Entry 22: 7 November, 2011
I got up at 8 on Friday, as Brenda and I planned to meet up with Airat's walking tour at 10. I was definitely not too rested, but Phil had made coffee, so all was soon remedied. I've been living on instant coffee here, and although Russian instant coffee is definitely better than most instant coffee, it is still a far cry from a good stout drip brew. The tour was to last two hours, and Phil was going to meet up with us when we were done to go to the Tretyakov Gallery.
There were around 8 or 9 of us total for the walking tour. There was an Australian couple who worked in Dubai, my guess is that they work at a bank there, and were on holiday in Moscow. You have to love Australians. Apart from their brilliant accents, they are so adventurous. It seems to me that you can find Australians vacationing in every corner of the world. The rest of the group, excepting Brenda and I, were staff with Circus Ole (or however that is spelled). There are 90 people who travel with the circus: 50 performers and 40 support members. They travel with quite the entourage, including six washers and dryers. Here I thought a fifty-pound suitcase was a pain to lug around.
Airat walked us around the city center, going through Red Square, through the GUM (pronounced “goom,” rhyming with “boom” not like the stuff you chew), through the Alexander Gardens past the Eternal Flame and to the Church of Christ our Savior, the largest church in Moscow. The church was fazed during the Soviet times, and a giant outdoor swimming pool was built in its place which was open year round. The eight of the 8 Stalin highrises was supposed to be built on that spot, but then World War II pulled all the funding. Also, the ground was swampy, and there were difficulties with the foundation. The highrise that was supposed to be built there was going to be the Palace of the Soviets, with a statue of Lenin on top so large that there would have been a several-storied library in Lenin's head alone. Such a behemoth was never built, but I'm sure you would recognize the other 7 highrises which were completed. The Moscow State University (МГУ) is one of the most well-known. The buildings are huge structures topped with a spire displaying the Soviet star.
I think one of my favorite landmarks in Moscow is the giant statue of a giant man standing on a small boat on the Volga river. If you ask a traditional Russian tour guide, they will tell you this is a statue of Peter the Great. However, his armor is distinctly late 15th century Spanish in design and the ship flies the Spanish flag. This is because it was originally built to be a statue of Columbus which was given to the United States as a gift in 1992 (if I remember correctly). The thing is so strange and huge, that the US rejected it. I'm sure that didn't do wonders for Russia-US relations, but I don't know where we would have put the thing. The architect redid the head to be Peter the Great instead of Columbus, and it now stands proudly as an eye-sore to many Moscovites. I, however, have a certain fondness for the poor misunderstood Peterumbus, he's just so ridiculous. Watch out Texas, everything's actually bigger in Russia.
I was the only person in the group, excepting Airat, of course, who spoke Russian, and he asked for my help in translating a few things. His English was marvelous, but it was a little encouraging to see that I'm not the only one who doesn't feel wholly adequate in my language skills. We chatted for a bit in Russian, and I was sad that I didn't have more time to spend with Airat. I find when I get into a whole group of English speakers I get itchy to speak Russian. It's completely nonsensical as, usually when just with Russian speakers, I get all nervous and want to speak English. If my brain would stop freaking out it would save me much anxiety.
After the tour, Brenda and I hoped back on the metro to meet up with Phil and grab some lunch before going to go to the Tretyakov Gallery. Tretyakov was an art collector who accumulated a phenomenal amount of Russian works. If you get the chance to go to Moscow, it is one of the things you must see. The last time I was at the Tretyakov I ran into my good friend Stephanie previously-Tervooren-now-Hopkins whom I had not even known was in Moscow. In a city of 15 million, one's chances of running into a friend from across the world is minimal at best. This time I didn't run into any friends outside the Tretyakov this time. I don't think that sort of occurrence can happen more than once.
After the Tretyakov we grabbed some Asian food and headed back to the flat.
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