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 11th -23rd 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
No comments:
Post a Comment