I just got back from the train station. I had some good times yesterday, but I think all in all Moscow was a disappointment. It rained heavily and was windy all day, so we didn’t get much accomplished.
We got in around seven in the morning (after maybe three hours of sleep) and went straight to the red square. Everything was still closed, so we walked around the only open souvenir shop until it was late enough to see something. I had already called Olga as we approached Moscow, and she said she would meet us as soon as she left her dentist’s appointment. We walked through ГУМ, the giant mall, and then finally it was around ten and museums were starting to open.
I wanted to go to the Mausoleum first to see Lenin’s Tomb, because I figured that soon there would be a very long line. As we were discussing it, a woman walked by with a tour-guide badge and invited us to join a tour group to go through the mausoleum for one hundred rubles. We agreed, and she put us in a group with another tour-guide who was very, very strange. As we joined the group she asked Natasha if she spoke Russian, and when she said yes the woman replied “good for you!” and then continued discussing the history of red square while she talked into her umbrella as if it were a microphone. She led us around the perimeter of the square, stopping every few meters to give us history, and then finally took us to the other side where we got in line for security checkpoints to go through the cemetery and the tomb. We had to check any cameras and cell phones, as they were strictly prohibited. The security was extremely thorough, as apparently (as the tour guide told us) a few years ago someone was able to sneak an axe through security and put a hole in the side of Lenin’s sarcophagus, which was then made only of glass.
After making it through (Natasha had to wait for me, because I forgot that I had taken my camera out of my back-pack and put it in my jacket pocket, and after going through the medal detector twice and then being frisked, the policeman found my camera and made me go back to the storage lockers and get in the back of the line), we walked along the wall of the Kremlin where a number of significant figures in Russian history are buried, everyone from war heroes to poets to Yuri Gagarin. Then we rounded a corner and went through the tomb. There were pairs of soldiers every three-four meters, and as you went through the inside of the building you weren’t allowed to speak or stop moving. Our guide had advised us to walk through very slowly. I know it’s a very historical place…but when you get down to it I waited in line for forty minutes to see a guy who’s been dead for about seventy years laying on a table in a glass box.
After going through the building, the path leads around where you can see the headstones and marble burial tombs for Brezhnev, Stalin, and a few other important figures in soviet history. We finished, and when we got to the other side the tour guide was waiting for us (she didn’t come through the Mausoleum, but had walked around). She started talking with us about it, and when I asked her why you aren’t allowed to speak inside the building, she said “you’re not from here, are you?” and I said no, and asked if it was for respect or security. She said for security, and congratulated me on being so smart. Then asked me where I was from and why I was here, and when I told her America and that I was studying Russian, she congratulated me again and then said “The United States? I’ve never been there. Know why? There’s nothing to see there. Your country is too young. You can’t have museums like we have. Yeah, you might have some museums about Indians, but that’s kid stuff.” I couldn’t do anything but laugh. As she finished, we saw Olga approaching and left. Olga’s first words were “so how did you enjoy seeing the piece of meat?”
I was absolutely in shock when we met up. I haven’t seen her in about seven months, and after three or four months studying English and then a semester at Del Tech, she spoke almost perfect English. Also, she no longer had British pronunciations, but an almost perfect American accent.
We started off at the museum of Russian History. She took us through as our guide (she knows her history well) and we were able to catch up as we walked through. She said something about how she didn’t believe in the authenticity of some of the exhibits, and I told her that in the Ukrainian museum of history they gave the impression that everything came from the Ukraine- the wheel, making tools out of stone, metallurgy… and she said that that’s nothing new, and said that there’s a common joke about a Ukrainian who gets lost going along the countryside, and pulls off to someone’s house to ask “Excuse me, can you let me see a Ukrainian globe please?”
After the museum, we went for lunch. Olga told us all about her impressions on America. She absolutely fell in love with American culture, and told me all the reasons she prefers it over Russian. I didn’t agree with all of her generalizations, but nonetheless it was very interesting to hear. When we were walking through the restaurants in the mall we stopped in, she kept explaining to me what different kinds of Russian food were (blini, draniki, plov…), and eventually I reminded her that I’ve already been living here for five months.
Following lunch, I showed Olga my list of places I wanted to see, and she told me that almost every single thing on my list was outside and therefore would be miserable. She called her sister for ideas, and we ended up going to a modern art museum. I’ve never been to a modern art museum before, and it was a very strange experience for me. I’m not going to say I absolutely didn’t like it, but to me the inside of the gallery was how I picture someone on mushrooms sees the world. There were giant tongues sticking out of the wall, loud screeching, heartbeats and humming were coming out of speakers in the ceiling, pants glued to picture frames and covered in paint and pieces of action figures, rambling manifestos in half English half German about how Scarlett Johansson’s animal mouth is the reason for her metabolism and that all art is a Lollypop but only a fascist wouldn’t understand that… it goes on and on. Natasha liked it, but Olga and I agreed that this art is on a level of understanding that we will probably never reach. To give an example, here’s a quote from one of the English descriptions of an exhibit: “The carrot is a complex system of metaphors, which helps the artist to convey his idea of the absolute future to the spectators. The root is the place of accumulation of precious information, leaves - the world of the future, the dream world, the thinnest slice of the carrot is our present.” The exhibit was about five dozen toy carrots (with smiley faces) in a large plastic.
From there, we went to the zoological museum. Olga had to get home to do some errands, because she was actually headed to St. Petersburg last night as well. She told me that she’s actually moving to St. Petersburg on the fourth with Vova. She said she’s going to give me a call this evening about meeting up. We had only spoken in English, because she said she had been home for three weeks and already felt like she was losing it and needed to practice, and as she had only ever spoken Russian with me at Delaware while she was studying English, I felt it was only fair to return the favor. She did say, however, that when we meet up tonight with a few of her other friends I won’t have to speak English, which I’m happy about. The museum was good. Much different from the St. Petersburg zoological museum, in the sense that the majority of the displays were skeletons, whereas here in St. Petersburg the majority are stuffed animals.
After the zoological museum, we walked around the city for a while before going for dinner. We couldn’t decide what we wanted, so we stopped at another mall and went to their food court. I was really in the mood for Sharma, but what they ended up giving me was terrible. I couldn’t even eat a third of it, it was so greasy. Following dinner, we walked around the mall and then the city some more, before finally heading back to the train station.
I’m glad I had company, but I know that if I had gone alone I wouldn’t have cared about the rain and would have seen all the outdoor monuments on my list. I don’t want to blame my companionship for the let down though. Like I said, we had some good experiences, but overall I was disappointed in the trip.
Overall, I had a much different feel from Moscow. I definitely agree with the consensus that it’s are more “Russian” city, whereas St. Petersburg is a more “international” city. Unlike here, you can’t walk down the street and see advertisements and street signs in all different languages (especially English), you only hear Russian on the street (with the exception of Red Square), and even the mentality is different. To be honest, I’m not sure which city I like more, even though whichever city you’re currently in you have to tell everyone is the best of the two.
…..
I planned on going to class when we got back, but what I ended up doing was eating the leftover eggs from the train ride, getting in bed and sleeping for about five hours…
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