Behind the Admirality in Petersburg


Bronze Horseman


Bronze Horseman


Djjarrrghh....That's no boat! That's a restaruant, matey!


Moscovskii Vokzal in Petersburg


Loko! Loko!

On the way to St. Petersburg


On the way to St. Petersburg


Lesley in Petersburg


The General Staff building


Sunset in Petersburg


Cathedral of the Transfiguration


Sunset in Petersburg


Nightlife


Explaining how it all works


Wine?


Jeans?


Night in Petersburg


Sorting it out in Tzarskoye Selo


A Chess set fit for a Tzar


Selling keys in Tzarskoye Selo

Rostov Cemetery


Rostov Cemetery


Lake Nero


Rostov Kremlin


Rostov Kremlin


Mom!


Lesley!


Rostov Kremlin


Rostov Kremlin


Amazing Light


Lake Nero


Lake Nero


Lake Nero

Random thoughts...

Wow, Yaroslavl and Moscow are completely different worlds. I mean I suppose I should expect that, especially considering something like 1 in 12 Russians live in Moscow, along with 85% of the country's wealth, but still....
It might be just that Moscow is now so similar to other major metropolis's, that it has lost some of its Russian-ness. It's hard to explain.

For those looking to understand the Russian psyche, especially the older generation, there's an interesting article in the New York Times today, over whether it's time to move Lenin's body. The most interesting part for me, was a quote from a lady suggesting that Lenin's body needs to be enterred so that his soul can find rest. !!??!!

The church is so strong in Russia right now, but Lenin is still admired (Someone had laid fresh flowers on his statue outside my university today), but to suggest that one of history's most legendary atheists needs to buried so his soul can rest!

I forgot to mention something about the Hotel I stayed at in Moscow. Apparently, it was the most popular place for members of ComIntern to stay when Stalin purged their ranks in the 1930s. Evidently, members to whom Stalin objected were kidnapped in the middle of the night, and snuck out the hotel kitchen into waiting vans, which drove them off, never to be heard from again. It's always nice to stay in a place with history.

I just finished reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Even though technically it's the third work of prose fiction I've read of Dostoevsky's, it's the first that really had a traditional narrative structure. Notes from the House of the Dead is more of a collection of observations and Notes from the Underground...well I won't even go there, but suffice to say that it's the most challenging and complex book I've ever read, and despite the fact that I knew very well the political context in which it was written, I still almost had the feeling that I wasn't smart enough to understand it...

Crime and Punishment is more of a straightfoward story, exquisitely and excitingly told. I am now convince that Dostoevsky was the most brilliant of all the Russian literary geniuses of the 19th century (although, if I was reading in Russia, I might be more likely to give the nod to Pushkin). What makes it hard to admit this, is that I find so much about him and his beliefs unappealing. Political Conservative. Believed that all of Russia's answers lie in strict devotion to the Russian Orthodox Church. Unrepetent anti-Semite. But still...wow...

Just read the book.

Me, on Red Square.


Decorative cabbage in the Alexander Gardens


One of the Kremlin Towers.


A view of Moscow State from the Kremlin, across the river.


Kremlin Gardens.


Kremlin gardens again.


The interior of a Moscow Sbarro's! I wonder what it was originally.


The nighttime view from our balcony.


Our hallway in Gostanitza Tzentralnaya. Isn't it beautiful!


The narrow Moscow river, with another view of MSU.

So I woke up friday morning at about 5:45 to my grab a bite to eat and hop in a cab for my seven am train to Moscow. Being a great hostess, Rimma Andreevna insisted on waking up and feeding me, so I had four reheated sirnichkis for breakfast. We made it to the trainstation with plenty of time to spare and I settled into my second class seat, which on this train was very similar to coach on an airplane.

This was an excellent time of year to take a train ride across the Russian countryside. Autumn is in full swing and the sun was shining saturday morning, revealing a golden expanse of fields, forests, and rolling hills, with occasional villages marking the way. We got into Moscow around eleven, and we found out one of our friends from Yaroslavl also would be in Moscow that weekend visting her cousin. Steve soon enough made his way to the platform, and we went off in search of accomodations. Luckily we found a reasonaly affordable room at the first blace we tried, Gostonitza Tzentralnaya on ulitza Tverskaya. A two bed room cost 1700 rubles (about 50 bucks) a night. The location was great, on a major street, perhaps ten minutes from Red Square (Красная плошадь), but it still seemed a little pricey for a communal bathroom kind of place.

Steve had to go to class, so with Viktoria we set off for Krasnaya ploshad. After walking around there, we tried to get into the Kremlin, which proved to be more difficult than it sounds, but we eventually succeeded, and strolled around. The weather was really delightful, sunny and in the low seventies. From the Kremlin, we had lunch at an outdoor cafe on Old Arbat Street (Старый Арбат). From there, we decided to go find the club to buy tickets, with pland to then, return to the hotel, change and drop off my camera, meet up with the Middlebury kids for drinks, and then go back to the club.

Well, it turns out that finding the club was a little harder than I thought it would be. I thought I remered reading that the club was close to МГУ (Mosckow State University), but it turns out it was close to МГГУ (Moscow State Humanitarian University). So, we essentiall walked around the МГУ neighborhood, never actually getting to see the main building up close, asking all sorts of wierdos if they new where Club Tochka was. I finally decided to ask someone who really looked like a metal head, so we asked these guys with long hair, one of whom was wearing a BLind Guardian hoodie. He, of course, knew where the club was and told us which metro stop we needed to get off at. So we hopped back on the metro, crossed back over the river, and tried to make a change onto the ring line, but after walking in one huge circle at the metro station, we were informed that the transfer to the other line was "closed". We decided to hoof it to the club at that point, crossing back over the river on foot (third crossing if you're counting). After walking perhaps a mile and a half, maybe a little more, Yennh saw a sign for the club, pointing into a dark alley. We followed the sign through the alley, for almost half a mile, passed several chop-shops, including one that was, oddly enough, adorned with Confederate Flags. By the time we finally got to Club Tochka, there was a roudy crowd of several hundred metalheads (Металисты) drinking beer, singing songs, smoking cigarettes, and in general being roudy. We were about to mingle with the Moscow underground.

The crowd we saw is hard to describe, but in general, they looked like the type of people you might see at a D'ianno era Iron Maiden show. (By the way, D'ianno is doing a 12 date Russian tour; he must have a lot of fans here). Lots of black. Lots of chains. Lots of leather. Long hair, wierd clothes. Let's just say it was enough of bohemian crowd, that I wish I knew how to say, "nice cape!" in Russian. Of course, since I never had a chance to go back to the hotel and change and drop off my stuff, I showed up to the power metal show in a white button up show, with a camera bag to boot.

So we waited for what seemed like an enternity to get in. The club had an exceptionally stupid policy of opening up the gates and letting twenty or so people in, and then closing them up for another 15 minutes or so. This of course would cause all hundreds of people in line to push incessantly whenver the doors were opened and continue to do so for several minutes after they had been closed.

While waiting in line, the increasingly intoxicated crowd performed some acapella versions of some of Epidemia's most popular songs, something that is apparently pretty common at rock concerts in other countries. As we were waiting, we talked with some guy named Dmitrii who was pretty nice. We finally got into the club, and scoped the place out. Except for a distrubing lack of emergency exits, the club was remarkable up to American standards. BEfore you entered into the concert hall there was a cashier and a coat/bag check, and then the actual hall held maybe 2000, 2500 or 3000 if they wanted to pack it to the gills... It was three levels, had a game room, and it had three bars, as well as bathrooms that were much cleaner than those at Gostonitza Tzentralnaya.

As for the music, wht can I say? It was power metal, it rocked, and the sound left a little something to be desired. For the songs I knew, the versions were played exctly like they are on the album, except for Krof Elfov/Крофь Ельфов/Blood of the Elves, in which they edited out the part with female vocals. As for the other songs from Elfskaya Rukopis/Елфьская Рукопись/Elvish Manuscript, the lead singer just did the different characters himself, allthough he couldn't really pull off the growl of the death metal dude. Nevertheless, the concert was rockin, the crowd sang along to every song, and there were more rock horns than I've seen, well anywhere. At some point, we made friends with some bandanna sportin' long haired rocker named Seryozha (diminutive of Sergei), and he, well, he was pretty touchy feely, with both me and Yennh, but I guess thats just the way some people are.

So, somewhere in the second set, after both Yennh and I had been sufficiently creeped out by Seryozha, we decided to bounce a little early. On the way out, we decided to head towards Prospekt Lenina and not go back through the long alley of death, but when we reached the street, we found out that there was a fence to be climbed. It wasn't too bad, but my travelling companion was wearing a long skirt. Luckily another group of concert goers helped me coax her over, and she made it over without injury and before the Militzi saw us. Few! On our way back to the hotel, I broke one of my rules. I ate American fast food abroad. I chowed down, and even ha one last beer, at a Sbarros, but it was on the same block as our hotel and open 24 hours a day. Oh well, what can you do...It had a nice interior at least (see picture, coming soon.


The next day we had breakfast at an over-priced coffe house called, well, called Kofye Haus (Кофе Хаус). I did at least get a really delicous fruit salad and tea brewed in a french press, which although I've never seen before, did work very well. WE met up with Viktoria, but then found out she had her heart set on seeing the Tzarist treasures in the Kremlin armory, wheras we really wanted to go to the Tretyakovskaya Galleria. So very soon after meeting up, we again split up and set off for the gallery. After a quick metro ride across the river(#5 if you're still counting), we checked out the museum. It's a great collection, but I wasn't quite as impressed with it as I'd hoped. That said, I intend on returning when I get back to Moscow, but the highlight for me was definately seeing the peices I already knew from books and the internet, rather than seeing something I'd never seen before that really blew my mind.

After the gallery, we met up with Steve back at the hotel. We walked back down to Red Square, as Steve was interested in finding a club where he wanted to see a concert, we walked to try to find the club, but couldn't and by this time, Yennh and I were dying for lunch, so we wandered into a restauruant on a side street. There I orderd some sort of Caucusian Soup with lamb(mutton), tomato, and cilantro. The tomato and cilantro almost gave it a vietnamese feel, very interesting. I also got some nicely done blini with potatoes and mushrooms, but Rimma Andreevna really makes better blini than any restaurants.

After lunch, we finally found the club, and the manager told us to come back at ten. So from there we decided to try to take a cruise on the Moscow River. Unfortunately, possibly due to the beatuiful weather and saturdayness of it all, there was a huge line when we got to the cross-river Ploshad Yevropa. So after just sort of sitting around their for a while, we went back to our hotel, put on some warmer clothes in preparation for evening, and I picked up the candy I had brought from Yaroslavl for Sara's birthday (I live next to a candy factory!).

We had intended to go to an English book store, and I suggested we hoof it. It took us about twenty minutes to get there, and we found out that they had closed about fifty minutes ago. Of course, had we not abortively tried to take a boat cruise, we could have gotten there with plenty of time, but oh well. We then went on to the РГГУ dormitories. There we chatted with Nafan some, and I gave Sara her present. We wanted to meet up later, but Sara and Lindsay had plans to go dancing at a discotheque, but Steve seemed intractably commited to this concert, so I kind of knew already that it would be a non-starter, but I'll be back in two weeks. So, then we took the metro to northern Moscow to eat at a Chinese restaurant, since such international food is not available in Yaroslavl. We had a respectable chinese meal, that if anything, suffered from being tamed down for Russian tastes. Apparantly in Russian Chinese restaurants, you have to ask for something to be ridiculously spicy to recieve it with a moderate kick, but such is the Russian pallate. It might be a worse idea to open up a chain of Mexican restaurants in Russia than it would be to open a chain of steakhouses in India, but I'm not really sure.

After dinner, we had some time to kill so we went back to the Red Square/Kremlin are which really is twice as beautiful at night. Steve seemed anxious to make it to the club, so after a little bit, we head over to the club at about 10:20 for the 11:00 show....


So I'll have to be honest, I was not looking forward to the concert. Steve described the music as an all female trio playing folk-ska-punk. I made several jokes about lesbianism but agreed to come along. We went down into the club in a basement on a side street off of Red Square. The place was nice, and the drinks were cheaper than they'd been at Club Tochka. It was nicely lit and there were instruments set up on a small stage. We sat at a table towards the back of the small room in which the band was supposed to play.

The crowd was, well there a fair amount of lesbians there, which was really surprising considering how little tolerance Russia has for homosexuality. When the band took the stage, it actually turned out to be an all girl five peice, drums, bass, acoustic guitars, vocals/percussion, and accordian. As the music, it was suprisingly good. Really great, actually. Not very punky, but still, somewhat heavy thanks to a damn fine drummer. She was playing very complicated stuff, very energetically...I was really impressed. Stylistically it was sort of heavy russian folk rock, but with wierd dissonant accordian parts. For those who aren't familiar with women's vocals in Russian folk music, they are often characterised by wierd, other-worldly sounding melodies and all the styles fit together nicely. THe band played some suprisingly complex music with some wierd syncopations, two songs in seven, and even a short precussion jam (!). Anyways we were all thoroughly impressed and the bar had Leffe Brune on tap, which is one of the best beers I have ever had and is not imported into the US (you can only get the vastly inferior Leffe Blonde stateside).

After the concert, we bid Steve farewell and walked back to our hotel. The next morning we got on to the train without a problem and I slept almost the whole way back to Yaroslavl.

For those of you who may want to send me a package, here is my adress in English and Russian. Things to send might include nail clippers (they only have scissors here), fresh umphrey's (a disc logic of the boston show would be especially nice), or perhaps just pictures and a hand written note.

150000 g.Yaroslavl
ul. Hakhimsona
dom 12, kv. 7
Minkova R. A.
Russia

150000 г.Яарославль
ул. Нахимсона
дом 12, кв.7
Минькова Р.А.
Россия