St. Pete Day 1

We left Moscow right on time, with our driver managing to cram Alexey, Pitr, Chuck, and I into a Pontiac Transport van. He expressed much displeasure at the amount of luggage we had, as apparently he'd been told that since we has left the video conferencing equipment, we wouldn't have much luggage. In actuality, our luggage occupied the same space, it was just much lighter now. After some creative space management, we all got in, and began the mad dash to the train station. I don't know how fast we were going across Moscow, but my estimate is between 70 and 80 miles per hour, and as I was in the front seat, this was both exciting and terrifying, and I got a strange look from the driver as I was scrambling around for my seat belt, as hardly anyone wears them here. We got to the station an hour before our train was to depart, and spent a bit of time milling about, before we were able to board. Chuck and I wound up sharing a two-person compartment, which would have been spacious, except every single square inch of floorspace was consumed by our Luggage, which wouldn't fit in any of the niches made for it within the compartment. We just sort of had to dive for the beds from the doorway, but, as the train ride was from midnight to 8:00 a.m., we were sleeping almost the entire trip anyhow.

I've never traveled by train before, it was quite pleasant, almost magical to go to sleep in one city and wake up in another. The beds were comfortable, and we had a non-smoking compartment that was pretty nice, all things considered. One of the women who was in charge of our car came along as we departed and collected 160 roubles ($5.45) from us, but we had no idea what it was for. We found out later from Alexey that it was for our linens. Why they don't just build that into the price of the ticket is beyond me, it'd seem to be easier than having to take cash later, but we were fine with it, just didn't know what we were paying for at the time.

The next morning, the same woman woke us agressively. The train had been warm most of the trip, but about 2 hours earlier, I'd had to actually get under the blankets on my bed, as I was cold, and I was really in a deep sleep and didn't want to get up. I thought there was possibly some trouble now, as it seemed far too dark outside for us to be at St. Petersburg already. So, Chuck and I pulled ourselves together, and I reached for my watch. I was surprised to learn that it was 7:50 in the morning, and it wasn't light outside yet. St. Petersburg is quite far north, and it doesn't get very light here until after 8:00 in the morning.

We gathered our things together, and left the train, to be greeted by a breath of fresh cold air as we stepped on to the platform. You know how I said that Moscow isn't cold? St. Petersburg is cold. My un-scientific definition of cold is that if you can see your breath, it's cold. In Moscow, I couldn't see my breath. In St. Petersburg, you have time to make a nice sketch of your breath before it cools and dissipates.

Alexey and Pitr found us on the platform, and we set off to find our driver. He'd brought a Subaru station wagon to get us, and we got to watch another driver attempt to deal with all of our luggage, while still squeezing 5 passengers into the car. St. Petersburg was pretty sleepy at 8:00 on a Sunday morning, and the streets were quite empty as we made our way to the Herzen University Hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we learned that our rooms weren't ready for us yet, so we had to check our luggage with the security guy, and then Alexey took us on a walking tour of the city to kill time. I was cold, hungry, and half-awake, but I learned that St. Petersburg is much more European than Moscow is. In fact, if there wasn't any Cyrillic writing in a photograph, you'd be hard-pressed to identify a scene from St. Petersburg compared to any other European city. After killing an hour, we returned to find our rooms were ready, and we got checked in.

We only had time to drop our luggage off in our rooms before meeting Rimma, who was to take us on another walking tour. I did manage to at least grab a Snickers bar for breakfast from the hotel store before we started out. We walked around the town some more, looking briefly at various cathedrals and buildings before being deposited at a restaurant for lunch.

I'm not sure what the name of the cafe was, but it has a yellow floor that's lit from below, and compared to Moscow, the prices are quite good. I had a caesar salad, a Pepsi, and a pork chop that was at least an inch thick, and was quite juicy.

We were originally scheduled to tour the Hermitage art museum that afternoon, but our guide didn't show up, so Alexey eventually came and gathered us up and took us to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where we climbed all 262 steps to the top for a breathtaking view of the city from above. I wish I'd known there were 262 steps before starting, as I wound up gasping for breath on the last 50 or so, not having any idea of the length of the climb we were in for when we started it.

Chuck and I each snapped off several pictures here before we made the trip back down. Next we walked to a lovely park filled with sculptures, I wish I could remember the name, but by this point my brain was pretty well drained, as were my legs.

We returned to the hotel, where I finally got a shower, changed, and then Chuck and I went to the Zoom Cafe for dinner. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on toasted bread, followed by a piece of orange cheesecake, and Chuck ate about three other things, as he was really hungry. We found out that Zoom had wi-fi, and inquired about pricing, so that we could come back later with our laptops and use it.

We walked back to the hotel and promptly went to sleep, having walked at least 7-10 miles over the course of the day.

St. Petersburg

Quick post to say we made it to St. Petersburg, whichis definitely colder than Moscow. I'll write more when I have a chance.

So what's Mosow like?

Several people have asked me just what Moscow is like. Now that I'm leaving, I'll answer. It's much like any big city in the U.S. Personally, I think it's a lot like Chicago, with a touch of Washington D.C. thrown in. Chuck is from the Chicagoland area, and he agrees. It's got a strong industrial base, but also a vibrant nightlife, and there are great crowds of people moving throughout the city all day long.

I was also asked if Moscow smells. It does not smell, well, at least not any more than any city does, just the normal smell of traffic, vendors cooking food on the street, and construction. One excellent smell is the smell of fresh baked goods in the subways and the underpasses under the main streets where there are kiosks selling pastries and other goodies. Moscow certainly smells a great deal better than Cedar Rapids, the city we flew out of. If you've never been to Cedar Rapids, your nose thanks you. The sign may say the City of Five Seasons, but the locals call it the City of Five Smells. The only olfactory offense in Moscow is cigarette smoke, which is much more prevalent than it is in the U.S. these days. MISA is actually a bit of an anomaly, as they don't allow smoking, and Chuck and I got some amusement listening to Alexey grumble about this when he'd leave to go take a smoke outside.

The Metro or subway system in Moscow is unique as well. I've ridden the one in Washington quite a bit, and it's the only one I can compare it to first-hand. Each Moscow Metro station is unique, and they're usually decorated in a neo-classical style, with lots of marble and columns, much nicer than the drab concrete tunnels of D.C. The trains move very very fast, and they're generally somewhat crowded, though not overwhelmingly so. It's very cheap to travel by subway, I think the price is around 10 rubles, or about 35 cents, and, unlike the states, the price doesn't vary based on your destination. That 35 cents gets you anywhere you want to go on the Metro system, which is quite large. There are two things to beware on the subway, one is the doors, which I found out close quite fast, they caught me half-in, and I had to squeeze through pretty quickly, as they don't open back up. I'm surprised I didn't get bruised. The other thing to watch out for is pickpockets, as they like to strike in dense crowds where they can escape and you have a hard time chasing them. I caught a kid of about 12 years old trying to pick my back pocket when I was in the Subway one day. Fortunately, my wallet was in my front pocket at the time, with my hand firmly around it, so all he got out of the deal was a handful of my chubby butt. Even if he had gotten my wallet, he'd have gotten about $40 and my UNI ID card. Not such a big score.

Moscow also has a lot of restaurants (spelled PECTOPAH in Cyrillic) which are just as expensive as anywhere in Chicago or any other large U.S. city. There are a lot of young people who frequent them, and there seem to be a great number of wealthy people in Moscow as well, and there'd need to be, to support the large number of clothing shops that are too expensive for me to shop in.

As I've mentioned before, the streets are full of luxury cars, though traffic is chaotic. Several of our tour guides mentioned that they don't drive, and have never learned, because they're too terrified of the traffic. I can't say I blame them, and I know many New Yorkers feel this same way, as well as they don't want the hassle of having to find parking spaces for the car. If I was a Muscovite, I can't say that I wouldn't feel the same way, though the Beltway in DC has its share of bad drivers too.

Muscovites dress up somewhat more than the average American does, but they'd be right at home on Manhattan. I've taken some notes, wondering exactly how well I blend in, and I'm sorry to say that I don't at all, though a 10-year old girl did think I was a Russian in a shopping mall the other day, so that counts for something. Anyhow, if you're coming to Moscow, and you want to blend in, first you're going to need to darken your wardrobe. Black is by far the dominant wardrobe color here, and I didn't bring anything black with me. Also, shave off your facial hair, I haven't seen anyone under the age of 50 with facial hair here, other than myself. Next you're going to need to drop that extra weight you're carrying, as Russians aren't nearly as fat on average as we Americans are. In a given room, I'm probably the biggest guy around, both in height and in girth, so I don't think we'll be seeing an NFL expansion team in Moscow anytime soon, unless they find some husky country boys to play on the line.

I've also noticed that jeans with vertical wear lines are hot here, sort of like vertical stripes of lighter and darker denim around the jeans. I think I've seen these in America as well, but they're much more prevalent here. Women here also are very fond of the mini-skirt (hey, so am I) and they're generally dressing to impress. Men tend to wear a lot of dress shirts and pants, though jeans are pretty prevalent too. You'll see almost no T-shirts though, and no khakis. I've literally not seen a single person wearing what would be a "standard" business casual outfit in the U.S., such as khakis and a blue button up shirt. Of course, that's what I wore the other day when I was giving my little presentation, which is exactly when I noticed that no one else dressed that way.

I've watched some Russian TV in my room, and while I was disappointed to discover that this model of TV wouldn't let me select an alternate audio stream, it was still fun to watch some. Chuck watched more than I did, so he can probably post a comment with more info, but I've got to say that Russian MTV is waaaay better than our sorry old MTV station. First of all, they play Music Videos, and I mean they play more than a half-hour a day. Almost every time I turn on MTV here, it's videos, both American and Russian in origin, though I did catch Ren & Stimpy one day, in Russian. Many American shows are shown here, dubbed into Russian. The funny thing is that the English soundtrack is underneath the Russian one, so it's like the actor has two voices speaking at once. I caught an episode of the X-Files the other night, and I've seen the Amazing Race as well. I also caught an episode of Russian Idol, which has the exact same theme music as American Idol, but seems to have two hosts, and no trace of Ryan Seacrest or the rest of the cast. The most shocking thing about Russian TV, to a typical prudish American, would be the late-night movies that, well, could probably best be described as soft-core porn. Nothing too shocking, really, just the sort of stuff that Cinemax shows at night in the U.S., I'm just not used to seeing it on broadcast channels.

Other than that, Moscow is your typical big city, more like any big city in the U.S. than it is different. I'm looking forward to St. Petersburg, which Alexey tells me is much more beautiful than Moscow, though as a native Petersburger, he's obviously more than a little biased, which he readily admits. There's a bit of a rivalry between the two cities, since Peter the Great moved the capitol from Moscow to St. Petersburg, then the Soviets moved it back to Moscow later, both cities feel that they are the "true" jewel of Russia.

Everyone also asks me if it's cold here. The answer is a definite no. It's no colder than it is in Iowa this time of year, it's been in the 40s or 50s all week, and though we were told to expect rain, the only rain we saw was today. It's been pretty pleasant weather for walking long distances in the city, not too hot, not too cold. Moscow is not in Siberia, and it's really no colder than the upper midwest of the U.S. as far as I can tell.

Well, it's time to sign off from Friday's and catch a late-night train to St. Petersburg. Da svedanya!

Last Call

It's our last night in Moscow, and, also, our last night at Friday's. Today started with a bit of drama. After breakfast, Chuck and I thought we'd do some laundry. Chuck got a load done, and I had two going when I found an angry Russian woman at my door. I went and fetched Alexey to translate. Apparently, we weren't supposed to use those washers and dryers, as they're only for washing the hotel linens. Oops. It was an honest mistake, I'd seen other guests in there using the iron and the washers too, so I thought it was okay. They left the door to that room ajar the whole time, so it wasn't like I snuck back somewhere to do it. Oh well, another lesson learned. Chuck already had gotten his laundry out, but I had two loads there. As Alexey moderated, I apologized profusely, and she offered to do my laundry for a fee, to which I agreed, though really, they only needed to be dried at that point. Alexey said it was going to cost me 50 rubles each (about $1.75) which I thought was a bargain, all things considered.

Later, that fee turned out to be 900 rubles, or about $30. Ouch. At least she neatly folded and ironed my clothes, so all I had to do is drop them in my luggage, but $30 seemed a bit steep. I'll have fun explaining this on my expense report.

At noon we met Katya and Galina, who were going to take us sight-seeing today. Irina was there too, and she gave Chuck and I some Russian nesting dolls, a honey-based food product that I don't understand yet, and a Russian pincushion doll. We thanked her, and then left with Katya and Galina for the Metro station. We decided to skip the cemetery tour, because it was raining today, so our first stop was the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. They had a lot of neat ancient Egyption, Assyrian, Greek and Roman artifacts, as well as many paintings from the 16th Century on. Artists such as Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Rembrandt were featured throughout the museum, and we walked all of it, though Alexey remarked that the museum was small, which makes me fear the amount of walking in store for us once we get to the Hermitage in his hometown.

After the Pushkin, we went to the Church of Christ The Savior, and toured the inside, which is very beautiful. It was interesting to compare the interior of this church, which is only a few years old, with the ancient cathedrals elsewhere in Russia. Same ideas, just much more modern and opulent, it's probably one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world.

We left the church behind, and began a long walk to find a restaurant. We wound up eating at something called "Drama" or perhaps "Drava", (I didn't get a clear translation) near Red Square. Actually, almost on Red Square, which was open today, and filled with people. This was a fairly upscale restaurant, and they had menus in English. We all opted for the buffet, which thankfully was also labeled in English, and was pretty good. I started with a Korean carrot salad, which is long shreds of carrot, almost like spaghetti, but covered in a spicy sauce or oil. I also had a pepper salad, made of green and red bell peppers, that was good too. Next I tried an Uzbeki dish, which was purported to be a cheese pastry, though mine turned out to be of the meat variety, it has been placed in the wrong dish on the buffet, but it was quite good. Think of sort of a hot-pocket, filled with sausage, but this was much thiner, like a quesadilla, without the cheese. It looked good to Chuck too, he went back and got a cheese one, which he also said was good. I had a potato, and tried some of the buckwheat and bacon, which helped me realize that the grain we were served the other morning was buckwheat. There wasn't much bacon in it though, so I was glad I didn't take much. For dessert, I tried some poppy seed pastry, which was good, not very sweet, sort of like a coffee cake. I also had some "Honey Cake" which was excellent, also not very sweet, but quite tasty.

After lunch, we took the Metro back to MISA and began packing for our train. We're being driven to the station at 10:30 tonight, and the train leaves around midnight for St. Petersburg. Apparently, Chuck and I have either a compartment each, or we're sharing one, we're not sure which. Alexey wasn't fortunate enough to get a compartment, but we're hoping we can smuggle him back there if we've got separate rooms.

In any case, my next post should be from St. Petersburg, though I don't know how long it will be until I get internet access.

Friday's on Friday

We finished up the testing with UNI, our project was declared a success, so Chuck and I watched at the MISA staff disassembled everything so that they can re-assemble it when the renovation of the classroom is complete. With Alexey and our now-empty equipment cases in tow, we made our way to Formis, the on-campus bar, and had our last meal there. They must have heard about the feast we had at lunch, as they only had one plate for us, with chicken, kidney beans and french fries. It took me a bit to figure out what part of the chicken it was, because they don't serve the unnecessary bony part of the drumstick, so it was only the top part. There's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing to eat on the rest of it anyhow, it just didn't look right at first. After our light dinner, Alexey went off to bed, and Chuck and I came here to our usual haunt to get online, and update you all on the day's successes.