Friday, October 1, 2010

Metro Mania and other Madness

Happy Birthday Blake!


The rains came on and off today so I decided to make a dry run to Pavelskaya, the train station where I’ll catch the train to the airport on Monday when I go to Germany. On paper it looked very easy, hop on the brown circle line which is close to the apartment, get off in five stops - and bam, you are at the train station.  In reality it is quite different and I’m very pleased that I decided to check things out.  The connections seem to have been designed by Rube Goldberg. There is a great deal of going up and over and down and through and back up and back down … well you get the picture.  In reality the Metro stop is close enough that you can see the train station but it does involve lots of walking and lots of stairs, which if you have luggage, as most did, I rather inconvenient not to mention time consuming. It took me forty minutes without luggage to get from the local Metro to the train station.  It took me forty minutes last time I went to the airport via taxi.  Once at the train station you need to purchase your ticket and wait for the next train, which runs every thirty minutes, and the ride is forty-eight minutes. Total travel time, anywhere from one hundred to one hundred and thirty minutes.  It is certainly cheaper and given the fact that it took me three hours to get home from the airport last week, it is worth the hassle. If it were a weekend, I might opt for the taxi, but during the week, anything goes with traffic so this is the safest bet.

Sometimes I read articles in the Moscow Times that are so strange that I need to read them again and again.  One such article appeared yesterday with the headline: Five Jump Out of Window.  Now I was ready for a story about a fire and victims jumping to safety, but this was not the case.  Five managers of a Moscow based firm selling biologically active additives broke their legs after jumping from a second story window in an attempt to flee police investigators who came to search their offices. Needless to say, it wasn’t hard to apprehend the managers who were all writhing on the pavement when the police arrived!


We went back to the Georgian restaurant last night since we enjoyed it so much on our first visit.  We had the same table and the same waitress who remembered us and seemed very pleased to see us again.  I think that is one of the reasons we like the place; the Georgians are so much friendlier than the Russians. The same singer was there belting out Georgian favorites and this time the front of the house was almost full and her singing was warmly received.  We ordered some starters, chopped spinach with spices and topped with pomegranate seeds, the eggplant stuffed with walnuts which we liked so much last time, and some slices of a local Georgian cheese. We tried to order white wine but they were out of it!  How does a restaurant run out of wine?  We had the Georgian red, which was very good and served rather chilled.  Cindy ordered the quail again and I, at the recommendation of the waitress, tried the lamb kabob.  She came back to tell Cindy that they didn’t have quail. This is so common in Russia, they run out of stuff and it never occurs to them to get more.  She ordered mushrooms instead which turned out to be mushroom caps with a cheesy topping that was baked and looked like a little soufflé, which was really quite good. I’m sure my lamb was spring lamb but I’m not sure which spring. Despite being a bit old and chewy, it had a lot of flavor.  Everything is ala carte here so when you order the lamb that is what you get, five little chunks of lamb.  We were still hungry after dinner so we decided to try the prunes stuffed with walnuts.  We each had an idea as to how it was prepared and how it was served and were very wrong.  She presented us with a bowl of about fifteen prunes that had been sprinkled with walnuts. No sauce, no ice cream, no nothing – not even a sprinkle of cinnamon.  We took the prunes home with us and I’m sure they’ll last a long time.  We’ll go back, but not for a while. Incidentally, we live at Gruzinski 3, which we thought might be someone’s name.  Actually, it is the Russian word for Georgia!!

The Ministry of Central Heating flipped the switch at three pm today. The apartment, which I found to be very comfortable, is now heating up.  My desk is right next to one of the radiators and I can already sense that I might have to move as the season progresses.

I had some trouble with the photos yesterday and not all of them were downloaded. If you want you can go to this link and see them all. At the left bottom you’ll see choices as to how you want to view them, slide show, thumbnail, etc.

It appears that The 54 Club has inducted a new member; in an effort I’m sure to show its inclusiveness.  The new member is in a wheelchair and seems to be well dressed and well groomed.  He has two saddlebags on the side of his chair; one had two bottles of vodka and the other had plastic glasses and beer.  He was sharing with everyone so either it was part of an initiation or he is from the Moscow Welcome Wagon.

Cindy has roped me into a field trip tomorrow to two monasteries about an hour away from here.  Depending upon what time we get back, and what my mood might be, I may or may not get to the blog.  I’m sure you would all like a day off anyway.  I’m hoping Cindy gets home early tonight so we can go for a walk and do a bit of shopping since I just found out that we need to pack a lunch and beverages for the bus trip.  Oh joy!!

Best to all, Cindy and Wm

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