Moscow Journal #08 02/24/2007 - 03/03/2007

Begining of the eighth journal entry.

I don't know why, but somehow once I get home, I have a tough time finishing up these journals. The only reason you are getting this note (aren't you lucky) is that I am back in Moscow for another 16 days or so. But you 'll have to wait a while before you get to hear about any recent exploits - first you have to tolerate my recollections from the February trip.

When we last left off, it was Saturday, February24th, and Alexey and his girlfriend offered to drive me out to Sergiev Posad (Сергиев Посад), which is a small town about 60K (37.2 miles) north east of Moscow. The main "attraction" there is Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius, one of Russia's most important religious and historical landmarks. Of course, I needed a little refresher on the life of the Saint and the monastery, and luckily the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) came to the rescue.

After a fairly quick car ride, we arrived at our destination. They didn't offer any audio guides, but they did have an even better option - a live guide, and we even had a choice of languages: either Russian or English. I wanted to ensure Alexey and Natasha got something out of the experience, so I offered to get one in Russian. However, Alexey felt Natasha's English was up to listening to the tour in my native tongue, so I made arrangements for a English speaking guide.

For about $30 (for all three of us), we got a semanarian student for a little over an hour. He started off in English, but once he discovered I spoke or more accurately, listened (my passive vocabulary is much stronger than my active) to Russian, I noticed he reverted more and more to Russian. Every once in a while, I had to remind him he was now speaking Russian, and I didn't quite understand what he just said.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, especially since we gained access to Assumption Cathedral, which was closed to the general public. While visiting that church, our guide explained the layout of church and he asked me what we call the room outside the nave in English. At first, the only word I could come up with was "vestibule," but I knew there was a more exact term. Rather embarrassed I couldn't recall this word (maybe my active vocabulary in English isn't very extensive, too), I was relieved when "narthex" finally popped into my head.

Our tour ended, and our guide left the three of us to continue exploring the grounds on our own. We made our way into Trinity Catherdal, where St. Sergius is entombed. For Alexey and Natasha, the visit was about looking at the icons and soaking in the history; however, they didn't feel any need or desire to wait on line to venerate the tomb of St. Sergius. They took off and continued to tour the grounds while I inched my way along to the final resting place of St. Sergius.

Once back outside, I figured this would be a good place to look for some wooden crosses. (Before I left for Moscow, my priest back home showed me some crosses he picked up on a recent visit to Ukraine and asked me if I could find some more). The three of us popped into one of the gift shops and asked the attendant at the first counter if they had any wooden crosses.

In true Soviet (or is it Russian) style, the one word reply, "No."

Alexey started to walk away, and I had to pull him back and asked the woman, "Do you know where there might be any?"

That produced a little more information and we located another room down the hall that had a stash of wooden crosses. But they looked so small. Turns out, there are a bunch of vendors outside the monastery, and we opted to pay them a visit.

Found a vendor with a single cross, and when I told her we needed three, she went trotting off to another guy all the way down the road for the additional two items. As a side note, once I got them back home, they looked so big compared to the ones my priest already had. Maybe the original ones I found inside the monastery were of the desired dimensions?

While we were on the tour, the guide mentioned there would be a service later that day around 5pm, and the choir was supposed to be most impressive. Unfortunately, we already finished our tour and souvenir purchases, and it was only 2pm. Didn't think I could talk Alexey and Natasha into hanging around for another 3 hours just so I could listen to Vespers. So we took a walk around the outside of the grounds and snapped a few more photos before heading back into town.

Here are some shots. I must admit, I am still a sucker for onion domes. These are from Assumption catherdral:


This is Assumption Cathedral with the Holy Trinity Icon

Bell Tower

This is the Metropolian's Residence. Notice the Roman Number XV at the bottom of the seal? Every year that is updated as it represents the current year of the Metropolitan's reign.

View from outside the monastery:

From what I remember, that night I decided just to relax and I read a book back in the hotel.

The next day, Sunday, I dubbed my Day of Mistakes. First, went to Liturgy with Tanya and Sophia, and I'm not sure what caused it, but we had some bonus services thrown in with the main event and it seemed to drag on forever. After church, I wanted to head out to Izmailovo Park, where a bunch of vendors sell souvenirs. According to the metro map in my Lonely Planet Guide, there are two stations with a similar name: Izmailovsky Park and Izmailovskaya, and I needed Izmailovsky Park. I hopped onto the metro, made the necessary change at Kurskaya and exited the metro at Izmailovskaya. Following the directions in the Lonely Planet, after about five minutes, I should have seen the entrance to the park. Well, I went for almost 10 and found nothing, and that's when I realized my mistake. Izmailovsky Park was renamed to Partisanskaya, so I got off at the wrong station!

I was in a bit of a rush as I planned on catching a volleyball match after shopping, so I hustled down the road to the proper metro station and found all the vendors. Not being much of a shopper, I only wondered around for a few minutes. I picked up a few things for the newphews and then toyed around with getting a new fur hat for myself. One vendor had a large selection, and he picked one out for me to try one. He wanted 1000 rubles (remember, my fourth line only paid 500 on Red Square), and when I looked at the label on the inside, it had a Soviet Stamp. This guy wanted me to pay double the price for a hat that was already over 15 years old. I decided to pass on that and then set off for the Sports Club Luch.

Normally I would have walked the entire way as it wasn't that far from where I was. However, I was pressed for time and opted for the electric bus through the park.

Now I was only a few blocks from my destination, and more importantly, I knew where my destination actually was. With great certainty, I navigated my way down the road, through the alley and over to the sports complex. Went up to the door, pulled on the handled and then noticed there was no one else in the facility except the woman behind the desk. Turns out, there was not match here today! I tried to find out if I was in the correct venue on the wrong day or in the wrong venue on the correct day, but she wasn't very helpful

Back to the hotel to drop off my purchases and then back out for a concert at the Catholic Church near Belorusskaya Station. Unfortunately, in my haste to leave, I left the address back in my room, and I didn't realize it until I was already at the target metro stop. I tried asking one of the policemen at the metro stop where the Catholic church was, and he pointed me to the church just across the street. I explained that was an Orthodox Church and repeated I was looking for a Roman Catholic Church. I took his shrugged shoulders as a sign of ignorance, so I contined to wonder the streets, hoping for some inspiration.

Luckily, on a near-by street corner, I noticed one of the many kiosks that sells tickets to various events. The lady inside was extremely helpful and even pulled out her map to point out my destination. I was afraid I was going to be a bit late, but I managed to arrive at the church before the concert even began.

Not sure what happened on Monday (nothing in my notes), and my next reminder is for Tuesday. After work, I decided to try the Indian Restaurant in the Sputnik Hotel. It moved floors since the Lonely Planet was written and now sits on the 16th floor with a wonderful view of town. The food was extremely tasty (not that I know much about Indian food) and they even had entertainment - a belly dancer. I didn't think that was quite Indian, and I was even more perplexed when she performed one number balancing a silver cane on her head. I had a feeling no one would believe me about this part of the story, but I didn't have my camera with me to snap confirmation of this feat.

On Wednesday, Tanya and I went to see Hamlet, and I must confess, we were a bit confused before the show: was it an opera or was it a play? I thought it was a play, but there was definitely someone listed on the ticket as the conductor. Turns out, there was just some music to accompany the production so it was definitely a play. Even though I am somewhat familiar with the plot, I printed off a synopsis of the action, and it was handy to use as a reference. This being Russia, even though they followed the plot (mostly), the ending was extremely odd. For some reason, this is where the music really kicked in and overpowered the actors, who literally just mouthed the words for the final death scene (this is a Shakespearan play afterall). Most bizarre.

After the show, I decided to walk back to my hotel, which wasn't that far away as it was one of my last nights in town. I cut through a park, and I guess my timing was just right (or was it wrong). I managed to get into the park just after all the gates were locked so by the time I got to the opposite end, I had no exit. I tried a few of the gates and there were all secure. Seems like I had two options: run back to where I entered (hoping that one was still open), or hop a fence. Given the former was not very likely, I actually opted for the latter and found a spot where the snow piled up against the side of a building and eased the climbing over the 6 foot fence. Of course, I waited until I couldn't see anyone on the other side as I didn't need any witnesses to this particular activity. Once back in the hotel, I decided to stop at the German restaurant within the hotel and celebrate my exploits with a pretzel.

Finally, we are up to Friday, March 2nd - my last full day in Moscow (for this trip). After work, the original plan was to head out for some drinks with a co-worker. However, something suddenly popped up, and he couldn't keep the appointment. So I did what I always do when given some free time in Moscow - to Red Square for one last look/gawk at St. Basil's and Lenin.

For dinner, I decide to try the Boris Godunov restaurant, which is just off of Red Square and serves Russian cuisine. And once again, I availed myself of the Lenten menu (I almost feel like cheating when I dine this way) and had a wonderful borscht and plemeni. To top it off, dinner also included entertainment, and instead of a belly-dancer with silver cane atop her head, it was a quartert of hefty Russian women dressed in traditional garb belting our, for the most part, traditional Russian songs. I mouthed the words to Kalinka and Moscow Nights, but they really confused me when they did an a capella version of Silent Night!

With a full belly and lightened heart, I decided to finally take my "subway" tour. I stopped at a few of the stations along the Circle Line and snapped a few pictures. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I was almost done with the loop when I tried taking some pictures without a flash (and those came out much better), but it was a bit late and I was too tired to start the circle over again. Here are some of the pictures:

Lenin in the stain glass at Novoslobodskaya Station

Fancy artwork at Prospekt Mira.

Chandeliers and artwork (with some people) at Propekt Mira.

Memorial to the 1917 Revolution at Krasnopresnenskaya.

Long view of the same station

Mosaic of Lenin at Kievskaya Station.

Long view of the same station.

Another one from Kievskaya (I liked the mosaics).

Ceiling at Belorusskaya

After my tour of the metro, I returned to the hotel around 10 pm. I was already packed and I just had to stash a few remaining items into my bag. (Since I had to return through London, from my recent experience, I knew I could only have 1 carry-on and I did NOT plan on repeating that mistake on the return trip). Now the dilemna - with a 5am departure, the taxi was scheduled to pick me at at 2am to ensure I could get to the airport at least 2 hours before departure time. With only 4 hours before the taxi, do I take a nap and risk oversleeping or do I stay up and pull an all-nighter?

Surprisingly enough, I opted on the latter and managed to keep myself alert and awake until 2am. Dragged the bags downstairs, checked out and only had to wait a few minutes for the driver.

At that time of morning, there wasn't much traffic on the road, and we pulled into Domededovo Airport before 3am. I didn't believe there would be anyone working there at that hour, but sure enough, the agent was at the counter to check me in.

I wondered around for a bit, sat for a bit, read for a bit, and eventually I got up and walked around the airport again. A duty-free store was open, so I bought a few boxes of Russian chocolates and carried them in a separate plastic bag. Found an open restaurant and decided to grab a bite to eat. I tried to order breakfast (which seemed like a logical choice to me given the time of day), and the waitress told me they didn't start serving breakfast until 4am. I took a look at my watch and noticed it was only ... 3:57 am. I pointed out I was only 3 minutes short, and she actually took my order (I half expected having to sit their in silence for the next 180 seconds).

Finally boarded the plane, and I slept on and off (more off than on) from Moscow to London. Basically by the time I arrived in the UK, I had pulled an all-nighter, and I was a bit cranky. I thought for sure the plastic bag would pose no problem, but sure enough, the security officals barked at me to collapse my possessions down to one bag or leave the terminal and check-in one of the offending bags. As I mentioned already, I was a bit cranky after getting very little sleep and the absurdity of this regulation really ticked me off. So, I placed the boxes of chocolate in my winter coat (thank goodness for large coats with many pockets) along with the plastic bag, placed the coat, my computer bag and shoes on the conveyor belt to the x-ray machine and the walked through the screener. As soon as my stuff passed through x-ray, I took the plastic bag out of my coat and placed the chocolate back into the bag and exclaimed, "Look at that - I have two bags! How was that any quicker?" Did I mention I was a bit cranky from lack of sleep?

Once I got back security, I had to make my way over to the connection desk, where I learned my original flight from London to Chicago was cancelled, but there were two other options. They automatically booked me on the one that kept me in London the longest (again - another ploy to get you to buy more stuf from their duty free stores, I am sure of it!)

However, I was hoping to use some frequent flier miles (along with a co-pay) to upgrade from coach to business, and I wanted the flight that gaveme the best chance of that. Turns out - same flight (and again, the duty-free store ploy, I'm sure!)

On the flight from London to Chicago, I could my second wind and that's where I finally caught up on most of the journal entries for this first trip. Once in Chicago, I posted a bunch of them and even wrote up another entry or two before boarding the final plane back home.

End of eighth journal entry.