Rude Russians and Bella Italia

This is one of those days where I wish I were somewhere else, almost anywhere else.  Moscow is not pretty when the snow has melted and the flowers are still making decisions as to whether to bother or not.  Walking around is like looking at an archeological dig, as the layers of snow depart they reveal the layers of garbage that had been thrown on the snow before each storm.  I’m sure they will clean it all up sometime soon, but for now it isn’t a pretty sight.

We took the car to Auchan for some heavy duty shopping.  The traffic wasn’t bad getting there but the store was crowded and the kamikaze carts of the babushkas created their own traffic jams in all of the aisles. My ankles are black and blue from being bumped repeatedly by these rude Russians.  On two occasions today I extended myself to help some Russian women.  One was with a family and the little kid in the stroller threw his hat to the ground. I picked it up and handed it to the woman and I wasn’t sure if she would seek to have me arrested for theft or cut my hand off.  She reluctantly acknowledged my assistance but you could tell it hurt her.  The next time I saw a woman struggling to open a door and get her baby carriage out so I went over and held the door for her and she simply walked right by me with zero acknowledgement.  Rude is too nice a word for some of these Russians.

I suppose part of the problem is that we are just back from seven days of smiles, polite gestures, friendly conversations and helpful clerks and waiters. It isn’t fair to compare a Mediterranean culture with a Slavic Culture, but I do!  We did have a lovely time in Italy and only wish that there were an easier way of getting there without the hassle of flights. 

Our friends Bob and Mary took such wonderful care of us, driving us all around Milan and their town called Opera and making sure that our desires for good wine and fine food were satisfied.  On Sunday they drove us out into the hills of Emilia Romagna, home of legendary restaurants and food products.  Our destination was one of their favorite little restaurants perched high on a hill and basically the only place for miles around. The views were stunning, like being in Tuscany or the hills of Burgundy, but the food, oh my.  There were platters of cured meats, roasted vegetables, pickled vegetables, pan fried pumpkin slices in butter and herbs, fried shrimp and tempura vegetables and this was just appetizers.  The pastas were all home made and were deep yellow from all the fresh egg yokes.  Some were prepared primavera style with tons of fresh vegetables, some with porcini and fresh truffles - and mine was delicate pasta filled with fresh creamy ricotta and herbs and then twisted to look like little firecrackers.  We were all relatively sure that we were done eating after this, but the flesh is weak and we decided to order two main dishes and share them.  Ours was a perfectly cooked piece of goose with grilled apples and a honey cinnamon sauce.  The wines were from the area and they were perfect with the food. At the end the owner, who knows Bob and Mary, came by with two local digestives so we could try them before trying the ice cream he made with them.  It was a sad parting, and I would have liked to have gone for a long walk and started all over again for dinner, but we had miles to go.  Before crossing the river back into Lombardia, we stopped at a winery where Bob and Mary are regulars and we got the big family treatment of hugs and kisses and glasses and glasses of wine that we simply had to taste.  For some reason the ride back was much shorter than the ride out there.

On Monday Cindy and I took a bus and then a tram and did a quick tourist review of downtown Milan including La Scala, the lovely and sparking clean cathedral, the Galleria and some of the more lovely pedestrian streets.  It was fun to see it all again but we longed to get back to the countryside and quiet of Opera, where we had a penultimate dinner with Bob and Mary.  The next day we were off to Cremona via train.  According to the hotel brochure, it was to be a short ten-minute walk from the Cremona train station to the hotel. Either they have moved the train station or the hotel, since it was more like a twenty-minute walk. The hotel was simple and perfectly placed for our walking around the old city. We were just a few minutes away from the main square and the beautiful buildings that surround the grand tower.  We stopped in the tourist center and found, much to our delight, that it was Culture Week and nearly all of the events and museums were free.  We were also told that we could purchase tickets to listen to the ‘audition’ at 15:30. This is when someone is allowed to play one of the priceless Stradivarius violins in the museum.  We toured the museum first looking at about twelve Strads, a few Guarneri and other instruments, and watching Cindy was like watching a kid in a candy store.

We were finally seated along with about fifty grade school kids - all of whom were wonderfully behaved - and the violinist came out to play.  In rapid Italian he told the kids a bit about the history of the violin and the important role Cremona played in the evolution of the violin and other stringed instruments.  He then introduced the violin he was going to play, all the good ones I found out have names, and then he played.  It was magic, just sitting in this ancient room filled with tapestries, paintings and frescos and listening to the dulcet tones coming from this instrument.  (From CC:  dulcet, yes, but the power and beauty of the tone was overwhelming.  I kept looking for the amplification system!)

We then took a walk to the big museum and spent another hour or so looking at more instruments, tools, and manuscripts and drawings. We saw a really good video that gave the history of Cremona and the luthiers (violinmakers) who made the town famous. In order to get to this part of the museum we had to walk though acres of huge paintings from old locals, none of which grabbed our attention, but the museum itself was just spectacular with one of the grandest staircases in the world, all made with multicolored marble.

By now it was almost five thirty and we settled in for a glass of wine in the main square smack dab in front of the cathedral and tower.  What a lovely view and what a lovely wine.  In Cremona when you order a drink you also get plates of little snacks, chips, crackers, olives, small sandwiches, little plates of meat, nuts … it all depends on where you go, so my task for the next day was to find the best places for aperitivi.  More on that tomorrow. Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Milan to Moscow

We arrived back in Moscow late last night.  Our flight from Milan was an hour late and they didn’t make up much of the lost time.  By the time we dropped other AAS faculty off at their residences, we didn’t get in the door until nine pm.  That old expression, ‘getting there is half the fun,’ needs to be retired, especially when talking about flying.

We departed Cremona on Thursday afternoon, taking a train from there to Milan central station and connecting seamlessly with a bus that took us to Malpensa airport where we connected with another bus to take us to the Crowne Plaza hotel.  All in all it took about three and a half hours and by the time we arrived we were very hungry and thirsty. Luckily the bar served a nice salad and two cold glasses of wine set us up for a lovely nap.  During out post-nap walk around the neighborhood - this hotel is about a mile from the terminal and in a residential area - we found a trattoria that looked promising.  We headed there about eight pm for a drink and a look around and decided it would be fine, and it was.  The décor was nothing to talk about, brightly lit and mostly plastic, but the food was delicious and the wine half the price of the wine we’d had at the hotel.

The next morning we took the shuttle bus to the terminal to check in for the flight. We allowed three hours for this process and we used almost all of it just trying to navigate Malpensa.  This has to be one of the worst airports in the world.  Like many things Italian, the focus was on design, not function.  Think Italian plumbing and Italian cars:  very pretty to look at, but they really don’t work well.  We had to walk to a far end of the terminal, which is really long, to check in. After waiting there for forty minutes and then finally checking in, we had to walk all the way to the other end of the terminal to get into a line for security that took an hour and a half to get through.  Not once did we see any staff trying to speed things up or stop people from jumping the line. There are huge pictures of what you have to do to pass security:  take off your jacket, take out your phones and computers, take off your belt, etc., and yet to a person, everyone forgot to do one or more things resulting in them having to go back and forth through the metal detector.  Finally we got through and were in a short line for immigration and passport control only to find that the woman ahead of us was taking out papers to show the officer.  That is always a horrible thing – separate pieces of paper mean that their passport isn’t good and it takes forever - so we had to change to another line.  Finally through, we were blocked by Asian tourists, mostly Japanese, in a tangle to get their VAT refunded.

We now had only about twenty minutes before boarding and we headed to the Alitalia lounge for a coffee for Cindy and a drink for me.  The lounge lady was lovely and told us our flight would be delayed and then she got us better seats and blocked the middle seat for us, which was a godsend given how packed the flight was.  The lounge offered beer and Prosecco and there must have been a promotion on Gordon’s gin since there were rows and rows of the little travel-size bottles on the counter.  It made me wish I drank gin!

We had to take a bus to the plane because Malpensa wasn’t designed for the number of flights it now has so they employ gates for almost all flights less than four hours.  Just before they closed the doors to the plane, in comes a woman with two kids and sits right behind us. We must be rotten-kid magnets since our inbound flight had a woman with two rotten kids also, and now this.  She, like the other woman, was young and attractive and she most likely never thought that finding and marrying Mr. Right would involve having kids and sitting in coach.  Neither part of that situation suited her, and the kids were just horrid. It was a very, very long flight, punctuated by two girls getting caught smoking in the bathroom.  Man oh man, you should have seen the Alitalia crew in action, they were fast and furious and those young ladies, who at first were smiling and thinking it was all a game, were really in big trouble and were met at the gate by security.  I would imagine they are somewhere in the bowels of the former KGB building by now.

Moscow is much as we left it but with much less snow. This morning was a lovely 44° and bright sun.  I went for a quick walk around the block and two people asked me for directions!  In Italy, no one asked me for directions; I just think Russians get lost a lot.  The Russians seem to have embraced spring by drinking lots and lots of beer.  There were three clusters of people, mostly men, who were drinking huge amounts of beer and smoking cigarettes at 9 am.  Not a tradition you read much about in tourist magazines.  In between doing four loads of laundry we managed a nice long walk around a new neighborhood that had lots of lovely old and stately homes, and it was quite nice to be walking without hats, gloves and scarves.

Italy was lovely. We were in the Milan area with our friends for five meals, all of them wonderful and one of them spectacular. Cremona was a delight and I almost got Cindy a Stradivarius but the guards were watching.  More details on Italy tomorrow.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Moscow to Milan

This evening will start Cindy’s spring break and we are heading to Milan.  I’ll meet her at the airport at about 1730 for a 1920 flight.  Living in Moscow means that some of the niceties we have become accustom to in the US just don’t exist.  There is no such thing as printing your boarding pass before heading to the airport, which might entail a loss of jobs for the hundreds of people who issue boarding passes.  You can’t request a seat assignment until you actually check in at the airport, which means if you are late, you are in a middle seat.  I don’t even know which terminal the flight is departing from since they don’t let you know that until you arrive and check the monitors. It makes for some thrilling adventures.

We are trying to travel green on this trip which means that we’ll be using only public transportation, no rental car, no taxis, just planes, buses and trains. Since we arrive late tonight we’ll stay at the airport hotel and tomorrow morning we’ll take a train to downtown Milan where we’ll meet our dear friends Bob and Mary who live and work in Milan. After three days of playing with them, it is back to the train station via Metro and a connection to Cremona, home of famous violins and violinmakers. We’ll wander around there for two more days before taking a train and then a bus back to the airport on Thursday night where we’ll stay until our flight on Friday.  With all these transfers we are packing light and therefore no computer or all the junk associated with a computer.  No missives for a week so you can all relax.

Dinner last night was one of those clean the fridge deals, yet again.  I rummaged around and made a salad of spinach topped with Fritos, topped with my homemade avocado dish, topped with sour cream topped with sprinkles of paprika. It looked like the national flag of Mexico. The avocado dish is simple but elegant. It is just chunky avocado mixed with a clove of garlic, chopped cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chili flakes.  It is best served after having sat in the fridge for two to three hours.  The main course was cod fillets breaded in crushed almonds and pan fried in a little butter and olive oil until the crust was brown and crisp. I served that with cauliflower florets mixed with some of the crushed almonds, two cheeses and baked until everything is bubbling.

Since I have most of the day before departing I decided to wash the bedding since that is an all day project given the size of our washer.  It is always nice to come home to clean sheets and pillowcases.

Finally, this bit of budgetary wizardry from the US Government. It is about to purchase 21 Russian made Mi-17 helicopters. We shall then, as per a NATO agreement, turn them over to the Afghan military for their use in counter terrorism.  Now comes the tricky part.  These helicopters sell for about 7 or 8 million a piece. We however are paying 17.5 million a piece; supposedly the additional expense is for spare parts and training.  I would think that we could buy 2.5 helicopters for 17.5 million and use one of the them for spare parts when needed? What ever happened to Sikorsky, that lovely US based maker of helicopters?  Wouldn’t it be nice to see a US company get a bit more work out of our fiasco in Afghanistan!

On that happy note I’ll bid you all a happy weekend and a marvelous week until we are in touch again.   Cindy and Wm 

Moscow Moisture

I had a lovely long walk before going to the Embassy. There are hints, innuendos, and suggestions, if you will, of green on the bleak lawns and trees. I have a feeling that when things pop here they all pop at once and we’ll go from late winter to mid-spring in two or three days.  I’ll take whatever they throw at me as long as it involves more warm weather and gentle breezes.

I did a little shopping for basics at the Embassy and paid our cable bill while there. I had to bring back a bottle of corked wine that I purchased there and had to explain to them what a corked wine was and how it came to be that way.  By the time I was done explaining about TCA, white mold and cork trees, their eyes were glazed and they couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.  I purchased too many heavy things and by the time I got home my back was killing me from shouldering the one bag I had brought. My timing was stellar and just as I got to the door to our apartment complex, the rains had begun and continue in a gentle and soothing patter.

Two more signs of spring; the kiosks outside the zoo are all open and trying to draw in the customers. One is a photo joint that has people dressed like Disney animals attempting to get parents to take pictures of their kids with these models.  The other is a sausage place that has irresistible smells coming from the little grill, and the lines testify to the excellent product they are selling.

I watched a car repo job right outside my window this morning.  It was a big black newish looking Range Rover and it took three people to get the thing up on the truck.  It is always fun to guess what happened and why it was being repossessed, but judging from the way these yahoos mangled the bumper to get the towline connected, I’m sure they aren’t going to be selling that car as new.

Bahrain continues to struggle with the concept of democracy and equal rights. Instead of using the recent unrest to explore ways of engaging in dialogue, the way the Crown Prince wanted to do, they have returned to the heavy handed bungling that has become the trademark of the Prime Minister.  These two articles speak volumes regarding the direction the country is taking.  The ruling family is making a classic mistake:  When you can’t understand the big picture, focus on the little stuff, like taking coins out of circulation because the have a picture of the Pearl Roundabout on them. Instead of keeping their best hospital open and serving the public, they have made it into a jail.  I fear for what will soon happen when the people have had enough of this second-class treatment.

Since we are heading to Italy on Friday, I wanted to use everything I could in the fridge for dinner. There was some cooked chicken, one carrot, an onion and lots of garlic, some dried figs and a green apple, so I decided to do a chicken curry.  I cubed the chicken, cut the vegetables and fruits and flash fried everything in a wok.  I added curry powder from Bahrain, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, chili flakes, a hint of mint, pepper and a bit of salt to a cup of hot chicken stock, mixed it all up before adding it to the wok where I incorporated it into the chicken mix.  Just before serving, I added a half-cup of milk and a half-cup of sour cream to the chicken mix and gently heated it all up again.  I served it on top of rice and decorated it with fresh chives and served it with hot Naan.  It was a fun meal and the spices did much to help keep me awake.

Parting Shot:  Reason 37 for not shopping at Wal-Mart

Stay well, Cindy and Wm

Beating Feet with Sneakers

Happy Birthday Mom – you would have been 86 today.

I’m in Moscow, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the upper 40’s and the snow is melting faster than the wicked witch of the east.  The trip home was as easy as it can get.  I was upgraded on the leg from Dulles to Houston and I must say that Continental is a very fine carrier.  The flight was lovely, great service and video at each seat; I wish United would learn from Continental.  I had been worried about connections but everything was spot on time despite the storms enroute.  The connection to Singapore was perfect - they kept a seat next to me open, which is almost like being in Business class - and my bag was the first to arrive so I was out and on the train in no time.  As much as I love the Metro here in Moscow, after having used the Singapore subway system things here look a bit shabby, due I’m sure to the fact that they have fifty-year-old rolling stock.

I was too tired to go out to dinner so I whipped up an appetizer of pan fried little potato dumplings that Cindy had had for dinner one night.  I browned them in butter and garlic and served them with fresh chives and a touch of Parmesan cheese.  I then made a little onion, garlic and red pepper omelette and served it on a bed of spinach. By 8:30 we were both falling asleep so we headed to bed early. I took something Cindy gave me and slept until 8:15 this morning.  I’m still feeling a bit tired but that will pass with some walking.

Every place has its harbingers of spring:  The swallows come back to Capistrano, the bluebirds return to Charles Town and here in Moscow, the boys of The 54 Club return to their clubhouse.  I was thrilled to see five of them convening a meeting this afternoon.  Refreshments were being served, well at least the bottles were being passed around, and everyone seemed to be in a fine mood with lots of greetings being extended to passersby.

Speaking of celebrations, it appears that my alma mater has won the national championship in basketball for the third time.  I’m told that is quite an accomplishment and I was dismayed that some of the students at UCONN used this victory as an opportunity to trash the campus and vandalize the area.  It is quite a tribute to stupidity when you can turn victory into defeat.

There is a third international airport here in Moscow that not many people are aware of since it is mostly used for the big shots as their private airport. It is called Vnukovo and it is about to get another runway, which will close if for while. This means that the politicos and other wealthy will have to use Sheremetyevo, which can only be reached by one road.  This means huge, huge delays during holiday periods or other times that these folks will travel since they actually close the entire road for top government officials as they travel to the airport.  Last year they had three-hour delays and this year they expect those will double.

At least the Bank of Moscow president, Andrei Borodin, won’t have to worry about travel delays. He left Russia yesterday, just before he was to be arrested on charges of providing a half-billion dollar loan to the wife of the then Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.  Turns out the loan went into her personal account. Rumor has it that Andrei flew to London where Yuri and wife are living quite comfortably.

With a big nod to the Cold War era, Russia passed a new Criminal Code, which states that the sale or purchase of ‘…special technical devices intended for the covert collection of information’ is outlawed.  This has been interpreted to mean any device like an iPhone, Blackberry or other PDA that can record conversations. You have to read the details to truly understand the lunacy. 

This was the first day this year that I was able to go walking with just regular sneakers and man was it fun.  Just being able to get up a head of steam and not worry about ice or snow was a joy.  On my walk I noticed a few more Russian signs that it is spring.  The young girls have either hiked their skirts up about four inches or they are wearing much shorter jackets, there is a lot more drinking while walking going on, and as a result, there is a whole lot more public drunkenness, not just from the likes of The Club 54 members.  I saw two “fall down, stay down” episodes of drunks today in just 90 minutes.   I think a lot of people who had just abandoned driving for the winter are back on the roads since there was gridlock everywhere I went.  There was one traffic cop by the intersection where our road meets a main road. It is always a mess there, mostly because no one respects the Don’t Block the Box rule so that even when lights change no one can go anywhere. So the cop is out there trying to direct traffic and make people stop at the light, not inside the box, but this is Russia and authority figures, especially those not armed or in bigger cars, are just ignored.  Even when you have a traffic light as well as a cop, there is still no movement.  Finally the cop just threw up his hands and walked away: Score one for civil disobedience.

The Russian store clerks don’t seem overly caught up in the spirit of spring. I had to get one banana weighed and I’m standing there while the clerk was cutting up a printout of three columns and six rows of new prices. She had one little pair of scissors and she was very focused on her job.  I gave here a few pozhaluistas (please) and one or two izvinite menyas, (excuse me) but she was not to be distracted. Finally a few of the babushkas behind me said a few more forceful words to her and she responded by grabbing my banana as though I had been holding a pistol to her head.  Goodness, they need to have more laxatives in their diets! 

On a happier note, there are clusters of little Snowbell flowers near our door and about forty tulips have just extended the first inch of leaf though the thawing ground.  It is all good. 

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Heading Back to Moscow

My last full day in Charles Town and I’ve pretty much accomplished everything I needed to do here.  The biggie was getting our taxes done and filed.  Fortunately TurboTax has become much easier to use and once you get all the paperwork in order, all that is left is to enter the data.  It took about eight hours from start to finish over a three-week period and I just pushed the button to eFile everything.

To celebrate, I cleaned the kitchen and sunroom since it was raining too hard to go for a long walk; I figured this would be a good way to work up a sweat.  The best part was being able to use the Swiffer once again.  Haven’t really used it since Bahrain but it still works well and makes both our wood and tile floors sparkle.  I washed all the area rugs and everything looks swell.  Colin and Meagan left today for Florida but when they come back, they’ll return to a spick and span kitchen.

I’ll do a Skype walk thru with Cindy to make sure I’ve gotten everything that she needs in Moscow packed and ready to haul back.  I’m taking the scenic route back to Moscow, via Houston. Believe it or not, it was cheaper to go from here to Houston on Continental connecting to Singapore Airlines to Moscow than it would have been to take the non-stop from Dulles to Moscow.  If the connection works well it should be a pleasant flight.

I had some very long flights from Singapore to Seoul to San Francisco to Charlotte to Dulles, all in one very, very long day.  The two Singapore Air flights were full, every seat taken.  I was seated next to a three hundred pound Indian man who never soiled his cutlery since he ate everything with his hands.  Every time I would move my arm on the shared armrest, he would take the space.  He consumed six beers on the six-hour flight and then proceeded to expel the carbonation via foul gas.  It was a delightful flight.  I had forgotten that this flight is called the Bombay Bomber since it is the cheapest way for Indians to get to the USA.  There were many, many families that simply let their male children run wild.  There must have been at least ten or twelve pregnant women who, judging from their size, were going to the USA to have anchor babies.   Once we got to Seoul I made a beeline to the Singapore desk and had my seat changed.  The next leg to SFO was long and sleep eluded me.  There is no easy way, even on Singapore Airlines, to sit in coach that long in any comfort.

The flight to Charlotte was in a little Airbus 319, which was also filled.  Unlike SQ, USAir and the rest of the US carriers charge for checking luggage and don’t offer any food on the flights.  This means that everyone carries everything on board, slowing down the boarding process and forcing flight attendants to gate check luggage, which they now do for free.  I think even the dumb ones have figured out how to beat the system.  Since no food is served, in addition to all the luggage they carry on, they also have to carry on enough food with them to feed a family of four.  In no time the cabin stinks of fried food, pizza and chili.  It seems that everyone has a device that plays movies so as soon as they can turn them on, they close all the shades on the windows to watch their movie, despite flying over some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.  I had hoped to have a lot of daylight in the cabin to help combat jetlag, but it wasn’t to be.  It is no longer a fun experience to fly in the USA.

Having said that, I am now fighting with Continental about my ticket to Houston tomorrow. Seems that when I went to check in on the Internet they had booked me to Houston via New Orleans getting me into Houston about ten minutes after the departure of the Singapore flight.  I’m told not to worry but they don’t have any idea what kind of trouble I would be in if I had to tell Cindy that I’m going to be a day late!

Ok, two hours later I now have confirmation of my non-stop flight to Houston tomorrow.  No assigned seat, but a confirmed reservation.  The joys of travel!

Time to go and pack everything up and get ready for my departure tomorrow. It has been a long two weeks and I’m more than eager to get back to Moscow, which really means getting back to Cindy.  We leave for an Italian vacation on Friday so I’ll have two days to rest and repack.  Can’t wait.   Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday,   Wm

Cindy's Musical Moscow

My turn for Moscow Musings, hoping that the Blogmeister will approve my submission while he is in WV!  Today is cloudy and rainy but above freezing so it is feeling more like spring.  There are actually a few crocuses blooming in the common area outside our apartment, and there is direct evidence of tulips on their way soon.  William will be able to enjoy yet another spring when he returns this week.

I decided that I needed to take advantage again this weekend of something cultural in this wondrous city.  Last Sunday I went to a piano recital with my friend Leah the math teacher (who plays piano) and we enjoyed a lovely concert of Chopin and Schubert.  We muddled our way through the program, sounding out the easy words like Chopin and Schubert, and then struggled with a phrase describing one of the pieces until we figured out it said “4 hands.”  OK, a duet.  But then the soloist came out alone and it wasn’t a duet after all … at which point we decided the line underneath said “transcription” because he had transcribed the duet into a solo.  It was a beautiful piece, as were all of the pieces he played.

Today my cultural pick was the Glinka Museum: http://www.glinka.museum/eng/index_eng.html

Glinka is a lesser-known Russian composer from the 19^th century – as it happens Leah and I have been practicing a sonata by him that is beautiful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Glinka

When reading about the museum, it looked to me like it would be rather esoteric with lots of manuscripts and other items of moderate interest to me and of little to no interest for a non-musician so I didn’t even invite anyone else (I was wrong; in reality almost anyone who enjoys music would probably like it).  It’s a 20-25 walk from our apartment and it was interesting to stride past all the cars that were barely crawling in the Saturday afternoon traffic.  My map studying paid off and I walked right up to it, but once I got inside I almost gave up because I was afraid everything would be in Russian.  I wandered about the lobby for a few minutes and then decided that since I was this close it would be foolish to leave, so I bought a ticket and went in.  It turned out to be mostly musical instruments, some old and some modern, and every one of the descriptions was in English as well as Russian.  Whew.  The older Russian balalaikas were cool, and I noticed there is a similar instrument called a droma that is round rather than having a triangular shape like a balalaika.

My favorite exhibits were several modern violins and violas, some of which had been winners in recent Tchaikovsky violin-making competitions.  However, I can’t figure out why someone isn’t playing these lovely instruments; it’s not like they’re so old and valuable they have to be preserved in a museum and it seems to me someone should be taking advantage of playing them.

After learning that a Russian bassoon is a brass instrument rather than a woodwind and admiring some beautiful keyboard instruments, I retrieved my coat from the friendly (not) coat-check lady and headed home.  About halfway there I came across a busser in the underground pedestrian passage playing “Summertime” on a balalaika.  So incongruous and yet somehow fitting!

Note from Wm.  It is so lovely to get a little taste of Moscow from such a gifted writer, while sitting here in Charles Town.  Can’t wait to get back on Tuesday.   Hope you all have a lovely weekend, Cindy and Wm