Moscow City Center
I am faced with a dilemma. Presently I have not posted very much about what I've done this week in Moscow (which has been quite a bit) in addition to my last day in St. Petersburg. I could just sit here and catch up on all the outstanding stuff, but then I would sacrifice going out and seeing even more of Moscow's offerings. So I'll do what I do when I get behind in homework for school - forget about the overdue stuff and concentrate on staying up to date. Then as time allows go back and redo old stuff. So hopefully within a few weeks I'll post date a few postings and all will be harashow.
Yesterday morning my bed was a little bit too inviting. So when my alarm shocked me awake at 5:25, I smacked it. And kept smacking the annoying piece of plastic for about an hour. Then maybe 8:30-9ish my phone rang. It was Robyn saying goodbye to me. So with that I was awake. The most sleep in one night I've had in a very long time - close to 12 hours. I worked on my last post for a little, which turned into quite awhile. It took me forever to find a decent way to find some frame of reference for what latitude Kaliningrad was located on. If only I had a real map I think it would've been easier. I suppose that I left my room around noon and returned back a little past 23.
Note: links to pictures for this section will be added in after I post them. On my way to the metro station, I stopped to buy a map. From one of the guide books I remembered that the Atlas Moskva was supposed to be the best one to get. So when the lady in the magazine stand showed me a nice little booklet I thought that I was going to be set, and paid for it. It was only after I got on the metro that I realized I'd made a mistake. I had purchased the car map book. Oh well, a bit more info than I need, but it'll do. The first place I went was back to Red Square which was closed. I think that was because Lenin's Mausoleum was opened. I wanted to go in, but it was only a few minutes until closing time, so decided not to. If you ever get a hankering to pay your respects to dear dead comrade Lenin but can't afford the time and money required to come to Moscow, check out this site. (With Cortona's plugin the virtual mausoleum is lovely, as far as mausolei go) So I walked around the Kremlin. That is a fairly large complex if I say so myself. As I was walking down Kremlevskaya Street I saw a rather nice view of the Church of Christ the Savior. And on the other side of the Moskva River there was a rotating Mercedes Benz logo atop a building. I had a rather sick thought to myself of finding some angle to take a picture so the emblem was rotating on top of the church, but kept walking instead. By the time I made it around to the Grave of the Unknown Soldier, it was time for the changing of the guard (sorry for shaky filmography; I have no good way to edit my video and my hands can be wobbly). Looked at the sculptures on top of Ohotnie Riad and then continued up Tverskaya Street. It was nifty to be on Tverskaya. Back when I first started listening to my Pimsleur CDs in the car, one of the first things I learned to say was, "Excuse me please, where is Tverskaya Street." I exchanged some American money so that I could pay for my plane ticket and then entered the Tverskaya metro station. Up until now I've had good luck in metro stations. But this one was huge. Finally I made it to the correct platform and headed back to Spartivnaya. I took some more pictures of the place I walked on Monday evening because the light was a little better. Then found a pay phone and tried to figure out how to call somebody. The directions were very clear with pictures and words, but it still took me a few minutes to figure out that I needed to press a button to turn on the microphone inside the telephone.
The next stop was Victory Park. On my way into the subway station I was pretty hungry, so a Metro Express fast food joint caught my attention. The menu had burritos on it. You can't go wrong with a burrito, right? So I ordered a large Pepsi and a vegetarian burrito. They don't call it express for nothing - by the time I had paid my food was ready (of course the burrito had probably been made a few days ago judging from the hardness of the torilla). For kicks, I decided to see what constitutes a Russian burrito. I was rather surprised to find a large hunk of semi-warm yellow cheese with a bunch of green beans in it. It was food and I was hungry, so I ate it and found it to be surprisingly good. The green beans were still a bit crunchy and added a nice dimension to what I traditionally think of as constituting a burrito. When I changed platforms at the station before Victory Park, my reaction time was a little on the slow side. The loud speaker came on and announced something. While I was still trying to figure out what it said, everybody in my car got off. I should have taken this as some sign because just as I was realizing the announcement said get off, the doors closed and away I went. I chilled in the middle of a tunnel for a few minutes and then it shot back the other way. I guess they don't have enough people headed to Victory Park to warrant as many trains. I did get on the right one eventually and arrived. To greet me was a medium gruff dude in a uniform asking for my documents. Fortunately I had received my passport the day before, so nothing exciting happened. The park is huge. I took my time walking around and snapping photos. Due to the decision to cancel all planned City Day festivities, workers were taking down the staging set up for concerts this weekend. I was surprised to look down at my clock and see what time it was. Hurried back to the metro and arrived at Oktyabrskaya a few minutes late to meet Alla.
We walked around a bunch of places. She showed me a few museums that would be interesting to visit. I don't remember a good deal of where we walked exactly because for a good portion of the evening we kept up a dialogue in Russian. An analogy given to me about a year ago with regards to database design really holds true for learning a language. It was to immerse yourself in the language realizing that it will be overwhelming. Just try to get as many concepts floating around you as possible. Then with time and experience you will make connections between the concepts and form an integrated whole. But if you don't have the concepts (in this case I guess they are words, grammar, conjugations) available, you won't ever make the connection. I learned many new things about the Russian language while walking around with Alla, but right now I'm hard pressed to give more than five examples. On one hand it is a bit frustrating to not remember more, yet on the other I've got a whole bunch of concepts floating around in my noggin waiting to be united. We came to a small park that she hadn't seen before. It was pretty dark but I decided to try getting another picture of her. Afterwards she asked if I knew who the statue was of. Then I looked at it and noticed that there were horns on its head, so I responded it was the devil. Nice going wiseguy, take a picture of a chick with the devil. Ay-yay-yay! I didn't mean anything bad by it, honest. It was starting to rain, not to mention a bit late to be out, so we called it an evening. Next time I'm in Moscow I have to give her a call as she has a present for Anastasia. But don't tell Anastasia that - it's a surprise!
The original film of the unknown soldier changing can be found here. The resolution is better, but size is prohibitive.
Yesterday morning my bed was a little bit too inviting. So when my alarm shocked me awake at 5:25, I smacked it. And kept smacking the annoying piece of plastic for about an hour. Then maybe 8:30-9ish my phone rang. It was Robyn saying goodbye to me. So with that I was awake. The most sleep in one night I've had in a very long time - close to 12 hours. I worked on my last post for a little, which turned into quite awhile. It took me forever to find a decent way to find some frame of reference for what latitude Kaliningrad was located on. If only I had a real map I think it would've been easier. I suppose that I left my room around noon and returned back a little past 23.
Note: links to pictures for this section will be added in after I post them. On my way to the metro station, I stopped to buy a map. From one of the guide books I remembered that the Atlas Moskva was supposed to be the best one to get. So when the lady in the magazine stand showed me a nice little booklet I thought that I was going to be set, and paid for it. It was only after I got on the metro that I realized I'd made a mistake. I had purchased the car map book. Oh well, a bit more info than I need, but it'll do. The first place I went was back to Red Square which was closed. I think that was because Lenin's Mausoleum was opened. I wanted to go in, but it was only a few minutes until closing time, so decided not to. If you ever get a hankering to pay your respects to dear dead comrade Lenin but can't afford the time and money required to come to Moscow, check out this site. (With Cortona's plugin the virtual mausoleum is lovely, as far as mausolei go) So I walked around the Kremlin. That is a fairly large complex if I say so myself. As I was walking down Kremlevskaya Street I saw a rather nice view of the Church of Christ the Savior. And on the other side of the Moskva River there was a rotating Mercedes Benz logo atop a building. I had a rather sick thought to myself of finding some angle to take a picture so the emblem was rotating on top of the church, but kept walking instead. By the time I made it around to the Grave of the Unknown Soldier, it was time for the changing of the guard (sorry for shaky filmography; I have no good way to edit my video and my hands can be wobbly). Looked at the sculptures on top of Ohotnie Riad and then continued up Tverskaya Street. It was nifty to be on Tverskaya. Back when I first started listening to my Pimsleur CDs in the car, one of the first things I learned to say was, "Excuse me please, where is Tverskaya Street." I exchanged some American money so that I could pay for my plane ticket and then entered the Tverskaya metro station. Up until now I've had good luck in metro stations. But this one was huge. Finally I made it to the correct platform and headed back to Spartivnaya. I took some more pictures of the place I walked on Monday evening because the light was a little better. Then found a pay phone and tried to figure out how to call somebody. The directions were very clear with pictures and words, but it still took me a few minutes to figure out that I needed to press a button to turn on the microphone inside the telephone.
The next stop was Victory Park. On my way into the subway station I was pretty hungry, so a Metro Express fast food joint caught my attention. The menu had burritos on it. You can't go wrong with a burrito, right? So I ordered a large Pepsi and a vegetarian burrito. They don't call it express for nothing - by the time I had paid my food was ready (of course the burrito had probably been made a few days ago judging from the hardness of the torilla). For kicks, I decided to see what constitutes a Russian burrito. I was rather surprised to find a large hunk of semi-warm yellow cheese with a bunch of green beans in it. It was food and I was hungry, so I ate it and found it to be surprisingly good. The green beans were still a bit crunchy and added a nice dimension to what I traditionally think of as constituting a burrito. When I changed platforms at the station before Victory Park, my reaction time was a little on the slow side. The loud speaker came on and announced something. While I was still trying to figure out what it said, everybody in my car got off. I should have taken this as some sign because just as I was realizing the announcement said get off, the doors closed and away I went. I chilled in the middle of a tunnel for a few minutes and then it shot back the other way. I guess they don't have enough people headed to Victory Park to warrant as many trains. I did get on the right one eventually and arrived. To greet me was a medium gruff dude in a uniform asking for my documents. Fortunately I had received my passport the day before, so nothing exciting happened. The park is huge. I took my time walking around and snapping photos. Due to the decision to cancel all planned City Day festivities, workers were taking down the staging set up for concerts this weekend. I was surprised to look down at my clock and see what time it was. Hurried back to the metro and arrived at Oktyabrskaya a few minutes late to meet Alla.
We walked around a bunch of places. She showed me a few museums that would be interesting to visit. I don't remember a good deal of where we walked exactly because for a good portion of the evening we kept up a dialogue in Russian. An analogy given to me about a year ago with regards to database design really holds true for learning a language. It was to immerse yourself in the language realizing that it will be overwhelming. Just try to get as many concepts floating around you as possible. Then with time and experience you will make connections between the concepts and form an integrated whole. But if you don't have the concepts (in this case I guess they are words, grammar, conjugations) available, you won't ever make the connection. I learned many new things about the Russian language while walking around with Alla, but right now I'm hard pressed to give more than five examples. On one hand it is a bit frustrating to not remember more, yet on the other I've got a whole bunch of concepts floating around in my noggin waiting to be united. We came to a small park that she hadn't seen before. It was pretty dark but I decided to try getting another picture of her. Afterwards she asked if I knew who the statue was of. Then I looked at it and noticed that there were horns on its head, so I responded it was the devil. Nice going wiseguy, take a picture of a chick with the devil. Ay-yay-yay! I didn't mean anything bad by it, honest. It was starting to rain, not to mention a bit late to be out, so we called it an evening. Next time I'm in Moscow I have to give her a call as she has a present for Anastasia. But don't tell Anastasia that - it's a surprise!
The original film of the unknown soldier changing can be found here. The resolution is better, but size is prohibitive.
posted by Troy on 09:30
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I understand about Tverskaya. We're going through the Pimsleur German CDs now, and for us it would be "Wo ist die Göthe Straße?" or "Ist der Beethoven Platz hier?"
Happy Sabbath.
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