Moscow

Brief impressions of my trip to Moscow last week


Saturday night: Rush back to the dormitory after havdallah and pack. Get in an argument with the desk lady when I try to leave because apparently there's a new rule that you have to have a permission slip from the commandant in order to leave the dorm with any of your stuff. Forced to give them my dorm card. Struggle to make my bed on the train while trying not hit my head on the bunk above or bother the woman in the bed across from mine. Discover it is very hard to sleep when you can feel the train wheels moving under your head.

St. Basil's on Red Square

Sunday: Make my way in the dark to the apartment of the family who invited me to Moscow. Realize that the Moscow metro is amazing, since it's huge and can take me everywhere I want to go. Red Square!!!! The cobblestones are super slippery, so everyone just kinda shuffles along in an attempt to remain upright. Laugh at the fact that GUM, a mall filled with expensive Western shops, is directly across from Lenin's (and Stalin's) tombs. Go inside the Kremlin. See actual Fabergé eggs and more gold/silver/precious jewels than I've ever seen in my life in the Armory.

Pushkin statue in
Pushkinskaya Ploshad'

Monday: Designate this to be a walking day, since most of the museums are closed on Mondays. Go to Arbat ulitsa, which is supposed to be a nice , and instead am disappointed to find lots of souvenir shops and 2 Starbucks. Walk around and discover that the Gogol Museum is open. Realize from all the portraits that Gogol had a really big nose. Get lost in Kitai Gorod, the oldest part of the city.


Tuesday: The main part of the Tretyakovskaya Gallery -- which only houses Russian art from the 1200s to the early 1900s -- is huge.

Bolshoi Theatre

Wednesday:  The Patriach's Pond neighborhood, used in the opening of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. Random statue of "Shalom Aleichem -- Muscovite." Pushkinskaya Ploshad', which was known for public poetry readings in the 1960s and 1970s. Student rush tickets for 20 rubles (66 cents) to see the Bolshoi Ballet!! Conclude that I like the Bolshoi Ballet better than the Maryinsky because even the dancers in the corps have personality.

Black Square

Thursday: Head to the other branch of the Tretyakovskaya Gallery, where the 20th century art is housed. Due to the lack of crowds, conclude that 20th century Russian art is much less popular than earlier stuff. See that Malevich's Black Square has little white cracks and isn't so black anymore. See a park full of statues covered with snow. Follow sporadic signs to the train station, make my bed, breathe a sigh of relief when the guys with the upper bunks in the compartment take their stash of alcohol elsewhere.

Friday: Get into another argument with the desk lady. Enlist the help of the commandant's assistant and even she gets in a fight with the desk lady -- but I still get my dorm card back.

I am so glad I went to Moscow. It's a completely different city than Saint Petersburg. It has lots of little winding streets and huge super highways and unique, self-enclosed neighborhoods. There's always lots of people rushing about and something to do or see. In other words, it's kinda like New York. Not representative of the country, but definitely an important part of the psyche.