Reflections On Russialand

Cyrillic. Dirty. Crowded. Noisy. Bright. Orderly. Convenient public transportation. Myriad styles of people and dress. Beautiful churches, endlessly interesting architecture, SUVs. Trees just leafing, tulips opening, amazing skies. Beer, blini, potatoes, mushrooms, sour cream, cucumbers. Wonderful times with Jenifer and Scot. Interesting new people. Overnight train - with snacks!

At the end of my trip, I felt more at ease with my unfamiliarity. There would no eagerness to go about on my own, but I had started to find an understanding of Cyrillic and felt like I could have made my way if necessary. Thank goodness I didn't have to test this.

I was staying in a nicer neighborhood (you see the Finnish embassy from the living room and the Australian and Egyptian embassies from the living room balcony) and I was with people who are comfortable in the city. My impressions were positively skewed. I'm okay with that. Grocery stores, restaurants, street signs, tourist destinations - all had enough of the familiar that I started to see my initial, airport impression was wrong. It's the alphabet that did it. I really did feel as if I should have been able to read all the signs, but couldn't. Disconcerting. I wouldn't want to live in Moscow for many reasons, but it was a pretty good place to spend a few days.

I wouldn't want to live in Moscow for the noise, the dirt and the crowdedness. Same reasons I wouldn't want to live in New York or LA or Paris or London. Though, Moscow tops them all for airborne dirt. Never before has so much dirt come of my face onto my face wipe. Blech. Astounding, really. The streets aren't covered with trash dirty, but with dirt. At the street edge of the sidewalk, where the pavement (most sidewalks are paved with asphalt) meets the stone curb, there's a caked mass of dirt. There are street sweepers everywhere (both human and vehicular), but they only get the trash.

The food, I could get used to. Saturday night we went to Jenifer and Scot's favorite restaurant - a Georgian place (Dioscarius, they have no website that I can find). Oh, man, the food was so good. Their red lobio (a kidney bean dish, I've found many varying recipes online. I shall try them all!) in pita bread was beyond words - I was sad when it was gone.

I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow is a national holiday (Ascension, a mostly Catholic country, Holland) and we're going to do something... there is supposed to be rain, so I think we're going to the Kroeller-Mueller museum. This is also a good place to go should it be sunny and perfect for the museum grounds are in the middle of a national park.