The last few days in Moscow have been great, despite the fact that I have caught my father's cold (way to go, DAD). We got back from Petersburg Friday evening, where we met up with Andrea and went to dinner somewhere that was SO MEMORABLE that we cannot recall even what type of food it was, let alone the name of the restaurant or where it was.
Let me back track for a minute. Our train ride from Petersburg to Moscow was interesting due to the man sitting with us (we were in a four seater). Thankfully, he was not a smellow. However, he was a big buffoon. He was loud, drunk, and flailing all over the place, which was a problem since he was "a bear of a man". He caused one of the train attendants to break a glass, read aloud to himself, and gave his card/number to the girl sitting next to him and then proceeded to write IN the book she was reading when she was up charging her phone (to clarify she also did not know he had removed her bookmark with his business card). I only wish I could have seen her face when she realized he had left his number and wrote in her book because throughout most of the train ride she and I exchanged looks of "oh geez, really?" when this guy would do anything idiotic, which was pretty frequently.
Anyways, back to our happenings in Moscow. Saturday, we got up and went to Izmailova, which I was under the impression was more of an artists village/fair, but in reality is more like an open-air market full of vendors selling you the same tchotchky stuff. It was intersting to walk around and see what everyone had and what kind of prices you could negotiate (or more like what could we get Andrea to negotiate for us). There was also a whole section catering to people intersted in Army stuff, which truthfully, was creepy and weird and I did not like it. These people were selling things like helmets, gas masks, and various other pieces of army paraphernalia. To me, this just seemed strange and I felt like if all of these items were truly from the period to which they claimed, selling them to make a profit is not okay. I just imagined these old guys wandering around and collecting these items thinking "someday this might be worth something" and it cheapens the memory of the people to whom these items originally belonged. That being said, I did purchase many great things there, none of which were army-related.
After spending all afternoon out in the cold and shopping, we decided to take it easy Saturday night and just made some pasta in and hung out.
Sunday, my dad and I ventured up to Moscow State University and walked around. The campus is really quite beautiful and the main building is quite impressive, overwhelming and somewhat intimidating just due to its sheer size. We then went to Sparrow Hill, which provides a fantastic view of Mosow, and spent some time watching a toy car race. There were literally guys standing around and racing toy cars on a little race track, and there were trophies and everything waiting for the winner. I have never seen anything like this and found it both hilarious and entertaining.
After hanging out around there for awhile, we walked down through a park back to the metro and then went to meet Andrea at the Treytakov. After standing out in the cold rain in what turns out was the wrong line, we saw Andrea and went in the actual entrance (we were standing in line to see only the Marc Chagall exhibit). From there we did a quick tour of the gallery, and I have to say it was one of the best experiences I've had visitng an art museum. Andrea really knows her stuff and it was fun and interesting for me to see her have the opportunity to teach and show me the paintings she presents in class. I learned a lot, enjoyed myself, and for the first time in my life, did not feel the overwhelming desire to shoot myself in the face when dealing with art history.
When we were done looking at art, we stopped in at a restaurant nearby for dinner. The decor of the restaurant was charming, and my food was decent, but by this point I was feeling pretty pretty pretty miserable.
Yesterday was my last full day here, which was very sad. It became even sadder when after grabbing lunch and doing some last-minute souvenir shopping, we stopped at the apartment where I slept for an hour or so. So much for just hanging out for a few minutes... My dad and I then attempted to go to Red Square so I could get my picture taken in front of yet another icon, St. Basil's Church, but everything was closed off. We couldn't tell if it was due to the Pussy Riot riot or the light show that has been going on. Either way, we were not getting in to Red Square. Upon realizing this we walked back to the Old Arbat to meet Andrea for dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. I thought the food was good, but was not super impressed. Then again, I am also trying to boycott Brazil since they're greedy jerks with having both the World Cup AND the Olympics, and I figured eating at a Brazilian steakhouse is not my best mode of boycott.
So this brings me to today! As I said, I am sitting in a cafe in the airport typing this last blog and hanging out with my dad. My time here has been interesting, frustrating due to my lack of language skills, educational and fun. I can safely say Russia is not someplace I would ever want to live, but it is a place I want to learn more about and would definitely come back to visit (just not for an extended amount of time...)
Dasvedanya! Auf beeta zein! Au revoir! Hasta luego! Ciao! And thanks for putting up with my posts as opposed to my dad's while I was here!
Alexi
*We have actually recalled where we ate Friday night. We went to this awesome Georgian place near the apartment. I realize you're probably thinking "Oh, but Lexi, just 10 minutes ago you couldn't even remember what you had so this place couldn't be THAT great" but let me tell you, my forgetfufllness is a combination of CRS (a condition my father and I suffer from, for more details please consult Dr. Turbow) and having a cold and being out of it. Georgian food is DELICIOUS and I shall now be on the hunt for a Georgian place in DC. With our meal we also had probably the best tea I've had, which if you know me, is a big deal because I'm not a tea person.
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