#484 Back In The USSR

A little over two years ago, my friend and tall compadre Tammy moved to Moscow to live.  We communicate frequently via email and Facebook Messenger, and with her previously living in Florida, I feel like not much has changed. 

Much has changed for her though.  Not only a new city, but a new country, and one with an entirely different climate.  A new language.  New co-workers.  Tammy has never met a stranger, but as someone who has lived in other countries, I can identify with the loneliness that can occur.  Russia had never been on my list of countries to visit, but I thought it was time to pay Tammy, and Moscow, a visit. 

I arrived in Moscow on a Friday afternoon last August and spent a little over a week with her.  I flew out of Chicago (thanks Keith and Denise for the rides to/from the airport!) to save several hundred dollars and had a connection in Helsinki, Finland.  Let me take a moment to say that the airport in Finland was the nicest I have ever been in.  Everyone associated with the airport and the airlines had meticulous manners and uniforms.  The décor was stylish and incredibly comfortable.  They had reclining individual sofas.  It was a pleasure to spend a few hours there. 

After dropping my bags at Tammy’s apartment we hit the ground running, walking to Red Square and the Kremlin, and having dinner.  Tammy had just purchased a new Ikea sofa for my visit (it converted to a bed).  I fell into it that night and slept great. 

Friends since high school, keeping in touch despite living in
different states and now different countries.

Kremlin

Meeting two of Tammy's friends near the GUM department store.
(They dress in period costumes and charge for photos. I got one for free.) 
Even in August, Moscow is lit up like it's Christmas.

Saturday, we awoke to rain.  Luckily, we had tickets to see Swan Lake at the Bolshoi. I was told the temperature had dropped from the previous weeks of 80 degrees, so I had to layer thoughtfully for our 45-minute walk to the ballet (I have no idea why we didn’t take public transportation).  I brought a sleeveless dress and light sweater specifically for the ballet.  I wore black running tights under the dress, and my black Nike sneakers.  I also wore a colorful scarf Tammy had just given me (which happened to go with my dress), and a sporty rain jacket.  Not the fashionista I usually try to be.  I carried my dress shoes in a backpack, as Tammy said most women changed shoes upon arrival.  The rain came down in buckets so by the time we arrived my shoes and socks were soaked.  I expected us to go to the ladies room to change, but Tammy wanted to change first and check our bags at coat check, and then go to the restroom.  Here’s where things got comical.  I tried to be as ladylike as possible in pulling my tights down while not pulling my dress up.  I got a few stares and they were more than the usual, “Wow, she’s tall!” stares.  I managed to work the tights off and then wrapped my wet shoes in my rain jacket, stuffed them in my backpack, and took that to coat check.  Dressy shoes on, I was transformed from a soggy walker to a proper ballet attendee. 

A night at the ballet.

The ballet was wonderful!  What a thrill to watch a performance at the famed Bolshoi.  I later learned that “Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian, so it’s literally the big ballet.  I will admit that due to traveling several hours and being in a different time zone, I got sleepy during the show and closed my eyes a few times, which was also comical.  I’d watch a dancer stage right, close my eyes, and when I opened them again, the dancer was stage left.  That happened a few times.  “Where did they go?”

Bolshoi Theater

After the ballet we went to a Georgian restaurant and had the most incredible bread/cheese dish – khachapuri.  

Khachapuri is amazing!  I have yet to find a Georgian restaurant in town.  

We had the standard version with a sunny-side egg in the middle.  It’s an amazing dish regardless, but on a cold, rainy day, warm bread and cheese is especially yummy. 

The sun showed its face after dinner and we walked around a bit more and even stopped at some fun swings at Mayakovskaya Square.  A successful first day. 

We spent days two and three on bikes.  All day.  We left her apartment both mornings and returned around 8 or 9 p.m.  It wasn’t like my usual bike tours where we hammer the miles.  This was leisurely city riding, stopping and starting, visiting parks and monuments and churches and stopping to eat.  I loved it. 

You may wonder what kind of bike I rode, since I own unusually large road bikes that measure 61 to 64 cm.  Tammy is 6’3”, but she rode her own hybrid bike.  One of her friends generously let me borrow their hybrid bike.  We walked out to the bike garage by Tammy’s apartment and I finally saw the bike.  Tammy didn’t mention her friend is around 5’ tall.  I asked Tammy if she had a hex wrench to raise the seat.  (Some seats have a lever to adjust and you don’t need a wrench.)  She did not.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to ride this bike comfortably for any distance.  She made a comment about stopping at a bike rental place along the way.  (Later on, after we’d ridden an HOUR she casually said, “There’s one of the bike rental places I’d told you about.)  We took the bikes over to the entrance of her apartment building and got our gear ready – water, snacks, etc.  Two of her male co-workers happened to walk by and as I stuck my hand out for an introduction I said, “Hi, I’m Linda.  Do you have a hex wrench?”  Thank goodness, he did.  My knees were saved!  

Getting ready for Day 1 on the bike

Some of the sights we saw on our rides:  the Moskva River, Park Zaryad’ye (and an ice cave), St. Basil’s, downtown modern Moscow, Olympic Park, some people practicing on a trapeze, the statue of Peter the Great, a Russian outdoor spin class, a men’s pro volleyball tournament, the Novodevichy Cemetery, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.  We sat along the river people watching.  I had the most delicious hotdog and rice dish at the Gorky Park Meat Beat festival (music and meat – what a combo!). 

Moskva River

Gorky Park

Ice cave in Park Zaryad’ye

Peter the Great statue by Zurab Tsereteli

St. Basil's

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Novodevichy Cemetery

I am comfortable biking on city streets (I commute to work in warmer months), but riding in Moscow took it to a different level. Or should I say, riding along the river’s wide sidewalks on a busy Sunday afternoon took it to a different level.  Tammy led the way through a constant swarm of people and I followed, weaving my way through them all, while constantly ringing the bell on my handlebars.  I asked her how to say, “be careful.”  In Russian it is spelled быть осторожен.  Which phonetically sounds like “osta-roznya.”  Or something like that.  I said it a lot.  It is a miracle I didn’t hit anyone.  We did have a good laugh at another’s expense – as I rode it was hard to keep my eyes on the sidewalk and not on the river and the landscape.  We saw two younger women riding their bikes toward us and apparently one of them had the same problem, because she ran her bike right into a bench.  She was ok, and we all had a good laugh.  

After two days of riding (and miraculously, no sore behind!) we took a metro to the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, a palace museum and park reserve in the south of Moscow, and the location of Catherine the Great’s palace.  Moscow is full of parks and this one was huge.  We talked to a young man and his dad as they worked out at one of the outdoor fitness areas.  We also had a nice conversation with an older gentleman in another area of the park.  Tammy speaks pretty good Russian, and although it seems like most Russians don’t speak English, those we met spoke it well enough for us to have a conversation. 

Catherine the Great's palace

Tammy had to go to work Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for the start of school the following week.  I knew I would miss her company, but was initially excited to explore the city on my own.  I had a map and picked out a few stops – GUM (a large, high-end department store near Red Square, the Moskovsky Zoopark (Moscow Zoo) and the Zurab Tsereteli Museum. 

Wednesday, I planned to go to the museum, but got lost, so walked to GUM, ogled the Manolo Blahnik shoes, ate some ice cream and sat on a bench the rest of the afternoon to wait for Tammy to meet me after school.  I thought ahead and wrote down how to say, “Where is…” in Russian in case I got lost.  I tried to ask a man on the street where the museum was and he just looked at me like I had two heads.  I was fine with resting anyway.  We had biked and walked for four days and my feet and legs were tired.  I sat by a fountain in a park next to the Kremlin and read a book and people watched, enjoying my break. 

Both the zoo and the museum were within 20 minutes of Tammy’s apartment so I visited them Thursday.  The zoo was fun, but the animal areas seemed smaller than I’ve seen in the US.  The museum was incredible!  I had never heard of Tsereteli.  He’s a sculptor and painter originally from Georgia (the country).  He created the Peter the Great statue we saw over the weekend along the Moscow River.  He also made the Teardrop Memorial, a gift from the Russian government to the United States after 911.  What a talent!  After both of those, I headed back to Tammy’s apartment and took a nap. 

Siberian Tiger

Front of Tsereteli Museum

Sculptures and paintings

"Backyard" of museum

The one disappointment of my time by myself in the city was that, unlike other European cities I've been to, Moscow didn't have the random street shops.  Bread, gifts, clothing, jewelry, pastries, etc.  I could wander happily for hours window shopping in Paris or Venice.  Not so much in Moscow.  

One night mid-week Tammy and I went to the equivalent of a Russian Best Buy.  After two years in Moscow without a TV, she thought it was time to get one.  She was able to purchase one after using her limited Russian and with the help of Google Translate on her phone.  It was comical.   We are both kind of clueless about technology anyway.  Throw in a complicated language and it’s high quality entertainment. 

Tammy had a light day at school Friday so I met her there around lunch time.  The school consists of a middle and high school.  She teaches health and PE.  I helped her move some things around, met several staff members and got a workout in at the school fitness center.  Later that night we met her friend Jenny for dinner (she was in Italy for Tammy’s 2018 birthday trip). 

Travel map for her high school's sports teams.
If you look closely, they travel to other countries, not just cities.

After being off the bikes for a few days, we felt it was time to ride around again.  One of her fellow teachers took us on a tour of several parks Saturday morning.  We rode through the city and then hit some forest trails in between parks.  So fun! 

The coolest park was VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy).  Each building represents one of the Soviet republics, and they surround a lush center garden/fountains.  It’s enormous.  In the winter, they flood the interior part and create the world’s largest ice skating rink. 

Saturday afternoon, we took a metro to the Izmailovsky Souvenir Market.  Another huge area with flea market vendors and any kind of souvenir you could imagine.  Tammy bought a Russian fur hat.  I got a cool shot glass for my nephew.  One section was like an old Russian garage sale.  Mostly junk, but still incredibly interesting.  One booth had a typewriter with Cyrillic keys. 

As I mentioned earlier, Tammy has grasped the Russian language very well in her two years.  I read a small part of her book, Russian for Dummies, while eating breakfast on my “alone” mornings.  The hardest part is learning the Cyrillic alphabet.  I admire her for immersing herself in the culture and language.  Her apartment building has a security gate on one end, and every day when she leaves and returns, she talks to the guards.  One in particular is Anatoli.  He doesn’t speak much English, so he has helped her with her Russian words.  She said she’ll talk to him for about 20 minutes every day telling him about her day and where she’s been.  At the school, she spoke to the Russian women who worked in maintenance jobs.  Their faces lit up when they saw her and she carried on a brief conversation with them, again, learning from them.  In these instances with the cleaning ladies, Anatoli, and even the few people Tammy and I talked to in the various parks, you realize how small the world is and that we’re all just people.  We may speak a different language, but we’re all the same inside. 

The American-Russian relationship is a tricky one.  I grew up learning about Cold War Russia in school.  My image of the country included bread lines, poverty, war, bitter cold and gray skies.  Seeing Tammy’s photos and hearing about her experiences made me want to not only visit her, but learn more about the country and its people.  Nine days in Moscow did not afford me the knowledge of the entire country, but here’s what I did learn:  Russians love their parks.  They are very artistic and you can see it above ground in their buildings, decorations and monuments, and below ground in their metros.  The vast majority of Russians I met were incredibly friendly and proud of their country, and happy to see two American “girls” loving spending time in their country. 

We packed about as much as we could into the week.  Tammy is a wonderful tour guide (she has had many other friends visit) and we always have a great time together.  I hope to visit her again and possibly go to Saint Petersburg.  I got a three-year travel visa by mistake, so I should get my money’s worth.  Then I can truly be Back in the USSR.