sunny walking

It was a major joy to be ambling in a park in the summer sun with the trees in full leaf. Kolomenskoye park is big - it has a stream through the middle and a dipping hill down to the Moscow river.  Lovely. And there are a whole band of these big parks and forests around Moscow, still to visit.

(Also some lakes and beaches; here is Moscow Elements magazine's top 7.)

Kolomenskoye

Got taken for a lovely afternoon walk in beautiful summer sunshine by V, as part of his on-going campaign to improve my education in Russian history and architecture. We went to Kolomenskoye park (conveniently accessible by metro on the green line) and visited the exquisite little group of buildings around the 16th century Church of the Ascension, a UNESO World Heritage site. And got into a discussion about how it looks like a rocket ship, so the space race must have started earlier than we thought... 

grey (2)

Spent more time than I wanted in this small blank room at Moscow Domededovo airport yesterday. It is the Consul, on the wrong side of passport control, where I arrived quite late in the evening to be told that my existing work visa (dated to May 2011) was no longer valid; the ins and outs of which are quite dull to recount. After some negotiations  and the payment of a new fee I left with a new - single-entry 10 day - work visa. This is because multiple entry work visas are not issued on first entry (despite the fact that my old passport was already filling up with quite a number of multiple entry visas, and I already had a up-to-date visa.) So now another visa will have to be obtained to allow me to stay longer.

I realise this is nothing compared to the Guardian corrrespondent Luke Harding's experiences recently (when he was not only put in a cell but also deported before being allowed back a week later), so I am not complaining, only giving it as an example of some of those 'different' aspects of Russia.  Maybe people coming the other way - into England - have similar stories to tell about getting into the UK.

And, mentioning Luke Harding, I am sorry that he and his family are going back to England for now; although this is entirely for selfish reasons as I have still never managed to go on one of Phoebe Taplin's amazing looking walks. I do keep most of the double-page spreads she has written in the Moscow News, suggesting places to go and things to see. She promises to return, so lets hope so. 

Lines of escape

One of my new colleagues speaks such perfect old-fashioned English that it is difficult to remember he is Russian. It turns out he learnt it from the BBC world service; as he says, he wanted to do it really properly as one of the only ways out of “Iron curtain” times. There are still echoes of that longing to escape – and the importance of learning the English language to do so – from many people I meet. People who have studied or worked abroad, or who want to (England, America, but also India). People who see more opportunities elsewhere, but who are also fatalistic – realistic?- about getting out, about having visas revoked without much explanation, about the unavailability of jobs in the current financial situation.

And it makes me and the other English people I am working with, seem like strange beasts. What reason could we possibility have to want to make the journey in the reverse direction?