A point being proved! (with thanks to my sister-in-law)

No sympathy

Of course, the reason we (here) have no sympathy for British whining about snow and cold is that this country has all the 'kit' already in place.  Lots of dead animals to wear (there are even different words in Russian for a coat with the fur on the inside, and for one with the fur on the outside). Lots of snow-clearing devices, ones I have listed in an earlier post, but also a whole range of snow shovels and snow lawn-movers, which get pushed along the pavement. And whole bunches of people whose job it is to move snow around on roads and pavements, onto climb roofs and sweep the edges, to climb ladders and knock ice off drainpipes, and to put up miscellaneous barriers, warning of icy surfaces or dangerous icicles above. 

In fact, no snow left un-turned.

Queueing for church

There was a quite a queue to get in Christ the Saviour, where I had hoped to sit in on an orthodox religious service, so I went to one of my favourite cafes (Academia) which is right next door, and instead had my favourite snack which is a perfectly formed Melange Parmigiana, with a fan of parmesan pieces.

On a roll

On a bit of a roll on this snow and ice thing, which - especially for the English - is pretty current. (Sadly, I listen to BBC Radio 3 all the time, and the last news item was listing minus degrees everywhere across the UK in precise detail; for example, -13.2 degrees, which is a bit like saying your age is 23 and three-quarters).

Went for a lovely walk yesterday, down by the river. Because it was the day after Christmas here (!) the snow - which fell softly all day - has been less cleared up/messed up then usual, so everything is looking beautiful, clean and bright. 

and more ..

....But we did go skating on the rink erected at VDNKh. Looking very much like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (well, quite a big Piglet). 

Thanks to Erica for the photo, even though I don't think this is my best side.

More Katok news...

So, we also didn't go ice-skating on the pond at Chisty Prudie, despite locals clearing a small amount of snow and skating in very small circles (as well as making some pretty good ice-slides).

And I have not yet joined the gang of enthusiasts who are currently arguing on-line about what time to go skating at the Palace of Sports Krylatskoye.

A minority interest

This will only be relevant to a few of you out there - but one of the unexpected bonuses of getting lost trying to find Tiger Rocky, was that we walked right by a famous Constructivist building, the Rusakov Worker's Club, built in 1927  by Melnikov. This was one of 30 trade union commissions in the Moscow region around that year.  Though it now is neglected and empty, those projecting lecture rooms still have the power to inspire those of us sad enough to be enthralled by architectural stuff.

It is very close to Sokolniki Metro, just not sure in what direction..... 

Meeting Tiger Rocky

Another slightly unintended experience centred on our attempt to see a 'typical' Russian New Year show. Quaintly, Google translates these as  'Firs', the yolka or Christmas tree celebrations for children. By the time I got around to booking, all the best tickets had gone or were inordinately expensive.

So I plumped for something called The New Year Adventure of Tiger Rocky (there is definitely a tiger theme here this year, related to the up-coming Chinese Year of the Tiger) because it was on ice, and included acrobatics and magic. It was a 3.00 pm matinee at the Sokolniki Sports Palace, in Sokolniki Park, and the first problem was that we couldn't find the stadium, despite being given many contradictory directions by people we asked. We arrived very late - which was a kind of blessing -as the audience was pretty sparse and the show a local, mainly amateur, affair. We did get our gifts from Ded Moroz at the end though, a bag of sweets, and the children who were there seemed to have a good time, with much shouting and joining in. And now we do know what yolka is. 

With thanks to Peter for the photo which shows Ded Moroz (Father Frost) in his rather fetching blue version - he also comes in red like our own Santa Claus - together with his grand-daughter, Snegurochka  (snow girl)... oh, and Tiger Rocky in the background. 

Skating in the dark

One of the things we did whilst my friends were here was enjoy the possibilities of outdoor ice skating. For reasons I can no longer quite make sense of, we elected to avoid the joys of the more obvious places such as the Red Square rink (too loud/gaudy), Hermitage Gardens (too obvious) or Patriarch's Pond (too picturesque?) Instead we went to a 'Movie' skating rink KinoKatok.

This involved both metro and trolley bus ride and took us into the middle of a huge, empty and bleak sports park. What we had trouped out there thinking would a big warm indoor rink with a huge video screen turned out to be basically an iced over car park with no-one else around, and a small - and very blank - open air screen at one side. 

Worked out okay in the end, as the adjacent cafe meant we could sit eating chicken and chips whilst we watched the only determined person amongst us, happily skating on his own in a snow blizzard!

The mid-night snow shovellers

Was woken up last night by the sounds of industrial-style snow removal in my street. This involved a large dumper truck, followed around by a smaller truck - basically a moving conveyor belt on wheels - and then a little bulldozer (not shown in the photo, but you just need to imagine Wall-E); together with many men with spades. The procedure seems to be that the little one shunts the snow (which has already been piling up at the sides of streets through the manual efforts of many people with huge, flat snow shovels) into new piles which are then transferred, via the conveyor belt to the big lorry, which drives off at regular intervals to dump its load somewhere else. (Where? Snow-fill?)

When the big 'uns had finished, the little bulldozer remained to 'tidy up', through a repetitive process of scrapping and patting.

I know snow is a fact of winter life here, but it does make the British attitude of 'OhmyGod its snowing, cancel everything' seem pretty pathetic.

Happy New Year, Russian Style

Moscovites, like Londoners, advise you to stay away from the big party in Red Square/Trafalgar Square for New Year's Eve; so in the end, after various vague notions of finding a restaurant without a private party/huge entrance fee/face control we just sat in front of the TV and watched right through to President Dmitry Medvedev's speech (in front of images of an unrealistically quiet and  empty Red Square and Kremlin) at midnight. 

Which turned out, from my google researches, to be the 'proper' way to do it: 

“Most Russians celebrate New Year's Eve with their families and close friends. The celebration usually starts one or two hours before midnight and the common tradition is to "say farewell to the old year" by remembering most important events of the last twelve months. At five minutes to twelve most of the people watch the president's speech on TV or watch popular New Year TV shows ("Goluboy Ogonek"). There is a tradition to listen to the Kremlin clock bell ('Kuranty') ringing twelve times on the radio or on TV. During these last 12 seconds of the year people keep silence and make their secret wishes for the next year.” 

Which is exactly what we did. Well not the silences and the wishes thing, And to be honest we didn't watch the TV show,  we gaped at it. It was all glitter,  flashing coloured lights, bling, celebs, loudness, singalong songs, over-acting and gurning for the camera, and endless over-the-top theatrical gestures. I've stolen an image from the brilliant English Russia website, because I was too stunned to photo the TV. And in fact, for a great inside story and more images, go to their blog and read Happy Fake Year.

Disco time

I think I should mention that the boat - see previous post - does turn into a bit of a discotheque (and that is definitely the correct term) towards the end of the evening. So come prepared with your glitter ball and some 70s dance moves!

Handy hints for travelers 8: take the boat trip!

We did our Christmas dinner aboard a special ice-breaking tourist river boat, the first one working of the 5 recently bought by Radisson as part of their renovation of the Hotel Ukraine (another of the Stalinist skyscrapers.) Although the ice was mainly in thin floes, there was still enough to give an occasional satisfyingly eerie screech against the hull, and nothing beats seeing a city after dark from the water. The trip included dinner and cost 1,500 roubles a head (including food but not drinks). Brilliant.

Snowballs in Red Square

Had the glorious treat of my daughter and some friends spending (English) Christmas and New Year in Moscow with me. Had planned to wow them with the deep and crisp and even, and with bright skies and cold but clear  days. Of course was stymied by the fact that 1.) it has been snowing heavily in England 2.) Moscow was unseasonally mild, wet and therefore extra slushy 3.) that Moscow is not the easiest of places to get around in whatever weather.

Anyway here we are, exchanging snowballs (photo courtesy of Peter) in front of St Basil's, having arrived too late to visit Lenin, and before we worked out that the only way into the cathedral itself was via a door that very firmly said Exit/выход. (And the cathedral is a must-see inside, if only because it is so unexpectedly unexpected.)

The best constructivist building in Moscow

Got to see the inside of what is probably the most famous Soviet constructivist building in the world - Narkomfin.  Designed by Moisei Ginsburg in the 1920s, this housing block was meant to aid the transition  towards communism, by combining a mixture of privatised flats (with kitchens) and ones only containing space for sleeping and studying, with all other facilities organised collectively.  It was also an early example of architectural modernism - with double height spaces, long horizontal windows and white walls - some of which the more reknowned French architect Le Corbusier nicked for his own modernist housing masterpiece Unite D'Habitation. 

Narkomfin has been badly neglected and is in very poor condition. However, some flats are occupied - left over from the privatisation of housing that took place through the early part of the 1990s. The property developer MIAN has also bought many flats, intending to develop a converted scheme for housing, but is being affected by the financial crisis and the usual legal stalemates. This has left the building - unloved for most of the Soviet period - in a kind of (typically Russian) limbo. 

These days it is very hard to get inside Narkomfin. The few remaining tenants are both angry and anxious; they called the police when we visited, uncertain about our reason for being there (even though we were with representatives from Alexey Ginsburg - architect grandson of Moisei - who MIAN have employed to design the improvements; and of Moskonstruct who are a Russian-Italian campaigning organisation.) It is also crumbling and in a state - rubbish from squatters (now cleared out by MIAN); plaster peeling off the walls, and windows broken and stained. But the overall glory of the vision can still be seen - a very clever weaving together of double height living spaces with single height bedrooms, bathrooms and (yes) kitchens; interlocked into a clean whole, with lots of light and - considering the restrictions of both economy and politics in the 1920s Soviet Union - spacious.

The truth is, though, nobody is holding their breath about the building surviving. Along with MAPS, another group which is trying to save some of the best bits of Moscow's architectural heritage,  Moskonstruct seem pretty fatalistic about their chances, when up against current development pressures, corruption, and the known preference of Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzkhov for the new.

Sign Moskonstruct's petition to save Narkomfin here.

Christmas decs on my kitchen window, courtesy of дед мороз (Father Frost)!

The cheapness of champagne

Brought a bottle of Советское Шампанское/Sovetskoye Shampanskoye - Soviet Champagne - in my local supermarket for about 200 rubles (4 pounds/4.5 Euro/$6) last week. Made sure it said dry/brut/брют as I have been told that the local preference is for very sweet; and found it both very cheap and very drinkable. (Although this may be in comparison to the wine, which is generally both overpriced and dreadful).

So bought another bottle yesterday, and as the photograph illustrates, had a series of difficulties opening it. Was even reduced to searching websites when the cork initially refused to 'pop out' and found one forum where a group were arguing increasingly more aggressively in textual form -  for what felt like hours - as to what was the best thing to do. When I tried  some of their advice, which was to run hot water over the cork, the result was that the rounded top just pulled off. So then I resorted to a corkscrew, only to find that the one in this flat is one of those that has all the appearance of a corkscrew but is actually made out of metal-coloured mud, which just bent when I even showed it the cork, and then got completely stuck.

As you can see, this bottle remains unopened, and any suggestions as to what to do next are welcome. 

снег, снег, снег, снег!

Had my first Russian lesson this week, and feeling a bit pathetic at how bad I am. But found out something important, that has been confusing me. Much of what I read about the Russian language says that it is easy because letters do not change how they sound in different word contexts (unlike English where pronunciation is all over the place).

But, now I am here, this is clearly not true. Milk, for example, is spelt молоко or moloko, but pronounced malako (with the emphasis on the last syllable.) And snow...snow is written снег or SNEG (I know, sweet!) but is actually pronounced SNEK.  So, now I know that it is only the syllable which is emphasised in a word, which is pronounced correctly. Well I am also finding out that some letters are always pronounced the same; and that others are 'paired' so that one changes to the other when at the end of a word (as in г/к but also в which becomes ф or F when at the end of a word.).

So that must have made it all a lot clearer!

hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

Come February I know I am going to regret this enthusiasm, but right now I am just very happy it is snowing and that everything looks so pretty! 

Pet shopping

Beyond the gates of VDNKh there is a straggling single line of people, mainly older women, standing silently offering a few things for sale such as sweaters or embroidery. Near the gate itself, though, the goods turn out to be almost all kittens and puppies, bundled up inside each person's coat or bag, with only their little heads sticking out.  Sooo cute....

A day at the park

Another day out, this time to the All Russian Exhibition Centre, now known as VVC/ ВВЦ but still mainly called by its previous name - Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy - or VDNKh/ВДНХ  which is also the name of the local metro stop. It is a weird place, a sprawling site across which about 80 pavilions are scattered; some in 'regional' styles, and some to represent a particular industry or field (radio-electronics, soviet culture, atomic energy etc.,) all in varying states of decrepitude. In the Soviet period exhibitions and conferences were held here, and some of the grand intentions can still be felt. But now the pavilions are mainly occupied by stalls selling miscellaneous junk, surrounded by a fun fair and hot-dog stands, as well as heroic statues and fountains. I went at the weekend, so the place was packed with families having a day out. 

I then joined a Mosmania tour to the nearby Ostankino TV tower (by travelling from VDNKh on the new monorail to Телецентр). This is another place to get  a great view over the city; although security was tough (you have to book in advance and show your passport) and the official tour was in Russian. And although I have intended not to make fun of translation errors on this blog - 1.) because I speak almost no Russian yet, and my accent is atrocious, and 2.) because almost all the Russians I work with speak impeccably good English with almost no accent at all - I am going to do right now. Just to pass on the joy of hearing the guide say (whilst we were at the monorail stop, looking away from the Ostankino tower at the nearby Sheremetev estate and it's lake) that we were witnessing " a serial of ponds, where many women committed suicide in that very puddle."

A bit better...

Was going to continue my grumblings about Christmas, since they appear to be building a gigantic Santa's grotto in Red Square. But now feeling rather more excited as it is turning into an outdoor skating rink. And one of my (slightly peculiar) hobbies has been to ice skate in the centre of cities - the Rockefeller Centre in New York, outside the Natural History Museum in London, and by the Rathausplatz Vienna. Was planning to add the Ice Park in Rautatientori Square, Helsinki in early January but can't now make the trip. So ice skating in Red Square will be a good substitute.  

Christmas grumps

I don't know why, but I thought that because Russians celebrate Christmas on January 7th (based on the Russian Orthodox calender), Moscow would not be full of Christmas tat like everywhere else European. But I was wrong. The place is ablaze with baubles. And with the worst of UK Christmas pop songs. And with fat red Santas and various other sentimental figurines. Bah humbug.

Tried out the opera for the first time, where, at the Novaya Opera anyway, tickets are extraordinarily cheap at 200 roubles (about 4 pounds/7 dollars/4.50 euros). Went to see the Magic Flute. Don't know much about opera, so not sure how much the weirdness was inherent in Mozart's original - the story is pretty all over the place and meant to have a bit of a pantomine quality -and how much was a particularly Russian interpretation. Suffice to say that the sorcerer character was Stalin (Bad guy? Good guy?) and his surrounding chorus henchmen wore trilbys, black suits and hammers.  The heroine, meanwhile, had a red cardboard sickle velcroed to her hair for much of it, and there were many very literal moments (a large 'magic flute' - with wings - hanging centre stage) and  quite a lot of random events. Why oh why did the henchmen throw red stuffed animals at the hero at one stage, or did the wicked queen suddenly 'grow' an extra-large leg? And pity the two baritones who were wrapped up in silver foil, together with their cardboard box plinths, as 'Stalin' statues - so could only hobble very slowly and oddly across the stage and had to do a kind of sideways flop in order to be carried off. All in all, given that the singing was very good, a great if slightly surprising night out.

Unidentified packages 4

Saturday brunch at CafeMania - the one on the corner of Rozhdestvenka and Pushechnaya near Kutznetsky Most metro - so treated myself to this cake, called a Fifth Element (no, I don't know why either). Not really unidentified as the menu said it combined chocolate with gorgonzola cheese(!), berries and cinnamon. The reality was such a chocolate attack that I know I wont be able to eat another one of these for at least a year!