Moscow Market

Many of you feared that you had missed Cindy’s birthday. Fear not, it isn’t until June 3^rd but we thought we would get a leg up and begin the festive event a tad early and then extend it until we are home.  Many of you also marveled at how great Cindy looks as she approaches sixty.  There is a secret to how she does this and I’ll share it with you today. The secret is that she allows me to do all the housework, shopping, cleaning, laundry, cooking, dishwashing and drying and assorted other tasks that could age anyone. So while she continues to look like Doriana Grey, I’m having seventy-year old women with crutches and canes giving up their seats on the Metro for me!!

We have had a fine day thus far.  In solidarity with New Orleans and the pending water issues they are again facing, I made Creole French Toast.  We had some day old multi-grain bread that I sliced into good-sized chunks and soaked for thirty minutes in two eggs that I had whipped with some milk, vanilla, and cinnamon - and here is the New Orleans part - a touch of bourbon.  I fried them until they were crispy outside and soft and tender inside and served them with sliced bananas, flaxseed, maple syrup and a touch of butter.  This gave us the strength to tackle our shopping at the big outdoor market at the far eastern edge of Moscow.

It only took us one transfer and about thirty-five minutes via Metro. I still marvel at how efficiently that system really works.  There was only one person trying to sell stuff on the Metro today. She was a woman in her thirties and she got on and once the doors closed she immediately went into her spiel trying to sell duct tape!  Yep, good old-fashioned duct tape, a rather thin roll but still in original wrapping.  I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but knew I could add about fifteen things to do with duct tape to her lengthy list.  No one purchased her duct tape so she moved on to the next car.

That's a Cosmonaut Suit to the left

Lots of Russian Dolls

Wolves and other furry things

Tons of Fur Hats

 I had thought the market would be really crowded but with overcast skies and fifty-degree weather, most sensible folks stayed home.  We had a shopping list of ‘typically Russian’ trinkets and gifts we wanted to purchase and this is the place to do it.  There are hundreds of stalls selling every item you can imagine and the price of everything is negotiable.  I love to bargain and Cindy hates to bargain so for the most part I would see what Cindy wanted and then start the process. Sometimes they wouldn’t budge, other times they would engage in serious discussions on price, especially when we walked away.  For the most part, everything is made in Russia, and the people selling their wares make much of it by hand.  We found a man we liked who didn’t speak any English but was making beautiful objects while we watched so we did a bit of negotiating with international sign language and we now have some really lovely pieces of his work.  They are signed by him and we took his photo with them, just for fun.

GenUwine Faberge Eggs

One of the most amazing deals at this market is the black market DVDs that they sell for one dollar. These are newly released movies that are in any language you desire. We purchased the King’s Speech and The Social Network, each for a dollar.  They will start negotiating price if you purchase four or more; amazing what they can do with technology.

On our walk back to the Metro we noticed that there was quite a bit of horse manure right in front of the entrance. We had noticed a woman on horseback ahead of us and she must have decided to just ride her horse on the sidewalk in front of the Metro, as opposed to on the street in front of the Metro - after all, it was more convenient for her.  Meanwhile everyone is walking all around this stuff causing needless confusion and congestion.  I’ll not miss that aspect of Russian culture.

The temperature has only hit about 52° for the past three days, which means that now our apartment is a cozy 62°.  The central heat has been turned off for several weeks and I don’t see them deciding to turn it on again until sometime in October.  According to the locals, Moscow always gets about a week of ‘unseasonable’ weather in mid-May. I have no idea what seasonable weather is in this city.  The five-day forecast has the temperatures gradually rising into the upper sixties by Friday.  Luckily we still have all our warmies at the ready.  This will be an excellent night to make a spicy dish to get us warm and toasty before bed. Last night I made a lovely garlic/sour cream/chive/Parmesan smashed potato dish to go with caramelized carrots and simply grilled tuna steaks with lemon.

Have a lovely Sunday, Cindy and Wm.

Moscow Kickoff to Sixty

Today marked the start of the two month celebration of Cindy’s sixtieth birthday extravaganza.  To get things going I had purchased tickets for the matinee performance of Nabucco, which like all operas, is longer than it needs to be to get its point across.  It is one of Verdi’s early pieces and if it didn’t have the showstopper Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, it might have gone down the toilet like his first two operas, but that one piece has saved it and it really is a lovely opera.  Actually, I would go and watch a Punch and Judy performance at the Bolshoi and think it was fantastic. The New Bolshoi is a marvelous and intimate hall with one of the most beautiful chandeliers I’ve ever seen, although it appeared that there were seven light bulbs that were burned out.  The mural surrounding the chandelier is glorious and the colors of the interior are pastels with lots of pure white crown molding around everything. Some of these pictures will give you a good sense of the grandeur of this theater.  Our seats were just behind the guy in the red shirt on the right.  They were really excellent seats with perfect sightline to the stage so we seldom needed opera glasses to feel closer to the performance.

The performance itself was very good but I had two major complaints.  First of all, the costuming made all of Nabucco’s army look like SS troopers while Nabucco himself in the opening scenes looked just like a Nazi general.  A little heavy handed I thought, but given the animosity between Germans and Russians, not unexpected.  The sets were simple but stunning and they worked in this production. I really, really didn’t like all the intermissions.  There were three of them for a production with a run time of only two hours and ten minutes.  It wasn’t as though there were lots of stage sets that had to be changed and there certainly weren’t any costume changes to speak of.  There would be one act of about forty minutes and then a fifteen-minute intermission. This was followed by another act of thirty to thirty five minutes and then yet another fifteen-minute break.  Gracious, the breaks were almost a third of the total time in the theater. By the third intermission we were done, well I was done and Cindy was surprised I had lasted as long as I did. I knew the fourth act was mostly about one of the character’s dying with a very long aria, so rather than have her and me die of exhaustion, we left.

Belorusskya Metro Connection

We had thought we would go to the embassy to do a bit of shopping - two backpacks can carry so much more wine - but it was raining to beat the band by the time we left the theater so we opted for the Metro, which was very close.  We got off at our stop and decided to try the newly opened connection between two lines that come to Belorusskya. The connection had been closed for eight months but now that it is open it gives us a much better sense of the monumental aspects of the art and architecture of the Metro.  Here is a photo of a recently cleaned statue between the two stations.  We exited close to Il Patio and decided to get a late light lunch, which was a very good idea. After that we walked in the pouring rain for perfect little espressos before heading back to the apartment.

The rain feels wonderful and is so much needed here. If it is gone by tomorrow we have an excursion planned that will take us out of town and into a huge park where we hope to see lots of lilacs and more chestnuts in flower. If it continues, it will be a nap day! Either way, looks like a swell Sunday.

Hope yours is as grand.  Cindy and Wm

from CC: Remember that we live in the land of no smiles and no English, so imagine our surprise the other day at the grocery store when we put our goods on the conveyer belt and the cashier looked up, smiled, and said, “Would you like pah-kyate?”  She was adorable!  In Russia, like most civilized countries other than the U.S., you either bring your own bags or you buy them for a nominal fee.  Luckily we had heard this question many times entirely in Russian so we knew that a “pah-kyate” is a shopping bag and we could politely decline.   As we left she smiled again and said, “thank you very much” and we walked out shaking our heads in wonderment at the nice smiles and the valiant attempt at English.  Maybe there’s hope?!

This afternoon had no smiles and no English, but it too was filled with wonderment of a different sort:  as reported above, William took me to the opera Nabucco by Verdi.  The staging and the music were fabulous, and thanks to Wm we had perfect seats in row one of the first balcony, pretty close to the center.  In the New Bolshoi Theatre (the one they’re using until the big one’s renovations are complete), the first balcony is actually only a few feet above the main floor, so we were more or less at stage level and not too far back to see well.  It was a swell way to start celebrating my birthday.


 

Friday the 13th

Cindy is home again today, feeling much better than yesterday but still a bit on the tired side so I’m delighted she is taking care of herself by not pushing and rushing back to work.  It is a cold - what the Russians call ‘bird cherry cold’ which means a cold front in May - and rainy day here, perfect for her to do nothing but rest and recover. Always best to stay close to home on any Friday the 13^th.

The Arab Spring certainly is starting to fizzle.  What started as a great opportunity is turning into a tragedy of epic proportions.  Egypt, with no plan to replace a stable government, is now being taken over by criminals and violent Islamic factions that want to destroy the Christians.  Libya is a mess and has become a deadly stalemate; Bahrain continues to demand pledges of allegiance from its citizens or face deportation or imprisonment, Tunisians are overrunning Europe and taxing all of their resources and threatening the Schengen Agreement, and Syria has decided that Bahrain’s model of brute force and the hell with public perception is the best way to handle the protestors. 

I’ve mentioned how the dollar is sinking against the ruble, but what I didn’t know is that Putin, when he was president, told the central bank to increase their stockpile of gold as a hedge against the dollar and euro.  Five years ago they purchased lots of gold at $450 an ounce and it is now above $1500 an ounce.  Nice move Vlad!  On the other hand he may have plagiarized significant parts of his dissertation for his PhD in economics in 1996.  One never knows, does one?

Things are really starting to bloom here in Moscow. Yesterday I saw no evidence of any blossoms on the many chestnut trees in town.  Today, they all seemed to have popped open at once.  The lilacs are threatening to explode in color and scent sometime this weekend. These to my way of thinking are the real harbingers of late spring and I hope they stick around for a while.  We are off to the Bolshoi tomorrow for a matinee of Verdi’s Nabucco. If the weather holds we look forward to a long slow walk home through several parks to admire the new blossoming trees and shrubs.

I think there must be a Russian superstition that you can’t cross someone’s path from the back. Time after time I’m almost bowled over by someone coming from my left or right and racing in front of me, even when it is the longer route.  Kids do it, old folks do it, I would guess the most refined Russian lady bugs do it; it has to have some significance other than just being a pain in the rear.

Have a lovely weekend,  Cindy and Wm

Cooking from a Recipe

Poor Cindy is exhausted and fighting a cold so I insisted that she stay home today to rest and recover. I think this is the first sick day she has taken in twenty years. I’m being a good trailing spouse and making her garlic soup and a light omelette to get her healthy. There is plenty of spinach in both and, of course, enough garlic to choke a horse.

If you need to truly understand why Russia will not be a part of the twenty-first century for a while, just read this article.  It is all so very true and no one really can understand why they still have these arcane rules and regulations. Most Russians can get anything at any time, and without all the fuss. You just have to have some money and a friend in the black market.  Yet, ordering something from outside of Russia continues to be a problem for the average person.  Imagine Amazon having to complete thirteen forms to send a small package to Russia.  The fact that they can send things to Iraq with no problem is the most damning statement of all. 

Chicken Stroganoff

Yesterday I had decided to make chicken stroganoff and went to the store to purchase the things I thought I would need.  I came back and started to review some recipes since I hadn’t made this in more than twenty years.  On a whim, I decided to follow a recipe EXACTLY!  I found the one recipe that I thought would be the most fun to cook and the best tasting and except for the addition of two tablespoons of paprika to the flour mix and having a layer of fresh spinach under the noodles, I really did this just the way they said.  My goodness it is hard to cook from a recipe. It felt like all of my freedom to create had been taken away and my normal rhythm in the kitchen was replaced by stop and start bursts of doing this or that.  I really didn’t like the experience but the dinner was a big hit and it all was worth the effort.

Plating the dish(Note Recipe)

Not much going on other than nursing Cindy back to health so I need to go and minister to my patient.  I’m pleased that The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has decided to increase their security as a result of the recent events in their country. Here is a great photo of what a great nation can do when motivated.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Note from CC:  I’m not quite as sick as Wm thinks, but the extra sleep - not to mention the extra garlic - was certainly needed.  His chicken stroganoff was FABULOUS – while I hated to read that his creativity felt squashed, he certainly got excellent results.

Moscow Medical/Dental

My marathon walks over the past six days finally caught up with me yesterday morning.  We woke up at 05:55 and as I stretched my legs in bed, a searing jolt of pain went shooting through my right calf.  I was absolutely immobilized by the pain and couldn’t even get out of bed to stand on the leg. I finally was able to get some weight on the leg and I started to rub it as the pain subsided until I was able to walk a little to ease relax the muscle.  I’ve had charley horses before but this thing was unreal.  All day long it was sore, like I had been kicked in the calf. I walked gingerly for about forty minutes and that took a lot of the tension away. I’ve taken three Aleve’s in the past two days and if I take another I think I’ll have to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.

I’m very accustomed to walking long distances here in Moscow but Moscow is, for the most part, flat.  On Sunday we walked up, and up and up lots of stairs and lots of paths.  Then we can down like mountain goats so I’m sure that my muscles were not used to that motion and in the night they just tightened until I tried to stretch in the morning, which caused them to convulse.  I have learned a valuable lesson and will be doing lots more stretching before and after my walks, especially if they are up and down.

I had my teeth cleaned at the German Dental Center this morning. I had gone there early in our time in Moscow to get a tooth fixed that had chipped while eating. I liked them and they were very professional and today’s experience was just as satisfying.  One of the great benefits that I hadn’t thought of was the fact that the hygienist spoke only about six words of English, left, right, open, close, sensitive, rinse; therefore there was no small talk. I just hate it when they stick sump pumps and sharp objects in your mouth and then start asking you questions.  Bill Cosby did a great bit about that many years ago that is worth eight minutes of your time.  Cindy had gone to this dentist for a cleaning in November and it cost her 1500 Rubles, so I figured that is what it would cost me, and as usual, I was wrong. It cost me 3000 Rubles and when I asked why the big difference, I was told that they bill in fifteen-minute increments and it must have only taken fifteen minutes to clean Cindy’s teeth.  At that point I wanted to get out before they piled it even higher and charged me for it.

After the dentist I decided to walk for an hour to get my calf back to normal. Most of the time my walks take me towards the river or Red Square but today I wanted to go and find a real working class neighborhood without the glitz and glamour of central Moscow.  I was surprised to find it only about twenty minutes away and it was a delight to walk around and see real folks going about their business. The shops were very nice but not fancy, same thing with the cafes and restaurants.  I’m assuming the prices were rather less expensive also. I’ll take Cindy to lunch there some weekend before we leave, could be lots of affordable fun.

Part of my walk yesterday took me to the embassy for a few items we needed.  I ran into one of the folks I know from having done the College Recruitment Fair at AAS.  She lives in one of the ‘big’ apartments on the embassy compound and was coming out as I was walking towards the planted gardens.  I told her I was going to be taking photos of the tulip beds and she very nicely told me that was a very dumb idea without permission from security. It never dawned on me that taking photos on the embassy grounds wouldn’t be allowed, especially since the Russian’s own everything around the embassy and they make sure they have excellent views into the courtyards and grounds.  Take my word for it; the embassy grounds are quite lovely with all the flowers. 

As I was checking out of the Liberty Store I asked the clerk, who I had worked with when I helped them with inventory, if I was allowed to purchase hard liquor. I knew we could buy wine and beer but we had all been told that hard booze was out of the question for AAS folks.  She looked at me and simply said, ‘When I’m on duty you can buy anything in the store.’ Needing no more hints, I grabbed a bottle of Chivas Regal.  I wish I had thought to ask earlier since it would have saved a lot of hassle with my duty free runs.

Ya just never see it coming!

Here is one for the ‘Didn’t I Tell Ya!”  And here is a picture of a Moscow Tram that had a bit of a problem.

Cindy has to stay late tonight since she is rehearsing with her quartet members for two upcoming performances. Therefore you will be receiving an unedited blog, all errors are mine!  Best wishes, Wm

The Fireworks: Sweet

As expected, the boat trip was much longer than published.  We walked with a group of eight people from the complex and headed to the Metro at about seven pm to make sure we were there for the eight twenty departure. The Metro was packed; I have never seen it that crowded.  Everyone was coming from or going to a party to celebrate Victory Day.  It was a lovely opportunity to see a wide range of drunks. There were the young drunks, some wrapped in the Russian flag, all with glazed eyes and open cans of beer and every other one about to puke. There were the 30 something drunks, much better dressed and carrying open cans of much better beer, and then there were the older drunks, who seemed to have reverted back to their youth since they looked and acted more like the young drunks.

We managed our connections and got to the station that serves Gorky Park, which was filled with people waiting for fireworks. We had to walk a bit, cross under a bridge and then walk some more to the area where the boat would dock. We got there in plenty of time and had a chance to talk with other AAS folks while waiting. There was a huge boat docked next to ours and it was decorated with hundreds of balloons that spelled out Happy Fifth Birthday Jika.  What the heck are they going to do for this kid’s sixth birthday? The boat was only about a quarter filled when it took off. Perhaps it was making another stop but it sure looked like they didn’t need that big a vessel.

We finally boarded our boat and everyone staked out spots on the upper deck, except the Russian employees who all took over the lower deck. It was as if there were two separate parties going on. Since the food was on the lower deck the Russians had first crack, but there was plenty to go around. I had carried three cartons of wine with me so that we would be able to share with those that forgot or those that drank more than they thought they would. The wine was very much appreciated by the above.

We pulled away from the dock at 8:10, much to the consternation of a couple from AAS who had just arrived at the dock as the boat pushed away.  Several folks went to the captain to get him to turn back but the die was cast and our castaways missed the boat. It was very sad seeing them on the shore-waving goodbye to us. According to the captain, there was another boat that needed the dock so he left early, which to me is garbage. It was just another example of Russian arrogance and disregard for schedules.  It was more convenient for him to ignore the schedule so, as with all Russians, he did what was most convenient. Sadly, we actually came back near the dock some twenty minutes later and they were still standing there waving at us.

The boat just cruised up and down the river killing time until the fireworks were to start.  There were nine places along the Moscow River where they were going to be setting off fireworks and our boat positioned itself near the State University of Moscow.  Here is a nice link to the route we took and some commentary.  This link actually shows you our boat.

The fireworks were fabulous and we were so close that the concussive explosion of air from the detonated fireworks could be felt on the boat.  Cindy took some good photos but of course you needed to be there to get the full effect.  The pyrotechnic display lasted for a full fifteen minutes and you could see bits and glimpses of the other fireworks up and down the river. When it was over we thought we were heading back to the dock but instead we blew past our mooring and went back up the river to places we had already seen, TWICE.  We were told that there was no room at the dock but it sure looked empty to me when we passed it. 

By the time we got off the boat, walked to the Metro, connected to the other line and walked from the station home, it was five minutes to midnight and poor Cindy was exhausted, as were all the other AAS folks who needed to be at work bright and early.  5:55 came all too suddenly and I made Cindy an extra cup of coffee to take with her to work since I knew she would need a quick jolt.  Tonight will be a very early evening in a desperate attempt to catch up. It doesn’t seem fair that the three-day weekend had to end so very late and that instead of returning to work well rested all the teachers were dragging.

There was a celebration in Victory Park for all the veterans of WWII.  They are all in their late 80’s and 90’s but as this photo shows, they are Russians ‘til the end. 

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Victory Day

Happy Victory Day

Moscow was in a festive mood today to celebrate Victory Day.  The parade in our neighborhood only had armored vehicles since all the cool stuff was in Red Square, which was by invitation only. It was there that they had all the troops, bands and flyovers, but we were happy to be outside with the masses enjoying good weather and breathing lots of lovely diesel fumes.  I took a few pictures and for every one you see, we saw twelve of the same thing, so it was a long parade!   Notice the orthodox domes in the background; they seemed a bit incongruous.  Here is what the swells saw in Red Square.

We walked over with our friends from the apartment complex, one of the few couples close to our age.  We have had some fun times with them since they are irreverent and quite independent thinkers.  At the end of the parade we marched over to the German Beer Hall, which on Victory Day over the Germans seemed appropriate.  Most Russians still have a hard time dealing with the fact that sixty-six years ago they defeated Nazi Germany and yet today they can’t hold a candle to the wealth and productivity of the vanquished.  We settled in with big mugs of Hacker-Pschorr and then ordered lots of good old-fashioned German dishes.  It was a lovely end to the parade.

Cindy and I went back to the espresso place we found yesterday and enjoyed another perfectly prepared coffee before taking a forty-five minute walk to stretch our legs.  Tonight is the big boat ride and fireworks display so we are resting to make sure we can stay awake until 11:30. Poor Cindy has to go to work tomorrow, which seems like poor planning to me on the part of the school – she should have a 4-day weekend, not just a 3-day weekend.

Perfect Daiquiri

Plu-Perfect Daiquiri

Last night we were too full from lunch to have dinner so at cocktail time I decided to do something a bit different.  I had a few limes and some nice rum so I made some good old-fashioned Daiquiris.  I haven’t made these in a while but they sure were fun to make and even more fun to drink. About eight Cindy was a bit peckish so I made her a small bowl of fried rice with egg, which was just the right amount of food.  We watched a little of an old movie, The V.I.P.s with Burton, Taylor (both Elizabeth and Rod), and Louis Jordan. It is a strained movie but there was a really good scene with Orson Welles talking to a very young reporter played by David Frost. Have no idea where the movie was going but it was entertaining until we went to bed.

Time to get assembled for the boat ride.  Details tomorrow.   Ciao, Cindy and Wm.