GORKY PARK

After coming home from class around 1:00 p.m., grabbing a sandwich and doing some “American” work, I took myself out for a beautiful afternoon.

Anyone reading this blog knows an ongoing lament about our trip to Russia has been the weather.

No complaints today!

Cloudless, sunny sky and the temperature reached 70 degrees.

I walked down to the Kropotkinskaya subway station, which is about a 7-minute walk from the apartment. I transferred at Park Kultury to the Oktyabrskaya station. From there, it was about 5 minutes down to good ol’ Gorky Park.

There, I did some homework and just strolled, like many a Muscovite. Roller bladders and cyclists were also out in great numbers, but I don’t see how either activity could be too enjoyable with all those crazy pedestrians getting in your way as they blindly cross your path.

Here are some photos.

FROM THE MAIN ENTRANCE DOWN ONTO THE ESTRADA AT GORKY PARK. THE PARK SITS ON THE SOUTHERN BANK OF THE MOSCOW RIVER. ULITZA KRYMSKY RUNS ALONG ITS EASTERN EDGE.

STATUE OF MAXIM GORKY, RUSSIAN AND SOVIET WRITER.

ONE OF THE INTERESTING SEATING AREAS THE PARK OFFERS.

I WAS FASCINATED BY THESE GIANT CUSHIONS THE PARK MAKES AVAILABLE FOR PEOPLE TO PLOP ONTO AND ENJOY THE DAY.

CLOSE UP OF STAGE..

LOOKING WESTWARD ON THE MOSCOW RIVER.

LOOKING EASTWARD TO THE KRYMSKY BRIDGE. THERE ARE MANY RIVER CRUISES OFFERED, AND THIS RADISSON BOAT LOOKED LIKE A GOOD WAY TO SEE THE SIGHTS.

STEPS DOWN TO THE BOAT PIERS ALONG THE MOSCOW RIVER IN GORKY PARK.

SUN-DAPPLED RIVER.

THE SHUTTLE HAS LANDED IN GORKY PARK! UNDERNEATH THE SHUTTLE IS A PLACE TO RENT BIKES, ROLLER BLADES AND OTHER PEDALED TRANSPORTATION.

LOOKING EASTWARD AT THE BIG FOUNTAIN AND MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE PARK.

BEAUTIFUL FLOWER BEDS AND LOTS OF BENCHES.

OKTYABRSKAYA PLOSCHAD. LENIN LOOMS LARGE.

STRETCHING SO MUCH - FAR AND WIDE

Many people know I spend a lot of time stretching each morning (some say too much) .

It's good for the body and mind; literally stretching both. I liken it to the old days when walking my dog, Althea, spurred many good news articles. You just never know what will come to you during these moments.

So as I was stretching this morning and once again listening to WFMT, I was pleased to hear the station  promote the upcoming program: Russian Accents.

At 11:00 p.m. Chicago time on Tuesday night (8:00 a.m. Wednesday Moscow time), I heard a man with an accent talking excitedly about a composer. The announcer came on and said that the speaker was Alexander Toradze, of the Toradze Studio based at I.U. in South Bend, talking about Rachmaninov. Before I had to get in the shower, John Botkin played a Rachmaninov piece and there was an interview with a consultant to the studio.

Language classes are somewhat interesting. I am learning things, but there is a huge disparity between the two British gals and Phillip and me. It's hard to read and speak the language when you don't know what the letters are.

Dimitri, our teacher, is getting frustrated with the British ladies, too, and that doesn't help anyone. While I question the amount of what I am learning, the answer is that there is value in the human interaction, having Dimitri correct my pronunciation and the picking up of little tidbits of the language I might never have gained.

Tuesday, Andrea and I went to the Lenin Library. I studied Russian while she conducted her research. Later, we took the metro out to Kievskaya and walked around. Wow. There is a ton of new construction out that way, and the wealth along Bolshaya Dorogomovskaya Ulitza and Kutuzovsky Prospekt is impressive. I would have guessed that far from the city center and on the other side of the river, I would just see huge concrete housing blocks.

After a lot of walking (and just now seeing from the map how much we missed), we hopped back on the metro to our neighborhood, Arbatskaya. Famished and parched, we simply stopped in at the Yolki-Palki for dinner. It's not nearly as nice as "our" Yolki-Palki in Petersburg, and there was no dancing!

TCHAIKOVSKY LIVE

Monday, September 10, 2012

While I was stretching this morning and looking out the window at our wonderous view, I was listening to a live stream from the classical radio station WFMT in Chicago. 

They announced they were going to play Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture and gave some back ground on the piece. The announcer mentioned that it was composed not just to commemorate the Russian's victory over Napoleon (a big deal this 200th year here in the Motherland) but to coincide with the completion of the Church of the Saviour, itself built to commemorate the victory. Why mention this? It is the very church I was looking at through the living room window! How is that for serendipity!

Across the street, I saw what I imagine to be the building engineer come out onto the rooftop terrace and begin to pray in the direction of the cathedral. He finished by doing the customary bowing and backing away from the church before going back inside to work.

Andrea and I then got an early start to register at the House of Russian Language. Yes, I am going to take some Russian lessons.

We struggled finding the entrance to the school. However, we were not the only ones. Therefore, the school decided to start our class on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. instead of Monday. 

There will be four of us in the class. Phillip, from Koln, Germany, has studied as I have and has some knowledge. Debbie and her step daughter, Charlotte, are from the UK and do not yet know the Russian alphabet.

After Andrea took her Russian language placement test, we took the subway all the way out to the City Realty office to conduct some business, only to discover they vacated the offices last week. MAD AS HELL.

We have a bunch of complaints about City Realty. 

SUNDAY THOUGHTS

Sunday, September 9, 2012

We watched the U.S. Open, at least what there was of it. I pinpointed a sports book (aka a gambling house) that shows sports from all over the globe. Primarily horse and dog racing, soccer, boxing, cricket...sports that people bet on. They claim to show professional American football, but no college football, at least not yet!

The U.S. Open start time was moved up to 11 a.m. in an attempt to beat the bad weather, but Murray and Berdych probably didn't start until 11:30. We had a hard time communicating we wanted to watch the tennis and that the match would start earlier than the sports bar's schedule indicated.

But since the match was postponed, no matter. It started later, and the bar played it from the get go.

At one point, right during a crucial point to be played, they switched it back to soccer! Thankfully, there was another gentleman who had come in, and he was watching the match, too. He went and told management of the problem, and tennis was returned.

I bought the guy a beer to say thanks. It turns out, he speaks terrific English (as well as Spanish), because he was a former Russian tennis pro who was sent to Valencia, Spain to train in a tennis academy at the age of 16. Sacha is now a professional coach for Russian youth tennis. He's also a huge Roger fan. The match lasted about three hours.

During that time, we engaged in a lot of conversation, mostly tennis-related, but interspersed with talk about life in Russia. Apparently, a lot has been changing here in just the last 5-6 years (a fact Andrea also learned on our train ride down here after talking to a Houston, TX-based gentleman who works in the energy sector and who has been traveling back and forth to Russia quite a bit for years).

What has changed, I can't tell you because I am having a hard time pinpointing it. Much of it is related to "commercialism," a term Sacha used a lot. Everyone is out for and after money for themselves.

One change, for example, casinos that opened in the early 1990s and boomed, were shut down in the last few years. There are some very rich people, but there are a lot more poor people struggling just to get by, raise a roof over their heads and put food on their tables. Kind of like what is happening in the U.S.A. and in all parts of the world -- the gap btween the haves and have-nots is widening. Without a strong middle-class, I don't think a free, open, democratic society can be sustained. And that is ultimately what we, the people, want. Right?

Anyway...we started to watch the Ferrer-Djokovic match. We were all rooting for Ferrer, who went up 5-2 in the first set when play was suspended due to very bad and potentially harmful weather moving in. They evacuated the stadium. Match play is set to resume at 11:00 a.m. DC time.

Unfortunately for us, this freaking apartment's "international satellite TV" has only 17 channels, all in Russian and no Eurosport channel, upon which we watched the Olympics and the U.S. Open in Petersburg!

Tomorrow, language school!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MOSCOW

Saturday, September 8, 2012

We arrived in Moscow Friday evening. This is a big city. From our little neighborhood walk to find something to eat last night, my first impression is that Moscow is a mix of Washington DC and NYC.

Like DC in that there are few really big buildings to blot out the sky and the blocks are tight and dense. It has a NYC feel in that it is a big, bustling city with lots going on. The streets do not sleep.

As much as I like SPB, and I am surprised to be writing this, I think I may like Moscow more, primarily for the reasons above.

It's late Saturday morning here, and I am moving slowly. We stayed up late Thursday night watching the Ferrer-Tipsarevic match. The "trip" to the train station was physically exhausting, as was moving all our heavy luggage off the train, into the driver's car and then up into the apartment.

We are on the 14th floor. We are certainly not paying for a clean, fresh apartment. We are paying for the view! It is stunning. We overlook Christ the Saviour Cathedral, the Moscow River and the west side of the Kremlin. And as a hopefully portentous omen, there was a complete rainbow over that scene when we ventured onto the balcony after dropping our bags and closing the door on the driver.

However, the apartment has a grimy feel. I am sure we will become accustommed to it, but these first few days will be an adjustment. It's a trade off between the Nevsky Prospekt 88 apartment and this: more room here, more modern appearance at Nevsky, better satellite TV there, better weather here...

We settled on a Georgian restaurant within a few blocks of the apartment. The food and atmosphere were very pleasant.

In one of the rooms, a wedding party was underway with live music and signing and dancing. What a joyous affair!

At one point, a very pretty young woman from the wedding approached our table. My heart began beating, thinking she was going to ask me to dance with her, because she asked if I we were married.

It turns out, she really wanted to know if Andrea was married so that Andrea could throw the bouquet! Apparently, the tradition is for an unmarried woman to throw the flowers to the married ladies.

Once again - it's Russia!

PETERSBURG TO MOSCOW

On Friday, September 7, we left Petersburg and traveled to Moscow.

We had been up until 3:00 a.m. watching David Ferrer of Spain beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Getting up and going so that we could walk out of the apartment at 11:45 was the first challenge to the day's trials.

While the Moscow train station may be only a half mile from our apartment, walking with extremely heavy bags on cobblestone sidewalks full of inconsiderate people made the chore doubly difficult. And that was only the first trip. I had to walk back and grab two more bags.

[In Petersburg, the people have no sense of space. They meander without regard to their fellow pedestrians. They do not pay attention. I do not know how many times people would have walked right into me had I not gotten out of their way. It is one of the most maddening aspects of Petersburg city life I have encountered and hope it may be different in Moscow.

I read this very insightful survival guide when searching for Russian language schools in Moscow. Click here for what I have found to be a very telling and true account of life and people in Russia.]

We had booked first-class passage on one of the relatively new Sapsan high-speed express trains that run between Petersburg and Moscow. The train trip takes 4.5 hours, as compared to the usual 8-hour local or overnight trains.

Andrea possesses the most hyper-sensitive olfactory senses I know of any woman, and she had to request that our seats be relocated because of another unflattering Russian trait -- lack of hygienic skills. A couple mounted the train just as the train departed the station and sat right in front of us. They stunk just terribly.

The 400-mile journey was interesting. We passed through miles of thickly lumbered forests, crossed expansive plains, and bridged several large winding rivers upon which sat quaint villages with shack-like, wooden living quarters that appeared to be right out of  the 19th century.

For the Leningrad train station in Moscow, we had reserved a driver who was to meet us right outside our train carriage, Wagon 1. Wagon 1 of the Sapsan is closest to the train terminal in Petersburg, but farthest from the station in Moscow, and this lug couldn't figure that out. So we once again had to schlep our boulder-weight bags the length of this 20-car train to where we finally found our driver holding a sign outside a clearly marked Wagon 20 that read: ANDREA RUSNOCK.

Moscow has a totally different feel than Petersburg. As much as I loved Petersburg and was wowed by its history, architecture and cosmopolitanism, Moscow makes it look like a backwater. It would be like comparing Des Moines to Chicago or Hartford to New York City.

This is a big city; a world capital. It looks and feels like it. We've been here fewer than 48 hours and have not ventured too far (due to aches and fatigue from those damned bags), but as a first impression, Moscow feels like an interesting mix of Washington, D.C. and New York City.

I will try to elaborate on that and our accommodations in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, here are some photos from our travel day.

PLOSCHAD VOSSTANIA - UPRISING PLACE. NEAR THE STOCKMANN'S, UP THE STREET FROM OUR APARTMENT AND RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE MOSCOW TRAIN STATION.

THE MOSCOW TRAIN STATION FROM PLOSCHAD VOSSTANIA.

INSIDE THE MOSCOW TRAIN STATION MAIN TERMINAL.

MOSCOW TRAIN STATION - CLOSE UP OF PETER THE GREAT TO GREET VISITORS ARRIVING FROM MOSCOW.

SAPSAN SECURITY GATES.

PULLING AWAY FROM THE STATION IN SAINT PETERSBURG.

A STOP ALONG THE WAY - OKULOVKA STATION.

THE FIELDS AND FORESTS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA.

VIEW OF A SETTLEMENT FROM THE WINDOW.

BOLOGOYE STATION.

I WATCHED "THE HUNGER GAMES" ON MY I-PAD AND ENJOYED A LUNCH THAT INCLUDED LOX AND, CREAM CHEESE ON RYE FOR A STARTER, A CHICKEN PAPRIKA-LIKE DISH WITH GREEN BEANS AND MASHED POTATOES AS AN ENTREE, WHITE WINE TO DRINK AND FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR DESSERT. THAT'S WHY I AM SMILING.

ASTA ROJNA "HELLO KITTY!" HERE COMES MASHA AND THE MEDVED (BEAR) -- ANDREA'S NEW, FAVORITE  CHILDREN'S CHARACTERS. SHE BOUGHT THIS ACTIVITY BOOK AT THE TRAIN STATION AND WORKED ON SOME OF HER EMBROIDERY (IN ADDITION TO SNAPPING THE PHOTOS) WHILE ON THE TRAIN.

MORE FOREST AND FIELDS.

TYPICAL OF THE VILLAGES WE SAW FROM OUR WINDOW.

THE SAPSAN HEADED TO PETERSBURG.

AFTER WE TIPPED THE DRIVER AND DROPPED OUR BAGS, WE VENTURED ONTO OUR 14TH  FLOOR BALCONY AND WITNESSED ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE RAINBOWS I HAVE EVER LAID EYES ON. FROM RIGHT, LOOKING SOUTHWARD, IT ARCHED NORTHWARD OVER THE CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE SAVIOUR...

...ASCENDED 180 DEGREES OVER THE CITY...

...OVER THE KREMLIN (REDDISH BUILDINGS MID RIGHT) AND LANDED TO THE NORTH!    A GOOD OMEN?

ANNA AKHMATOVA & THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE

After my visit to Ice-Breaker Krassin on Wednesday, September 5, I deliberated between heading back into Petersburg's city center or taking the ferry out to Kronstadt, a Russian naval center (at one time, it was the HQ of the Soviet Fleet in the Baltic and was closed to the public.)

The sun was actually shining, but I had not eaten, it was 3:00 p.m., and Andrea had told me not to eat after 4:00 p.m., because of dinner plans.

So I opted to take the tram into the city, grab a sandwich at a bodega and visit the Anna Akhmatova apartment at the Fountain House, which is located behind the fabulous Sheremetev Palace on the Fontanka River. (I wanted to visit that, too, but there is only so much time...)

Unlike the Rumyantsev mansion that nicely displayed bright examples of Soviet living quarters in the 1920s and 1930s, the Anna Akhmatova Memorial Museum depicts a probably more realistic view and description.

The Fountain House is a sad place.

EXTERIOR OF THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE. IT STANDS BEHIND THE GRAND SHEREMETEV PALACE AND OVERLOOKS A CHARMING LITTLE PARK WITH TREES AND BENCHES. HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF ITS LOCATION IN AN INNER COURTYARD SHIELDED BY LARGER, TALLER BUILDINGS, IT IS A DARK AND COLD PLACE.

THE ENTRYWAY TO THE APARTMENT. APPARENTLY, IT WAS OFTEN VERY COLD IN THESE ROOMS AND THERE IS A DESCRIPTION OF ANNA TALKING ON THE TELEPHONE WITH FUR COAT, HAT AND GLOVES. THROUGH THIS ENTRYWAY AND TO THE LEFT IS THE KITCHEN.

THE KITCHEN AS IT WAS IN THE 1920 & 30s.

FROM THE KITCHEN LOOKING DOWN THE CORRIDOR THAT TRAVERSES THE BACK SIDE OF THE APARTMENT'S ROOMS.

ANNA'S SON FROM HER FIRST(?) MARRIAGE, LEV GUMILEV, CAME TO LIVE WITH ANNA HERE AND MADE THIS NICHE IN THE CORRIDOR HIS STUDY. IT'S HARDLY WIDE ENOUGH FOR TWO PEOPLE TO STAND, BUT THAT WAS LIFE IN SOVIET RUSSIA IN THE 1920s.

THIS IS CALLED THE WHITE HALL. THE MUSEUM NOTES DO NOT SAY WHAT IT WAS (PERHAPS THE BATH/LAUNDRY ROOM AND PUNIN FAMILY SPACE), BUT IT IS NOW AN AREA THAT DISPLAYS MEMENTOS AND PHOTOS OF ANNA'S. PHOTOS OF HER DEAD  COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS ARE DISPLAYED ALONG WITH THEIR OFTEN TRAGIC STORIES. THOSE THAT DIED, DIED BY STARVATION OR SUICIDE. THOSE THAT WERE KILLED, WERE KILLED BY STALIN'S AUTHORITIES . 

ANNA CAME TO THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE AND LIVED WITH HER LOVER, NICOLAI PUNIN, AND HIS WIFE. THIS WAS HIS STUDY. THE MUSEUM PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO ANNA'S STATUS AS A REVERED RUSSIAN POET AND REVEALS THE DIFFICULT CONDITIONS OF LIFE FOR CREATIVE MINDS IN THE U.S.S.R.

THE DINING ROOM, WHICH SERVED AS A COMMUNAL SPACE. A SKETCHED PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER PUSHKIN ON AN EASEL IS DISPLAYED, AS IT STOOD DURING ANNA'S TIME.

ANNA'S ROOM. SHE LIVED, WROTE AND SLEPT HERE FROM 1927 THROUGH 1952, EXCEPT FOR A FEW YEARS DURING THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD, WHEN SHE WAS EVACUATED.

PART OF THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE MUSEUM IS JOSEF BRODSKY'S  "AMERICAN STUDY." BRODSKY WAS A POET AND DISCIPLE OF ANNA AKHMATOVA BEFORE EMIGRATING TO THE U.S.A.

BRODSKY'S DESK.

ICE-BREAKER KRASSIN

On Wednesday, September 5, I took the bus out to see the Ice-Breaker Krassin.

Actually, I missed the stop, and took the bus all the way out to its end terminal, thinking it would stop and circle back. Nope. The bus goes on to a terminal, and I had to get off the bus, walk to the corner, and pay for a new bus ticket.

That was alright, though, because it once again afforded me a view of "real and regular" daily life in Petersburg, and not the "sanitized" sights intended for tourists in the city center where we live. Bottom line: life looks neither pretty nor easy. Huge apartment blocks with graffiti along large boulevards strewn with trash. It looked much like Cabrini-Green spread out over an even wider area.

When I mounted the second bus, I was wise enough to actually ask where the stop would be. The conductor informed me (the stop was much more evident on the return trip!) and I proceeded to walk in the wrong direction, down scary streets with no people other than auto service repair shops with wary mechanics peering out. I was, however, unworried and confident of the mistake I had made and in the direction I was going.

When I arrived at Ice-Breaker Krassin, there was a tour in progress, so I had to wait 20 minutes.

After boarding the steep gang plank and arguing, unconvincingly, that admission is supposed to be free on the first Wednesday of the month ("That was discontinued in 2011."But why do the guide books say otherwise?" "That is a mistake we must rectify...")

At 1:00 p.m., a man appeared, looking very much like the captain, and started toward me. I assumed he was about to either explain the mistake further or tell me to vacate the ship. Instead, he introduced himself as Vladimir Korzun, engineer and English tour guide!

Vladimir lead me on 1.5 hour tour of the ice breaker's super structure (engine and boiler room tours only on weekends). I quite enjoyed it, fascinated by the ship's history and its original purpose, to break through feet-thick Arctic ice and lead ships through to their destinations.

Click on the link in the first line for first-rate, first-mate information, if you're interested. Here are some photos from my visit.

The National Mineral Resources University - Gorni Institute.  THIS IS ACROSS THE STREET FROM ICE-BREAKER KRASSIN. IT'S ALSO CALLED THE ST. PETERSBURG MINING INSTITUTE - OR THE GORNI - AND IT WAS RUSSIA'S FIRST HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION INSTITUTION. 

BEFORE IT WAS THE "KRASSIN," THE SHIP WAS CALLED SVYATAGOR. THIS IS WHAT THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN LOOKED LIKE WHEN IT WAS BUILT IN ENGLAND IN 1916. THIS SHIP HAS A VERY INTERESTING HISTORY, WHICH PROMPTED ME TO WANT TO SEE IT RATHER THAN THE MORE-FAMOUS AND MORE POPULAR, CRUISER AURORA.

VLADIMIR KORZUN. HE TRAINED AS AN ENGINEER.

LIFE BOAT ON BOARD. KRASSIN SITS ON THE WIDE NEVA RIVER.

BEHIND THE KRASSIN IS A WORKING ICE-BREAKER THAT PLIES THE BALTIC SEA DURING THE WINTER. IT IS  MOORED AT THE BALTISKAYA SHIPYARD AND IS MUCH LARGER THAN THE OLD KRASSIN, WHICH WAS RETIRED FROM ACTIVE SERVICE IN 1971. THE KRASSIN IS NOW A FLOATING MUSEUM.

ACROSS THE RIVER FROM THE KRASSIN, AN OCEANIC RESEARCH VESSEL IS GETTING LOADED.

THE STAFF CABIN.

THE  CABIN WHERE THE STAFF MET WITH THE CAPTAIN.

I GREW UP IN AN ERA WHEN THE U.S.S.R. WAS THE PRIME GEO-POLITICAL ENEMY OF THE U.S.A. THE KRASSIN WAS A SOVIET VESSEL THAT STILL DISPLAYS THE HAMMER AND SICKLE AND THE CCCP EMBLEM. SEEING THOSE SYMBOLS, I CONFESS, GAVE ME A CERTAIN SENSE OF DREAD. 

VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE OF KRASSIN'S BOW, THE NEVA RIVER AND THE GORNI INSTITUTE.

LOOKING ACROSS THE NEVA TO THE SHIPYARD WHERE KRASSIN WAS RETROFITTED IN THE 1950s. THE DRY DOCK IS STILL ACTIVE.

HAMMER AND SICKLE.

ICE-BREAKER KRASSIN.