Friday sites...

Ventured out for a cappuccino this morning and snapped some shots along the way...

Explosion of flowers

I’ve got to hand it to the Russians.  They do flowers very, very well.  Not only immaculate flower beds in every park....the flowers change almost weekly.  Tulips...then marigolds...suddenly tall rose bushes - on and on...

Nike!

Nike is alive and well in Moscow.  We have good friends who work for Nike in Russia.  Very interesting to hear them talk about this market vs. the U.S. market.  I’ve noticed that the running shoe you and I are familiar with hardly exists here.  We’ll call it more of a ballet running flat of some sort...

Night-Night

People sleep in cars here....lots and lots of people sleeping in cars.  It’s not the “this is my home” kind of sleeping...it’s "I’m a workman and I think I’ll take a break now" sleeping.  Or, "I drive someone important and he’s at a business lunch, so I’ll just take a short siesta..."

Asleep at the wheel...

Laying down reading a book...

The ever-popular police making a random “show me your papers” check.  This is really never a spot you want to find yourself in....the end result may involve a Ruble payment of some sort...

Black car - blue light

These little ditties are sprinkled all over the city with very important people in the back seat (usually government officials and the like).  When you see them, it’s usually a complete blur as they tend to put the pedal to the medal 100% of the time and....more good news...traffic regulations do not apply to them.  

Sweet babushkas!

Women carrying flowers...

I love this part of Russian culture!  You see women carrying flowers everywhere.  If it’s a birthday - friends often give flowers and they are carried around all day.  It’s almost obligatory to give a woman flowers on the first date (and really the first few dates).  The bigger the bouquet - the more the guy is interested.  Every restaurant has extra vases for the table to put the flowers in....really quite charming.

And my final destination...

I know, I know....did I have to pick Starbucks in one of Eastern Europe's most cosmopolitan cities?  Well....it had been 5 months since I set foot inside and I just needed a good 'ole shot of Americana this morning...

Sasha, the young Barrista!

I wear my sunglasses at night...

Glorious St. Petersburg!  

Steve and I made our inaugural trip (we will be back) to romantic St. Pete last weekend.  Dubbed the “Venice of Russia” it surely stood up to its reputation.  The best time to visit is June/July as we had front row seats to the magnificent white nights!  (Angels singing...).   I am a sunshine girl through and through, and so it makes perfect sense that we live in Russia where there can be no sunshine for weeks at a time in the dead of winter...but that’s another story for another time.  Well, actually, that’s part of this story.  If there are fewer hours of daylight in the winter....that means....there are gloriously long days in the summer.  Right now in Moscow, the sun rises at 4:30 a.m. and sets at 10:30 p.m. which provides for a whopping 18 hours of daylight!  (More angels singing...).  St. Pete is the most northern city in the world and with an 8 hour train ride northwest of Moskva, it plays host to over 19 hours of daylight...and actually, at 2 a.m., it feels more like dusk rather than a full dark night sky.

Sunshine after dinner at 11 p.m.!

About that train - we opted for the overnight train to St. Pete and took the high-speed train back to Moscow.  The overnight train seemed like a good idea, (turns out it was a bit more exciting right out of college).  This ride - sun up at 4 a.m....sheer train curtains...speeding by light posts that provided  a blinking strobe effect....the perfect equation for a peaceful night’s sleep.  I actually bought Steve an eye mask as he has an even more difficult time with light during sleep hours....I made sure it was pink and paisley - he looks darn cute wearing that thing, (but we won’t tell him that).  

The train left Moscow at midnight and we hit the streets of St. Pete at 8 a.m. The palaces are truly magnificent and ohhhh,The Hermitage!  I’m not necessarily one to spend a whole day in a museum - but I definitely could have here.  Not only is the 3 million+ art collection impressive, the rooms in which the art is displayed are magnificent.  

Lenin overseeing the goings-on at the Moscow train station...

A palace fit for a queen... a few czars...and some Peters, Alexanders and Nicolas's...

The grounds...

The Venice of Russia = caviar and vodka rather than pasta and chianti...

The Hermitage!

This sweet dog was hanging out solo with a change bucket...

A-A-CHOO!

Just when we thought snow was in our rear view mirror ... mother nature punked us with “PUKH”!  (Rhymes with Winnie the Pooh).  This, my dear friends, is pollen of an unprecedented kind and volume.  Apparently, the story goes that Stalin wanted to pretty-up Moscow and ordered the planting of a slew of beautiful trees that would bloom early ... and apparently often.  Thousands of Poplar trees, (I believe of the Cottonwood variety), were planted all over the city with one small oversight....only female trees were planted.  This means, these “frustrated” female trees pollinate....and pollinate....and pollinate....and then, pollinate some more....for about 3 weeks every June.  It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen....as if Mother Nature blew on the mother of all dandelions...

It gets in your eyes, up your nose, in your mouth, in your hair.  You should see what it does to my sticky, what I call “fly paper”, lip gloss....fur lips comes to mind.  Men with day old beards = instant Santa!   Sunglasses become battle goggles - my swim googles are backup.  We have friends without air conditioning. Open windows = pukh fest in the house!  Piles of pukh in every corner - like massive, oversized dust bunny piles.   A-a-a-a-a-choo-pukh!

On the street....

Only appropriate to include the beer bottles...

Banya Time!

Check the box!  One of my goals this spring was to try the ‘ole Russian tradition of Banya!  Banya, best described as a steam room or sauna followed by a freezing cold plunge and a healthy dose ‘o torture, actually plays a significant role in Russian culture.  

The Banya, traced back to the 1100’s, is believed to deliver health benefits of better circulation, pore cleansing, de-toxification (great after long vodka benders), improved oxygen flow to muscles, possible skin removal and good plain relaxation.  Many Russians hit the Banya on a weekly basis as part of their health routine.

Here’s how the experience went down:

Met up with a group of fun ladies from the American Women’s Org at the famous Sandunovsky Banya very close to the Kremlin, (we were all newbies to the “sport” except for our fearless leader).  The changing area was beautiful - marble floors, dark wood lockers.

We purchased our recommended head gear - the famed felt Banya hat!  And who doesn’t look good in one of these gems?  We’ve decided it will also serve well as a party hat, an extra thermal layer in extreme weather conditions, and possibly a good piece with which to dust the apartment. 

It’s a good thing men and women have separate Banyas as clothes really were not an option.  We started with the sauna...and you haven’t experienced extreme heat until you’ve been in one of these babies.  The Russian Banyas can reach up to 200 degrees F which is why you have the felt hat on - to protect your head from the scorching heat (sounds like fun - yes?).  The wood benches in the sauna are also hot as hades, but apparently a little burned flesh never hurt anyone.  

After the furnace, you take a full body plunge into an ice...ICE cold water tub which is big enough for one at a time, or an attendant pours a huge bucket of freezing water on your head.  In the winter - you have the tough choice of flailing around in the snow or jumping into ice water in a carved out ice hole over a lake, (these choices are only good and better).  After the ice shock, you then submerge into a cool pool which actually feels down right warm after the arctic blast.  

Ice water built for one...

They say rolling in snow is actually colder than jumping into freezing water...

Fun times...

My friend, Katie, and I mustered up a dose of courage to try the popular venik - branches and dried leaves from birch, oak or eucalyptus used by a strong, muscular attendant to pummel the living life out of you while laying down in the sauna.  Let’s just say you definitley feel invigorated and well circulated after 10 minutes of this thrashing.  (The memory of the pain does go away).

Once your heart rate returns to a normal level, you retreat back to the beautiful locker room for tea, juice and a light snack.  And then repeat the entire process until you feel completely relaxed...or beaten up...whichever comes first.

All kidding aside, it was a fascinating experience and one I would do again...perhaps next time in the dead of winter - swimming hole or snow?

Family and Victory Day!

What a glorious week with family in town!  My parents made a visit to Moscow to check out our digs and this beautiful city. Steve and I were thrilled to have them here. Their arrival was on May 9th - Victory Day! (The end of WWII was declared on May 8th but with the time difference - May 9th in Russia).  An incredible 25 million Russian soldiers died in WWII.  As a national holiday (similar to our July 4th), Moscow celebrates with a large scale military parade.

Do you remember the old images of tanks rolling through Red Square?  They still do today! We can see the Kremlin from our living room - and heard the soldiers yelling in unison - quite thrilling.    

These are the images Steve and I caught at a parade rehearsal:

Yes...missiles...

Parade practice in Yaroslav (a small town we recently visited 4 hours away...)

This is a stirring video of the parade highlights (from 2008 - but the parade follows the same format today)...

Even more fascinating - the Russians were able to control the weather on parade day! You may have heard of cloud seeding - weather modification that helps control the amount of rain that falls from clouds, (typically used to create more rain over farmland, etc.).  In Russia - it’s used to drive rain away to insure it does not “rain on their parade”, (they’ve apparently done this for years).

Cloud seeding in action...

They use a machine (or plane) that spits silver iodide, dry ice or cement into the clouds, (brings new meaning to acid rain).   When the chemicals touch the cloud, a hole appears. It becomes bigger and bigger, and it either rains right there and then or, if the clouds aren't very dense, they disperse without any precipitation.  I guess we actually can mess with Mother Nature!

HOW CLOUD SEEDING WORKS 1. Silver iodide is fired into cloud using flares on planes or from the ground 2. Water droplets then attach to these particles 3. They fall as snow if surface temperatures are below or near freezing, or as raindrops at warmer temperatures 4. Heat released as the droplets freeze boosts updrafts, which pull more moist air into the cloud Despite the use of the cloud-seeding technique, many scientists remain sceptical of its effectiveness

 

And so...on Victory Day...it rained....but then it cleared up to a bright sunshiny day!

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.

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!