jen’s room so that……me and Alex (just as a reminder she is my clone from the east coast – literally its like having a conversation with myself when I talk to her and the feeling is mutual) anyways so that we could….dye our hair blonde…at least that was the goal, but we opened the package and couldn’t understand the instructions and none of us had a dictionary…Alex went for it but I’m sure the stuff is on the FDA un-approved list because it was pretty much ammonia, smelled awful, and was burning her scalp like no other so she ended up rinsing it out and I chickened out and that is what we get for buying cheap hair dye in Russia, but it was still hilarious….
Here is the thing with Russia = there is no happy medium….I have gone from unbelievably ecstatic about the country to indescribably loathsome of it within a minute and it happens all the time…this country is just so erratic and I feel like my emotions/attitude/perspective fluctuates along with the unpredictable people/weather/transportation system (I have now been on a broken trolleybus, two broken metro elevators, waited for a bus for over an hour, had the metro stop mid-track on me three times…) so what could start out as a jubilant day can end horrendously or vice versa you never know…and you never know what might trigger it cause it happens so quickly…for instance…
Субота утром мы стали рано, ate breakfast to our hearts content (Russia has also significantly increased my appetite and metabolism because I believe I can now out-eat half the boys on this trip and somehow my shorts are still falling off…) gathered our stuff and Jen, Alex, and I walked over to this super huge souvenir palace – it is literally the largest souvenir market in all of Russia and boy was it ever…it just kept going and they had EVERYTHING there to the point that I almost didn’t know what to buy, there were just so many options…however, once I started it was hard to stop and even though there was probably way more many things I should have bought, Alex and I still left there with a tremendously well-needed shopping high ☺ we got back in just enough time (we were there for several hours and I am not even upset because bartering and maneuvering an outdoor Russian рынок could just be the most Russian experience I have had yet...) мы собирались свои вещи (which Alex and I put into our new handmade purses which we got from a lady named Марина who I made friends with because she told me I spoke really good Russian and was surprised that I was from America and studying herе because apparently I have a pretty good accent, and then asked all about my family and why I had a Russian name and thought it was incredible that I still spoke the language after all these years of being removed from our homeland and then invited me back to Москва and her shop anytime ☺) and we hopped on the bus for a tour of the Кремль…we walked up and there was a whole troop of military men – I was so excited because here was my chance to take a picture with a real live Russian solder (turns out they were paratroopers and apparently these ones were the most elite branch of the military)…they stationed themselves around the entrance to this one building and then an entourage of people came out of the doorway and after making some rounds headed on over to our group…our head coordinator Ирина Борисова (who happens to be the most classiest, composed, and well-connected woman I have ever met at least in this country and who we lovingly call IB amongst ourselves) asked him to speak with us and he did! It turns out it was Владимр Жириновский who next to Путин and Медведев is the next most powerful politician in Russia and yours truly got a picture with him…right next to him…sooooooo cool…..what was just as cool was then when I asked Ирина Борисова if I could snatch a picture with the paratroopers (I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be ruining protocol or anything) she was completely cool with it and even took the photo for me ☺ Jen and I nuzzled our way next to the line of them and while it is not a perfect photo, I still took it! Moving along, we saw all the церкови, башни, часы, итд. of the Кремль and then were led into this музей that I forget the name of (our guide called it the armory) where they house all the official tsarist swag – crowns, dresses, robes, carriages, armor, dishes, the FABREGE eggs and I of course snuck tons of pictures (even though you weren’t supposed to) because it was the most amazing thing ever! It was all legitimate, no copies, and I saw it all – unbelievable…and then right outside the museum there were two police guards watching the exit and one of them made eyes at me…so naturally I snagged this chance as well– no one else had guts enough to do it, so yet again I took the initiative and asked him for a photo and even though he was completely not supposed to at all – he did! so now I have pics with a sailor, a paratrooper, and a police man…I’m on a roll here…After this tour we were free for the evening so my group of friends and I went and got Azerbaijani food which was delicious, and then us girls decided to go back and freshen up before going out for the night…and that is where this extraordinary day went extraordinarily bad…it took us all way longer to get ready, we all were having major wardrobe crises, we went to the metro stop where one of the coordinators recommended, there was nothing over there and we ended up walking around for way longer than necessary, finally made it to the Kremlin and all the restaurants there were closed, saw a sign for a 24 hours McDonalds so decided to get an ice cream there cause we were hungry – but you cant take anything in Russia for face value because they too had closed, the pizza place next door was still open so we got pizza, went back for more pizza and they wouldn’t let us get any because they were closing, (and all for nothing because that pizza ended up making Jen sick the next day), we finally gave up and decided to go home, (irate and flabbergasted as we were at the absence of people in Москва on a Saturday night), saw two dogs in the metro, the sign inside the metro was mixed up so we ended up going the wrong way at first, switched ourselves around, and then had to sprint to get to the right platform because the bell rang for the last train, barely made it on the last train, finally got home- sweaty, tired, irritated, wanting to go home…it was a disaster…
But a brand new day – Sunday once again had its ups and downs as does every day here but was overall a great experience…woke up got our stuff together quickly and then Jen, Alex, and I headed off towards Красний Площадь to see Ленин – waited in line for not even an hour and YES I can now say I have seen a the infamous ninety-year old corpse on Красний Площадь…тоже видела гробы Сталина, Хрусшева, Фрунза, и другые политическые человеки которые я забила...what’s weird is Деда Хапров wasn’t even born when Ленин died and still I actually saw him…an image that will be burned in my mind forever…it was perhaps the coolest 15 seconds ever spent in Russia thus far…not to mention the fact that it was so dark in there that I couldn’t see where I was going at first and almost ran into the security guards twice…its okay they were all so cute and smiling at us three as we walked through ☺ but here is Jen, Alex, and my theory: ‘honestly how many cute young American girls wake up early to see some dead guy at 10 in the morning?’ we were by far the youngest ones there…but no worries it was the best thing we could have done with our free morning in Москва, that is until Jen started feeling ill and we had to high-tail it back to the hotel…got there checked out of our room, loaded her up with лекарство and took our stuff downstairs to the ‘we don’t have room for your bags’ fiasco…finally got that taken care of so we decided to hit up some museums, except Jen at this point was paler than Ленин himself and so the program re-booked her a room and she recuperated all day while Alex and I museum hopped, talked about everything and anything, discovered how UNBELIEVABLY and UNCANNILY similar we are in personality, actions, lifestyle, family, outlook (its creepy), and thoroughly enjoyed perusing through art gallery after art gallery…I got to see everything I wanted and how I wanted because quite honestly it was like sightseeing with myself…we didn’t eat anything all day long, but after seeing the Третяков Музей (4.5 stars), the Пушкин Ексибит (2.5 stars), and the Авант-гард Галлерей (5 stars for sure) we left on what we now call an art-high…funny story too – these museums charge double for foreigners but is free for students, well only if you are a Russian student – you have to pay regular price for being a foreign student…but I almost got into the Пушкин museum for free because of my last name - the lady thought I was a Russian student, until she saw Alex’s Polish last name after, realized we were foreigners , then snatched mine away and made me pay even though I argued with her and in my American mindset explained to her that it was her mistake so I shouldn’t have to pay for it, (“Почему вы дали мне это билет? Вот напысали безплатно...поэтому мне не надо заплатнть – это ваша ощыбка не моя...”) but I should remember this is not America and those standards unfortunately don’t apply here (although I was happy to know that my Russian has improved enough to adeptly argue and yell in this language) in any case as if the day could not get any better, we decided to stop off at a grocery store grab some bread, cheese, fruit, veggies, and something to drink (and some stuff for Jen) and meet Jen upstairs back at the hotel…it was simply lovely eating girly food and recapping our day in a hotel room instead of the lobby where we would have been otherwise….too bad when we boarded the train one of the coordinators came up to us and reprimanded us for going up there when we shouldn’t have…we were just so happy to be having a stellar day in Russia that we didn’t think about it…but she was totally right and me and Alex felt sheepish and so embarrassed…so what should have been a great end to a crazy weekend yet again ended up flipping the tables on us…oh well that’s Russia for you…
Now to compare Москва и Петербург = I can almost say I liked Москва better because it reminded me so much like LA so I felt right at home, it was organic and just so Russian, had this incredible high-paced yet nonchalant aura about it, the people there were more friendly to us, and you could just feel that oldness of the city…on the other hand, we also saw one of our group members almost get robbed, the city is so much more spread out, it is dirtier and more grungy like any typical metropolis, it was hard to find a central place to hang out, I felt like I had to be on guard all the time, and things were definitely more expensive…however, I feel like if I had to pick between the two cities – I would pick Петербург to study in and Москва to live in, not that I want to do either one permanently, but that is my synopsis…I also wish I could have spent a week in Москва because three days was certainly not sufficient…but oh well just one more reason to come back – and technically I will be in 11 days…
Coming back to Петербург was also a huge relief because Москва was certainly not a vacation by any means – Alex and I kept telling ourselves on Sunday no matter how tired or hungry we are we have to keep going because who knows when we’ll be back, were gonna be sitting on a train for 8 hours, and were here so we are going to see as much as possible – and we did…and I can now see why people here kept telling us how much more slow paced Петербург is than Москва – neither is laid back (Encinitas is a laid back city) but I can at least tell the difference now…but I do feel like the two are hard to compare because they are sooooo different in so many ways…Europe vs. Russia, new vs. ancient, planned vs. organic, homogeneous vs. smorgasbord of people, 5 million vs. 15 million…
Otherwise, my trip is slowly but surely winding down and I am sure that before I know it I will be sitting on an Аэрофлот airbus across the Atlantic…and while part of me cannot wait for that moment, the other and maybe slightly larger half of me is downhearted because I think I am going to miss this country more than I think….