Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ahhhhh.....

Apologies for the delay in blogging.  The truth...the extended winter was getting a bit frustrating and I was apparently hibernating until warmer weather arrived. Happy to announce - spring has arrived with 68 degrees at present - clouds?  Not a one.  The city is buzzing.  The snow has vanished.  Crocuses pushing up from the earth.  Green shoots on trees.  We have finally joined the rest of civilization with warmer weather!  Can I get an “amen”?!

Passed these today...hello green!

Speaking of weather - with the change from winter to spring, we had some crazy fronts push through - check out this shot of the Kremlin...ominous comes to mind.




Easter in Russia...this being our first Easter away from home, Steve and I experienced part of a Russian Orthodox Easter service - fascinating!  In Russia, palms are hard to come by...so on Palm Sunday, instead of palms, pussy willows are handed out...



The Easter service starts at 11 p.m. on Easter eve.  The church is entered in darkness and part way through the service, each partitioner lights a candle as the light of the world begins to grow.  Typically, the congregation departs and walks around the church and then re-enters for a service that continues until the wee small hours of the morning. Church bells ring all over Moscow for 15 minutes starting at 11:45 p.m.....pure, pure heaven.

Our neighborhood church...
Beautiful...  (took this shot in colder days)

We attended a beautiful, small church right next to our apartment building....one of the few that survived Stalin’s church destruction during Soviet times.  Women must cover their heads with a scarf and wear a skirt.  The service was beautiful (we took in about 45 minutes) and so perfect for our first Easter abroad.

Monday, April 18, 2011

When in Moscow...eat Georgian!

Steve with the Moellering girls at Khachapuri - our new fave Georgian restaurant!

When in Moscow...eat Georgian...and we're not talking southeast United States.  Georgian food is, in a word, delicious!!  We had our first introduction during our Moscow “look-see” in August.  Our good friends, the Grimes, recently re-introduced us in February - and now we’re hooked!
As you may know, there has been a long standing conflict between Russia and Georgia, to the degree Georgian wine is banned from consumption in Russia. But....food is fair game and Russians love it as much as we do - herbs, spices, nuts, eggplant, pomegranate, shish-ka-bob, fish...

Eggplant wrapped around a walnut mixture w/pomegranates...

Satsivi - chicken in a walnut sauce...

Lamb!

Lavish Bread...also very popular - khachapuri- bread stuffed with cheese...heaven!

You may remember reading about my "sledgehammer to the knees" incident going in the "out" at the metro (blog dated 2/21/11).  My sweet sis-in-law, Amy, received a brief taste of the experience on her hand when she and Steve were passing the metro card between the gates - aaaaaagh!!!
The "pain" of the metro....not nice to instill on visitors!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Our first visitors!

Mother Nature queued the snow every day for the full Moscow effect.  Arrival and departure by train to the airport...

We just enjoyed 4 glorious days with our first Moscow visitors.  My brother, John, and his family are currently living in London on a one year assignment and spent half of the girls' spring break with us.  We had a wonderful time and packed a ton into our 4 days together...




Rockin the fur!

Led Zeppelin on the balalaika...

Steve and Amy in Gorky Park...

Sarah and Steve carrying the world...

Georgian food - a favorite!

Backstage at the Bolshoi...set assembly in process...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Moscow Musings...

We've had the first sign of spring - hallelujah!  It reached 54 degrees F this weekend.  Pure heaven!  The city erupted with park dwellers, hand holders and even some smiling faces. 
Let’s talk for a minute about parking in Moscow.  Oh my.  I mean, OH MY!!!!!  Rules actually do not exist.  This is a true statement.  You can park your car anywhere and everywhere - and people do!  The city of Moscow has very few tow trucks...so no apparent need to be considerate of others.  We’ve seen cars literally parked smack dab in the middle of a busy street - causing everyone to go around....traffic for miles...just because you can.  I've even seen a group of 4 burly men manually pick up and move a small car out of the way.  This is an every man for himself society!

Ummm.....really??      Organized chaos...

"I think I'll park riiiight here on this nice corner...."

"Just the spot I was looking for...."

Note cars coming and going down this one-way street - splendid!

We’ve also noticed, through the snowy, slushy winter, very few cars get washed....and why would you when the next day, it will get doused with another stunning layer of dirt and grime.  Although you will often see people wiping off their license plates...no one wants to give the police any reason to pull them over.  


This calls for a finger-painted "Wash Me!!!"  Wonder if that translates in Russian...


Custom designs are big!

Shovel time...

Prices!  Moscow shopping prices are generally out of sight.  Take raspberries, for example.  How does $13 for a half pint sound?  We don’t buy raspberries. Now, I will say, we have been pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive a few items are....this huge package of fresh ginger, for example, is only $1!!!!! (And I had already used a knuckle before I snapped the photo). Soooo... we’re having ginger chicken, ginger soup and ginger casserole this week...



The dry cleaners here actually do a fairly good job.  What is amazing is the drop off process and the detailed documentation of what was left behind.  A book is written about each garment....the number of buttons, any holes or tears, what the label says, the brand, the thread count, the number of times it’s been worn, whether it’s cute or not...and would the dry cleaner employee consider wearing it herself....????  Seriously, what are they writing?  Here is what our most recent drop-off slip looks like for 3 pairs of pants and a dress (check marks and all):


Note notary-type stamp in lower right - this is applied to all receipts everywhere!