Easter Sunday, Moscow Rules

Happy Easter

We were up late last night having gone to dinner at a lovely spot not far from the apartment.  The food and wine were wonderful and we didn’t care about the price since we go out so infrequently.  I was a bit worried about the restaurants being crowded on Easter Saturday evening, but we were almost the only ones in the restaurant, which ensured great service.   We ran into a friend of Cindy’s from work, one of the Russian teachers. She sat with us for awhile and shared stories of Russians and her recent vacation to the Dominican Republic.  She also helped us with some restaurant words and we now know how to order an ice bucket for the wine.

We got up late at about 8:30 and while Cindy ran, I spent twenty minutes on the treadmill.  After coffee and a very light breakfast, we cleaned up, dressed up and headed out for a walk to the Old Arbat so that Cindy could see it for herself.  I somehow had pictured Easter Sunday on the Old Arbat as being like the Easter Day Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York.  I was wrong! You would think that after a hard winter a beautiful Easter Sunday would make Moscow smile, but alas the Muscovites are still somber and sullen.  For the most part the Arbat was filled with young kids looking for love in all the wrong places, skinheads looking for trouble and drinking enough beer to cause their own, a few tourists and lots of “Stans” (from Khazakstan, Uzbekistan, etc.) walking around on their day off.  All of them joyless. Even the parks were filled with empty faces and emptier beer and vodka bottles.  About the only place where you could hear any laughter and see lots of smiles was around the Zoo, which was jam packed with families today.

Unfazed, we walked for several hours enjoying each other’s company, stopping for a coffee and marveling at all the old and ever so beautiful buildings and offices. My but this is grand city if you look in the right spots.  I’m predicting that by Wednesday most of the trees will have some tentative leaves and Moscow will once again start turning green.

With the good weather comes the opening of windows, which is a mixed blessing. While the cool breeze is most welcomed, there is a lot of dust that comes with it since we have had no appreciable rain in weeks.  Cindy had to get out the Swiffer Duster and go around our bedroom, which was coated with fine white dust and dirt.  The open windows also let in lots and lots of the music of the streets.  Our parking area has become the skate board/inline skate hotspot of the neighborhood.  We have lots of Asian families that live in this complex; most of them are from Vietnam and all of them seem to have four kids.  On the weekends and after school now that the weather is fine, they are out in force and at times the noise can be overwhelming and is always annoying.  Punctuate that noise with two or three car alarms and a few ambulances arriving at the clinic next door and you have a cacophony of chaos.

So, as the sun sinks slowly in the west, I’ll chill the Champagne and we’ll toast our first Easter in Russia.  I hope you all have an interesting day – Let me leave you with this Happy Easter rap.  Cindy and Wm.

Easter Saturday Moscow

Another lovely day, and Cindy, being moved by my blog yesterday, demanded to be taken to the Vagankovo Cemetery. There were about a million people there, most of them in a non-moving line to enter the very small church on the cemetery grounds. We don’t know what the tradition is; I assume it is to bless things, but there were at least a thousand people waiting to get in.  This article might shed some light as to why there were so many people. The line went clear out the gate and across the street, fortunately the streets have been blocked until after Easter. 

We walked completely around the cemetery and enjoyed watching everyone cleaning and decorating the gravesites. Some of the gravesites are very simple and some are very, very elaborate as you can see from these photos.

One long part of the cemetery borders the railway tracks that serve Beloruskya Station. There is a three-car train, all in red that is parked near the cemetery. After lots of research using Google Language we translated it as the Fire Train Headquarters.  It seems that they have several of these trains that can be taken to remote fire areas that trucks can’t reach.  The train has the HQ car, a large armored car for personnel and equipment, and a huge tanker car for water.  Quite the setup.

We walked from the cemetery to the park that Cindy runs in. We wanted to take photos of a statue with some poems on either side of the marble block and translate them, which took us lots of time.  Anyway, they are interesting but not that interesting. I suppose you had to be there when he was reciting them.  Right behind the park is a museum, which I call the Museum of Funny Art. There are some rather whimsical statues out front but every time we go there the joint is closed so we have to try and figure out what everything is all about.  Some of the photos are attached in the above link.

Since Easter Week and Passover share a lot of days, I thought you might enjoy this cartoon.

Here are some picture postcards of Moscow in the 60’s.  Only the buses are the same today!

Happy Easter Saturday, Cindy and Wm

Our Train Station in the 60's.  It doesn't look this good now!

Our main drag, everything that is green is now pavement!

Good Friday at Vagankovo Cemetery

The days just get better and better. I had decided not to do any long walks today so that my legs could recover from yesterday.  The day beckoned however so I thought I would just go for a short one-hour walk. I had wanted to visit the Vagankovo Cemetery, which is only about fifteen minutes from here. (If we could explain what to click you could see our building, but there is  no way to mark it.)  It is the second largest cemetery in Moscow and it is where those who didn’t qualify to be buried in Novodevichy are relegated.  It is known as a sports and artist cemetery and there are some rather unusual markers.  One in particular is shaped like a football pitch (from CC: he means soccer field) and is the marker for one of the great Russian soccer players.  It is a very, very large place and it was very crowded since today is Good Friday and everyone is making sure that the grave sites are cleaned and filled with fresh flowers for the Easter pilgrimage that most Russian families make to honor their loved ones. In fact, as I think I mentioned, most roads around the cemeteries are to be blocked this weekend to make sure everyone can walk in safety.  I saw lots of police presences today.

Vagankovo has a much different feel than Novodevichy. It far more densely populated and feels much more like a burial ground than a must-see stop for tourists and a photo op for newlyweds.  It is very pretty and I’m sure that in the summer it is just as lovely as this 360° photo.  Here are some other photos that you might enjoy. I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures today with everyone working on the graves.  The flower vendors that line both sides of the road to the entrance were doing a brisk business in both fresh and plastic flowers, and to tell you the truth, the plastic ones looked better. It turns out my one-hour walk turned into two hours but it was very pleasant and peaceful and I was happy to be off the major roads.

Texting while walking is becoming an epidemic here. I can’t tell you how many people have been bumped and bruised by people aimlessly walking with their heads turned down typing or reading some message.  Yesterday there was a serious case of a pedestrian chain reaction as one woman just stopped in the middle of a narrow sidewalk to type a message and she was darn near run over by those behind her. Things just stopped until everyone could get back into a walking rhythm again.

We have no real plans for Easter Weekend.  One of our granddaughters, Emily, asked us to go to the Pushkin Museum and take some photos since she is studying Chagall in school. She is like in fifth grade and they are studying Chagall??  I think I was still learning colors in fifth grade, but hey, that’s progress.

Dinner was a simple affair.  I pan seared some tuna fillets and finished them with a lime/teriyaki glaze and served them with assorted vegetables.  We had a lovely white Bordeaux to accompany the fish and that added a touch of elegance. Speaking of wine, I found two bottles of Vinho Verde at the Liberty store. They were only eight bucks each and only have 10° alcohol so I scooped them up and we’ll try them this weekend.  It will be a lovely way to celebrate Easter.

Happy Easter Weekend,  Cindy and Wm

The Kremlin Wall

Today is by far the most beautiful of the year.  It is a gloriously sunny day, in the 50’s and very clear.  I decided to take a walk this morning since I had one task that I needed to accomplish.  I had purchased two sets of tickets online for the Bolshoi, one on the 14^th of May for the Opera Nabucco by Verdi and the other on the 2^nd of June for the ballet Swan Lake. These tickets are to kick off the gala two-month celebration of Cindy finally reaching the age of enlightenment on June 3^rd.  I wanted to bring my two vouchers down to the ticket office and exchange them for the real deal, so I headed to Red Square, turned left before the gates and was at the Bolshoi four minutes later.  I presented my vouchers and she asked me for the credit card I had used to pay for them.  Well, this started a wonderful discussion about credit thief, the lack of mail coming to Russia from the USA and the fact that that particular card had been cancelled since purchasing the tickets. Fortunately for me, she was a very friendly person and we muddled though lots of the above before I realized I had a trump card.  I whipped out my Kartichka - that is the diplomatic card written in Russian explaining that I’m a dumb American, but please treat him with respect.  She took a look at the card, then looked at my name on the voucher and bingo, two sets of tickets were printed and we smiled as we exchanged our Do Svidanyas and I was off.

I had left the apartment at 10:30 since I knew the ticket office didn’t open until 11 and now it was 11:20 and I didn’t want to go back the same way so I decided I would walk around the Kremlin Gate.  I walked through Red Square and just followed the enclosed gate for about fifty minutes; it really is a lovely walk and the weather was just delightful.  I then walked another hour until I reached the Old Arbat street, which now is a pedestrian way filled with western food chains, Hard Rock Café, tons of street musicians, panhandlers and tourist souvenir shops and bars.  It used to be the street of diplomats and wealthy merchants, but that was hundreds of years ago. Today there was a lot of construction going on as the cafés and bars were installing their outdoor seating areas. I’m assuming on a Friday or Saturday night that place is jumping.

I ended up walking by our embassy where I popped in for a few items and then headed home having walked for about four hours.  I know I’ll suffer tomorrow, but I feel very righteous. You can start to feel that spring will burst on the scene in a few days. Unlike Charles Town where our spring is slow and long, here everything will pop overnight, especially if we have some much needed rain.

And now for something completely different.  Who says that the Russian President is too stiff?  Here is a wonderful clip and I just know that Elaine from Seinfeld and Medvedev could really boogie all night. Here is an amusing little article; unfortunately it is 100% accurate.  Just two weeks ago I got on a packed Aeroexpress and grabbed one of the last seats and the seat back went straight back. I ended up seating on it like a bench for the whole 45 minutes.

Chicken and Vegetables

You are all going to think that all I cook is chicken or chicken parts and this week you would be correct. However, when you see fresh chicken at reasonable prices, you just have to buy it.  I found some very fresh and rather modestly priced deboned chicken thighs on sale at the market so I grabbed them.  I roasted them with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and paprika. Next to them on the roasting pan I placed sliced potatoes.  In a wok I flash fried broccoli, garlic, onions and red peppers. I kept basting the potatoes with the rendered chicken fat as they cooked and you can see the lovely brown crust that developed.  We started with some chicken liver pate that I had made with the left overcooked livers. Without electronic kitchen devices, I was forced to do things the old fashioned way, using two knives in opposition to one another, to chop up the liver and then the hard cooked eggs. I served the pâté on a bed of spinach with a side of cornichons.  

Let us talk about hard cooked eggs for a moment since many of you will be cooking dozens of them for Easter.  I have, over the course of fifty years, tried every method of cooking eggs you can think of. I’ve pierced them, plunged them in ice water, added vinegar to the boiling water, made them dance in the pan to crack them after they have cooked and let them sit in cold water and yet, I’ve not found a foolproof way to get easy peelers all the time. Someone once said that the fresher the egg the harder it is to peel, but I don’t know if that is true.  I’m open to any and all suggestions!

Ciao for now, Cindy and Wm

Moscow Dresses Up

As Moscow counts down to the big May Day celebrations and Victory Day on May 9^th, the city is getting itself all prettied up for all the visitors.  Everywhere you go there are people outside painting buildings, fences, bus stops and other public areas, especially in and around Red Square.  Even here in our little housing area, there has been non-stop work on painting all the fences that surround the parking area and the little grassy spots between the nine doorways into the apartments.  I note with great amusement that they still do things the old Soviet way:  They paint over the rust, thus making sure that next year they’ll have even more work to do.  One fence outside the apartment area was being painted a lovely green but there was so much rust under the paint that one section just collapsed.  The members of The 54 Club will be delighted to see that the city has repainted their clubhouse so it is nice and clean for their first meeting.

I did my normal workout with my rubber bands and then spent about twenty minutes on the treadmill.  I was quite stiff after the long walk yesterday so this worked out all the kinks.  I then took a brisk walk around the ‘hood ending up at the grocery store for some fruit and vegetables.  There was a long line to get all the vegetables weighed and priced, and it took me about ten minutes to get to be the next in line.  I heard a noise as if something had fallen from a shelf and as I turned my head to look at it, a woman jumped right in front of me. Before I could react, the babushka behind me was all over her like white on rice.  Man, she was vicious and while they were having it out, I started to place my fruits and vegetables on the counter to be weighed.  The woman that cut the line was from one of the Stans, and I’m sure that the vitriolic response from the other woman had more to do with her ethnicity than her cutting in line.  It is always an interesting experience to shop in Moscow.

Dinner last night was a great big spinach salad with chicken livers, caramelized onions and walnuts.  I tossed the spinach with a sesame dressing before adding the pan fried livers and onions.  I gave them a nice toss to help wilt the spinach before adding the walnuts.  I then plated the mixed salad onto large dinner plates and then added freshly shaved Grana cheese that we had brought back from Italy.  Earlier in the day I had reduced a pint of balsamic vinegar to about four ounces and I drizzled some of that onto the cheese.  It was really very good and certainly good for us.  I had found a bottle of Italian dry white for only about four dollars so we gave it a try and I’ll be going back to the store for lots more of it if it is still there.  It was crisp, fresh and 11% alcohol, perfect for our dinner.

Spinach Salad

Not much else to report, mostly working on keeping the house in order and doing a little spring cleaning.  I’m off to the kitchen to prep for tonight’s dinner. 

Almond Crusted Cod

Seared Tuna, Risotto and Caramelize Carrots

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Presnya and Politics

My day yesterday was filled with shopping and cooking so I never really had a chance to get outside to walk. I made up for that today with a three hour plus walk which took me to some fascinating locales.  I wanted to walk through some of my favorite parks to see what April has brought in the way of flowers or budding trees, but alas, it is still too early here and the best I found was a little clump of tulip shoots just breaking through the still cold soil.  It was a cool day with a strong wind that encouraged a brisk pace and before long I had a nice sweat going despite the chill in the air.

My plan was to follow the bus 54 route to see where it turns around, but as they say, “mortals plan; the gods laugh.”  I was heading in the right direction but came to a little pond and wanted to walk around it to see if it drained into the Moscow River, which was rather close at this point.  The pond ended rather abruptly at a little shack, which dispensed some type of oil for cars. There were lots of guys gathered around with five liter jugs getting them filled and then filling their engines. For all I know they drained their oil right into the pond and then filled up at the shack; nothing is beyond the scope of Russians.

I headed towards the river and came to a rather elaborate gate that led to a beautiful park that I later discovered is called Presnya Park and is filled with canals and decorative bridges. Today there were lots of mothers with kids on bikes, on scooters and tucked in prams, all enjoying the lovely morning sunshine.  It appears that at one time there was a grand palace on this property, which faces the Moscow River. The canals were all man made and for decoration as opposed to functioning as waterways as they do in Venice.  The park is named for a river, The Presnya, which used to feed the canals as well as fill Patriarch Pond and the two large ponds at the Zoo. Now the river has been diverted underground but still empties into the Moscow River at this park.

From there I headed down towards a large enclosed pedestrian bridge that I saw in the distance that I hoped would take me across the river. It is a very modern looking structure and once inside I marveled at the high-end shops that lined the walk over the river.  Lots of nice restaurants, food and ice cream kiosks and, as everywhere in Moscow, loads of places to buy cell phones and SIM cards.  It also afforded fabulous views up and down the Moscow River, which is once again fill with all types of tourist boats.

I followed the river all the way up to the bend before finding stairs up to a bridge, which took me back to the other side where I then headed for the embassy.  I did a little shopping there before heading back to the apartment.  I was tired and hungry when I got here but it did feel great to get out and do some serious moving.

I continue to read with great anxiety the continuing saga of the collapse of civility in Bahrain.   Yesterday they suspended and held for trial 111 teachers who had the audacity to peacefully protest for greater human rights and recognition. Their real crime, of course, is being Shi’a in a Sunni ruled land. The authorities continue to round up doctors and ambulance drivers who treated those injured by the security forces of Bahrain during their peaceful demonstrations; their crime was helping the wounded.  Even athletes and Peace Activists are not immune from the threat of suspension if they are Shi’a.  They now have involved troops from other Gulf nations, mostly Saudi Arabia, in house to house searches for those they believe to be protestors, all again who are Shi’a.  Imagine troops from Mexico or Canada coming into a home in the USA looking for ‘terrorists’ without warrants or due process.  It gives pause que? eh?  They have gone to great lengths to make sure that Bahrain TV only tells the government side of the issues and BTV makes Fox look liberal.

If you want to see what some of this is about, I encourage you to take a look at this link which shows rather graphically, with the aid of Google Earth, how much land and resources are controlled by the small royal family of Bahrain.  The people want representative democracy so that they can all claim a fair share of resources but it is not going to happen any time soon and it certainly isn’t going to happen with the assistance of the USA.  We pick our battles by first demonizing the leaders and then destroying the infrastructure of the country as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can’t do that in Bahrain since it is home to our Fifth Fleet so we condemn all the other countries of the Middle East for not allowing democracy to flower, while turning a blind eye towards the tortures and torments of those outside the gates of our base in Bahrain.  The government is even monitoring Bahraini students, all Shi’a, who are studying overseas and had the audacity to protest in London, or Manchester, Oxford or Essex. They are summoning them back after canceling their scholarships!

Enough with politics!  Let’s talk dinner.  I made two dinners last night, well one dinner for two families.  I did a variation on the theme of Basque Chicken. In addition to the chicken, sausage, red, yellow and green sweet peppers, garlic and onion, I added diced potatoes and lots of paprika.  It was, according to Cindy, the best of the many times I’ve cooked this dish. We went over to the family’s apartment with their dinner about 6:45. In addition to the Basque Chicken we brought over some fresh crusty French bread, an apple strudel, and a bottle of dry Tokaj.  He is Hungarian - thus the wine, the paprika, and the Basque dish since the only languages that are similar to Hungarian are Basque and Finnish and I don’t have any Finnish recipes.  We also brought a cold bottle of Champagne to toast the new baby Zsofi. (I did mention he is Hungarian?)  She is a lovely child with a full head of thick black hair and the longest fingers I’ve ever seen on a one-week old baby.  It was lovely to meet her.

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Gorky Park and Pussy Willows

Cindy and I just reread Gorky Park and we were going to watch the old movie, but decided that we should first go and walk through the park.  We headed for the Metro and in four stops we were within a ten-minute walk to the park.  It is a physically huge place that spreads out along the Moscow River.  The first part of the park is mostly tacky children’s rides and amusements, none of them open yet, but work is being done to get them ready for the Easter opening.  All along the water are the adult, make it teen, rides. We had seen these rides in operation when we were on a boat trip on the river last fall. These things are designed to make my stomach sick, but they seem to be very popular with teenagers.  You can click here for some nice photos.  We wandered around and tried to find some of the exact locations where the bodies from the novel were found.  We are sure we found the spots, but of course the film was shot in Sweden so perhaps nothing will seem as familiar in the movie.

We had to climb a lot of stairs to cross over the river on a very cool pedestrian bridge. As we entered there were five signs that said what you couldn’t do in the glass covered bridge: no smoking, no bike riding, no drinking, no pets, no food.  We took bets as to how many violations we would see in the crossing.  We both thought it would be three but it was four!  We didn’t see anyone smoking but all the other prohibitions were ignored.  Once we saw two uniformed police stop two kids riding bikes but shortly thereafter two teens raced by us in the other direction with their bikes.  Russians do not like laws that impede their desires. 

Our walk home took about ninety minutes and all along the way we saw lots and lots of people with little bunches of pussy willows.  It dawned on me that it was Palm Sunday and that perhaps they used pussy willows instead of palms. Sure enough a search on Google confirmed our suspicions. One article even said that if the sick eat nine pussy willow buds on Palm Sunday, they would be healed. Happily we were both feeling just fine.  The crowds around the newly opened zoo were thick with families and loud with the shrieks of delight from the kids.

Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday, I decided to wear nice pants instead of play pants and when I got home I found all sorts of grease and dirt stains on my slacks.  The bottom of my left pant leg looks like it got caught in a greasy bike chain. They are soaking as I write before I wash everything.  It hasn’t rained much and there is a lot of dirt in the air. Our cloths really looked horrible after our long walk requiring yet another load of laundry today.

I roasted a big chicken last night, with all the trimmings; I even made stuffing from some old bread.  The lousy oven betrayed me, yet again.  Somehow I can never adjust it for the right temperature and when I thought it was ready, I found that the thigh meat was still uncooked, so I separated them from the bird and cooked them a bit longer.  It was all good, but by the time we had finished Skyping everyone and eating dinner, it was far too late to start Gorky Park, so we’ll try it again sometime this week.

Today I’m cooking dinner for one of the AAS families that just had a baby.  Someone here organized a ‘meal service’ whereby a different family makes dinner for the new parents for the next week. I think it is a lovely idea and I’m only too happy to be able to contribute.  We’ll bring them the dinner, complete with wine, and visit a bit to welcome the new child.  Cindy purchased lovely little gifts for the new baby and her older brother, as well as for the parents; very thoughtful that Cindy.

On a cheery note, never let is be said that the entrepreneurial spirit isn’t alive and kicking in Russia:

From The Associated Press, April 18, 2011 - 06:17 a.m.

US investor reveals $39 million fortune of Moscow official who approved $230 million return

By The Associated Press

MOSCOW - An American investor barred from Russia has made public documents revealing a multimillion-dollar fortune of a Russian tax official. The documents revealed Monday by William Browder showed that a Moscow tax official who approved the fraudulent $230 million tax return in 2007 has bought luxury real estate in Moscow, Dubai and Montenegro and wired money through her husband's bank accounts worth $39 million. Olga Stepanova managed to do that with a registered household income of $40,000 for four years.  Lawyer Sergey Magnitsky who uncovered the tax fraud died in jail in 2009 after being denied medical treatment.  Browder has revealed documents incriminating officials of Moscow's Tax Office No. 28, which arranged the $230 million tax return in 2007.

Penniless in Moscow, Cindy and Wm.