RTW II - Moscow - January 16th to 23rd

Postponed too many times, here's my recounting of the Moscow tales, only the ones you haven't seen on facebook though...

I guess the Moscow Metro must be my first topic...
- After some time I was quite familiar, how do you think I re-learnt cyrillic the hard way?
- after some time I even figured out how to find the nearest exit... It's basically only all about looking for the wet trail of incoming passenger. Clearly visible on the ground. Only later would I learn that 'Gorod' means street! Hehe...

Two little anecdotes about specific Moscow sights: Melnikov's House & the Gorki Park

Melnikov's House used to be one of the only privately owned houses in 'CCCP'. It is a little architecture jewel... But it is nigh impossible to find in the Smolenskaya quarter. I promptly lost myself and found myself in front of the Romanov theatre, surrounded by surveillance cameras, armed tall musculous guards, fancily dressed people, Bentleys and men carrying suitcases... Hmmm... Suspicious? No! I'm just a tourist looking for sight number 27 on the plan on page 248. Any potential picture of the guard looking at my plan and trying to make sense of my person would be priceless... Unfortunately, they don't exist... (all other mentionned items you'll find on my facebook album

Gorki Park is a recreational park, but what I ignored is the fact that the youngsters come here in winter to do some ice skating while drinking beer. That was an eye-opening moment...


On a side note about the architecture, there is a diktat of pre-communist conventions and everything is decorated with the same old same old columns and frontons... This made me think of Howard Roark, I instantly understood what the book constantly refers to as overdecorated heavy and useless parts architecture...
*** Wink to Ayn Rand fans across the world!***

Of course, as in the rest of my tales, the nightlife remains a secret, but I can narrate a juicy anecdote of Nicolas and I in the Real McCoy, a meat market for expats and russian girls...
So Nicolas and I queue for the washrooms, that are common to men and women, when I note, in french of course:
P: "You know, Nicolas, when we were at Etag, a girl and a guy came out of the washrooms and the girl behind me assured me it was a common occurence..."
N: "That's true! At the Real McCoy, it's even almost a tradition... Most have done it..."
P: "Ok, even the girl in front of me?"
N: "Yeah, sure..."
P: "Ok, so if I asked her, maybe she'd agree?"
N: "Well... Maybe..."

And at that point, the girl in front of me flashes us her wonderful smile and retorts without an ounce of bitterness:
"I understand everything..."

awkward silence by N and I...

NICE... We chuckled on the way home...

The albums of the Moscow escapade are online:
Here for the cyrillic cultural sights
and
here for the tourist part

Cheers,
P



PS: Stay tuned I intend to release HK, Shanghai and Tokyo quite soon...