A grey Tuesday morning...

To carry on from last time... on Saturday evening, Eva’s dad came and stayed with us for two nights. It was really lovely to meet him and he was really sweet, he doesn’t speak a word of English, but we got along just fine! Half of his suitcase was filled with delicious ham and salami, he hardly brought any clothes, just a hell of a lot of cold meat! We still have enough to last us for about a month! The next day the three of us went for lunch together and then I left them to go to the cinema. There is a very famous cinema which has been open for 100 years and from the 11^th -23^rd there was a film festival on and all the films screened were free! So I made the most of it and have been popping in throughout the week! On Sunday night I saw a film called ‘Mother’, which was based on Gorky’s book by the same name. Then I watched the first soviet sound film another night and the first colour film another night!

On Monday, feeling pretty blue after tom’s departure and with nothing better to do I dyed my hair. That is the only thing to say about Monday! I decided to pick myself up on Tuesday, so I went round to a friend’s house in the evening. He cooked us all dinner and then we watched The Devil Wears Prada in Russian and then chatted away. So I was feeling fully cheered up by the end of the evening! His house is brilliant, his host sounds a bit crazy though! There are frogs absolutely everywhere around the flat and every inch of space is filled up with something! We found an old copy of a lonely planet which was from the late 70’s for the USSR. I had a bit of a read and it’s fascinating. There is a lot which seems to have changed, but there is a lot which is still ingrained into society today, all the grim elements of society such as corruption, and mafia etc.

On Thursday, as is tradition we went out in the evening. We went to my favourite club which is called Gogol! They had on brilliant 40’s style swing music on so we were all jiving away! It was so much fun, though having had a drink, I thought I was a master at swing dancing, and kept trying to get my friend to swing me round his waist... needless to say this was not successfull. On Friday evening, Katherine and I went to watch the first colour film. It was a very strange film which culminated in a scene with hundreds of female factory workers pelting soldiers with plates! But it was still quite good and I understood the majority of it!

On Saturday, a friend and I went to the souvenir market (this is seriously the last time for me; I think 5 times is definitely enough!). I bought a few things, can’t tell you though, because they may well be little Christmas pressies! In the evening, I went round to my friend Nathans house again. It was supposed to be a party, but it just ended up being Katherine, Nathan and I! We had a great evening though, it was very Russian inspired. We had ‘zakuski’, which are little snacks to have when you are drinking (we had olives, gherkins, pickled tomatoes, some salami on toast and some crisps) and then because zakuski would be no good without the drink, we had some Soviet Champagne and chilled vodka! We ended up playing Russian scrabble, which I was surprisingly good at considering that I am absolutely terrible at scrabble in English! I came second, Katherine first and Nathan last! We had to give up eventually as no one could think of anymore Russian words! The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful day, the first show of the sun since mum and dad had left! So we went to Cafe Pushkin for breakfast. It is this incredible restaurant which is in this beautiful old building. The cloakroom and toilets were downstairs in an underground cellar with candle lights lighting the way down! It was all ever so romantic! Katherine and I had fried eggs on toast, though as you have never seen them. It was like a plate sized fried egg with squares of toast cooked into the white of the egg, with three sunny yolks in the middle. It was delicious! We felt like royalty because the service is amazing and they really look after you, which is a huge change from what usually happens in a restaurant!

Anyway, that was my week!

Lots of love to you all

xxxxxx

Tom's visit

So, another busy week. Being a tour guide is definitely knackering! I have had a brilliant week with Tom and was very sad to see him go today. But not long until I’m home for Christmas now though! We have had a very busy week. Lots of socialist stuff (concrete buildings, statues, Stalin) but also a very busy social week (lots of drinking, meeting friends and hanging out!)
The day tom arrived, it was snowing really heavily, so that was a nice little treat. We went for a lovely winter walk around the centre and got to see St. Basils, Lenin Library and GUM all lit up and covered in snow. It was very picturesque and a nice welcome. The following day, we had read that there was some kind of procession in Red Square commemorating a procession that took place there in 1941 when the city was besieged by Germans and troops were leaving Red Square straight to the front lines. However, upon leaving the metro we found that red square was unreachable by any means. I have found that this seems to be quite normal and even when you ask the guard what is going on, no one knows or rather just won’t tell you! So anyway, we walked a bit further and stumbled upon a Socialist demonstration. Tom of course was in his element. Lots of communist flags, soviet sounding songs, revolutionary shouting, we were given a copy of Pravda, and there was even a guy carrying a massive poster of Stalin! I was busy taking sneaky photos of people (yes I know I have been told of before!) and a woman started telling me off saying that I shouldn’t just take photos of the old people, but that there were young people there protesting as well. I said that I wasn’t just taking the old peoples photos, but I found there faces more interesting. To be honest, I couldn’t have cared less if it was a socialist protest or not, it was just a good opportunity to take pictures of people without them noticing. She was a moronic woman on her high horse and she really wound me up! We then went to the Contemporary History Museum which is quite good, had lots of stuff from the Tsars all the way up to Medvedev, but really poorly laid out. In the evening, Tom and I went out to a couple of places and then ended back at our hostel at about 6!
The next day we went to the tourist market. Tom spent a very long time looking at postcards trying to find pictures of “workers, concrete or buildings”. We went to the massive supermarket by my house after that, though had to quickly rush home as we were running late for the ballet! We went to the theatre in the Kremlin, which was a pretty special experience, though the theatre itself was pretty grim. It was absolutely massive and very soviet-esque inside, so you didn’t get a very intimate experience. Though, in a way it was interesting to feel like you were a soviet audience in this huge theatre, big enough to educate the masses! We watched Figaro, though as a ballet. It was a bit odd, though there were some dancers who were absolutely incredible. It was like panto-ballet, in the first half, but the second half was brilliant.
On Monday I took tom to a monastery which has this massive cemetary. I think I may have mentioned it before. (I took M&D too.) We spent a while strolling amongst the graves spotting names we knew. Yeltsin, Khrushchev, Eizenstein, Chekov and Bulgakov to name a few... we then went to a bar and had a warm-up drink with a few friends. In the evening we went to see the Nutcracker. It was at the same theatre that Mum, Dad and I watched Swan Lake and again it was absolutely amazing. The dancers are all just incredible, perfectly in time and so graceful.
The next day we went to a sculpture park which houses some of the disgraced statues from around Moscow. So there was a few of defaced Stalin’s and some of Lenin too. Also some of Brezhnev, Dzerzhinsky and other once powerful soviets. After a stroll along the river we went into the same Pushkin fine arts museum that I took Mum and Dad to. We then walked up to red square and went into St Basils. In the evening we met up with friends at a bar, where I am quite embarrassed to admit that you can have as much beer as you can drink for only about £3! So we did.
After we had drunk all we could, it was a slightly later start than usual. But still we proceeded. Tom went to look around the Kremlin while I nipped home to go and get more clothes. We reunited and then decided it was best to go home and have a wee nap! Refreshed and alive, we went watch an ice hockey game. Again, I thought it was brilliant and some of my friends had come along too, so it was a lot of fun. There could have been more fights and at least some kind of serious injury or blood on the ice, but still a good game. Our team however lost 3-2. Tom and I then left the others and went back to the hostel to make spag bol.
On Thursday, for the first time since being in Moscow, I saw Lenin! Very odd indeed! There were about 5 guards in the mausoleum alone whose sole job seems to be to point you in the right direction and tell you to move along and be quiet! After paying our respects to the man himself, we went to a massive park which was full of different styles of soviet buildings, a memorial to Gagarin and the space race and lots of strong looking soviets. Although, today it seems to be some kind of out of town shopping area; inside many of these massive soviet relics would be a garden centre or a supermarket. It was very strange. There was also some kind of theme park. It was like a sad and forgotten place which in its hay day was probably designed to be full of happy, healthy people strolling about enjoying Moscow life!??
The next day was a pretty lazy one, we watched a film and then went to see Moscow State University in twilight. We went for a delicious Uzbek meal for dinner and strolled along the Arbat.
And that is that for Tom’s visit. Sorry if I have gone on a bit. I just wanted to make sure I remembered it all!
Anyway, lots of love to you all.
X x x

Quick catch-up

Sorry that this is so delayed, I have been a very busy bee though!
I am going to start where I left off in the last blog. That was two weeks ago I think. So, the only memorable event that I can recall of two weeks ago was that I went to see a Chekov play. My friend had a spare ticket to go and see ‘The Seagull’ so I went along with her. I’m not a huge fan of Chekov and usually find his plays quite dull. Unfortunately, this play lived up to my expectations. It was a very good production and the actors were fantastic, but just not my cup of tea at all! My friend had a brilliant time though, so I kept my thoughts to myself!
Last weekend, I went to Yaroslavl with three other girls from my course to visit Imogen, who is a friend of Katherine’s and studying in Yaroslavl. It only took us about 4 hours on the train and is one of the towns in the Golden ring. It was a nice little place, but the weather was pretty grey and drizzly the whole time we were there. It is quite similar to Kazan I thought, same kind of size and style. We visited the Kremlin which was really lovely. Apparently though there is a bear chained up there, but we didn’t see it. I’m glad! Imogen had arranged for us to rent a flat for one evening which was brilliant. After walking around in the rain all day, we went back to the flat and crashed out for a bit and then we had a party! Imogen had invited loads of her English and Russian friends and it was really nice. We then went on to a club called ‘Joy Party’!
Last week was our last week of school, so we were all a bit restless! But for our last lesson we persuaded our teacher to have our ‘lesson’ in TGI Friday’s which was fun! But the major highlight of my week was MUM AND DAD COMING! I was so excited all week and spent the majority of my week planning what to do, where to go and what to eat! I met them at the airport and brought them flowers! I’m sure they will tell you all about it but I will just give you a quick synopsis!
The first night I just took them back to their hotel and then we went for dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. It was good food, though Bapcha’s is far far superior! The restaurant was decorated in full Ukrainian style with lots of red, white and black. On the second day, I took them to my favourite park in Moscow and we walked through the woods to Moscow State University. After a short taxi ride, I took them to this cafe which specialises in hot chocolate to warm up. Then onto an art gallery which had an amazing collection of art, any famous name you could think of there was three or four paintings. We then walked to red square and caught the metro home. That night, after a rather rushed meal at an Uzbek restaurant, we went to the ballet. The restaurant was amazing though, very luxuriously decorated like a palace! We watched Snow Lake and I thought it was absolutely amazing. I was smiling throughout the whole thing! The next day was a bit of a failure. My plan was to see red square and the Kremlin... both of which turned out to be closed for no apparent reason and no one could tell me why! So we went to the armoury which was the only building in the Kremlin which was open. By this point though, we had done a lot of waiting about and standing around and we all got a bit cold. So by the time I got in the armoury, I wasn’t really enthused anymore! Mum and Dad really enjoyed it though! After that we went back to mum and dad’s hotel armed with some cakes and had plenty of tea to revitalise. We then walked up to my house, which is about a 10 min walk from when M &D were staying and I made us dinner. It was really nice for them to see where I live and to meet Eva as well. The next day we went to the big tourist market (where the photos of the fur hats are from), then onto a convent where there is a big cemetery which is full of artists, directors, writers and also a lot of politicians. Dad suddenly started to feel a bit crap and shivery, so we made a swift exit back to the hotel, where more tea was drunk! Dad stayed in bed for the rest of the evening and Mum and I went for dinner to another Uzbek restaurant with my friend Katherine. It was a lovely relaxed girly affair! Next day we took it easy and were actually able to go into the Kremlin. So we admired all the churches inside and mocked the hideous soviet style monstrosities. After a lengthy lunch I sent M & D home for a nap whilst I bought some ballet tickets for Tom and I. We re-grouped in the evening and took a stroll down the Arbat. Unfortunately, because it was a Monday evening, there were very few musicians playing and it was jolly cold too! But we had a really nice meal at a nice little hidden away restaurant.
I left Mum and Dad this morning, as I have started to feel a bit rough now... too much touristy marching around in the cold I think! I am off to Petersburg this evening with Katherine to visit a friend from uni who is studying there, so I spent the day in bed trying to get better. I feel pretty good now after resting, so I should be fine!
I had a brilliant time with them both, although I am just a bit worried that I have knackered us all out! It was lovely to be looked after and taken to nice restaurants and things. I made the most of the Hilton breakfasts as well, often eating enough to last me through to dinner!
Anyway, sorry this has been so rushed but I still need to pack and have dinner! Anyway, I will write again soon, not sure when though because TOM COMES ON FRIDAY!!! Woo hoo, I’m so excited!
Lots of love to you all. X x x x