If you happen to be traveling from Monterrey, Mexico to Moscow, Russia in low season and you have a US visa DO fly Delta via Atlanta. The small plane we had to Atlanta was very new, so smooth and far from full, I thought we were in a private jet. Then on the 767 to Moscow I had at least 15 seats to myself which meant I could catch the Atlanta city views leaving, have dinner watching the movie (which was somewhat fittingly, Greed is Good) from a comfortable seat, nap in the center three seats, have breakfast watching the sunrise over the artic somewhere and then see the Moscow city sights on the way in. Really very good and probably even better than business class. I couldn’t stop thinking how nice it would have been with all the family there too! Richard would have loved it, James would have explored the whole cabin, plenty of room for Ryan to sleep, Babuliya could have made nice beds for everyone out of the abundant pillows and blankets and while they are all happy Mum and Dad were certainly going to be happy.
Tag Archive: Moscow
Monterrey to Moscow
Dictation for 7 year olds???
I can’t remember so far back but I don’t think that 7-8 year olds were doing such complicated dictation at school. Maybe someone who supervised me at school can can correct me?
Anyway Richard had a difficult time about
a week ago and achieved a 3- out of 5
for his dictation at school.
I can’t go into the details of what the mistakes were because I really have no idea. My Russian reading is OKish with the big letters but the little ones get confusing. I mean take a look at the last word in the picture below right, what the hell is that? Well I can tell you, it says ‘mishi’ which means many mice!
So getting back to the dictation, after getting in trouble from Mum and Grandma Richard put in a fantastic effort and proudly brought home a 5 for signing! Now not only was there a proud kid but also an even prouder Mum and Grandma.
Too many smokers in Moscow
The proportion of people who smoke in Moscow (probarbly all of Russian actually) seems much higher than it is. I live overlooking a metro station in central Moscow and (depending on the time of day) the proportion of smokers Vs non smokers is about 60 / 40! Really, it is! I can explain though.
As smoking is not allowed on the metro and people generally spend at least 15 and up to 60 minutes underground, smokers are usually gasping for a nicotine fix by the time they finish riding the long, long escalators to the nice fresh air above. As soon as the chance arrises they light up joinging those at the begining of thier journey who are taking their last puffs before making the descent into the metro. As a result of this some times frenzied smoking the average passer by has little option but to catch a couple of breaths of second hand smoke as a hazardous by product of using the Moscow Metro.
Another scene that takes some getting used to is seeing people walking and smoking. Just beyond the metro is the most obvious place to see this of course. The amount of people that I have seen walking at a brisk pace, not just wandering around smoking is amazing. It’s like a double trauma to the body, increase the heart rate and at the same time replace the oxygen that your body is trying to get with smoke???
The final most amazing scene unfolded this evening while I was cycling along the Moscow river approaching the Kremlin. It was about 24 degrees c with a slight breeze rippling the river making the sunset very impressive indeed, perfect cycling weather in a perfect setting. I approached a young girl (about 17 or 18 years old) riding along at a not to fast, not to slow pace and as I got closer I could smell cigar smoke. Sure enough there she was cruising along smoking a thin cigar! Now that is taking smoking just a bit too far I think.
Just to finish off. I’m not out to change the world about smoking I just can’t believe that people spend so much time trying to live in environmentally healthy areas, complain when nasty air conditioning systems make them sick, complain when someone has bad BO near them (especially so on the metro!) and then light up creating a mini poison zone all around them???
Strange question on the metro today.
1120pm sitting in a wagon at Kievskaya station (central Moscow) with several other youngish folks. Doors still open waiting to move off toward Smolenskaya station one stop down the line (also central Moscow) and a purposeful, intelegent looking lady in her mid 50s steps in. Announcing to the whole wagon and to nobody in particular ‘is this central?’ (Eto v senter?).
Being completely ingored was to be expected with a question like that on that train at that station as we were in the center of Moscow on a train line with several central stops either side of our station one of which is the end of the line. So in short she was already in the center and only going to stay in the center or stay on the train and head out of the center.
Anyway the whole carrige kept blank faces or continued thier conversations only to be interrupted by a now agressive and not so intelegent looking lady repeating her question only louder, ‘is this central?’ (Eto v center?).
Another pause with still no answer saw her demanding, ‘answer my question!‘ (atverchaet moi vopros).
The guy opposite me broke the impass and asked her politely, ‘center of what?‘ (Kakoe v center?)
Snapping back, ‘center of Moscow!’ (vsenter Moskva).
Still politely the guy replied ‘this is the center!’ (eto vsenter Moskva!)
Realizing that she wasn’t going to get the information that she was looking for she got off. The guy didn’t say anything after that, just looked as amazed as I think I looked wondering what the hell just happened there.
Moscow Metro is great!
Upmarket Supermarket – Superbitch!
Today I dropped into an upmarket supermarket Azbuka here in Moscow. A brand new location for this famous chain but none the less they managed to fill it up with cashiers with diplomas in antibusiness majoring in organizational destruction.
As I aproached the line of shiny new cash desks I was faced with a choice of at least five neatly uniformed young to middle aged cashiers. How to choose? Well the cashier closest to me was an easy option which I soon regretted. As I placed my 112ruble ($4.35) loaf of freshly baked wholemeal bread on the conveyor she caught sight of the 1,000 ruble note that I was preparing to pay with. . . . This is where the troubles started!
Quite calmly but matter of factly she announced ‘Without change I won’t’ (bez zadacha, ya ne budu)! Quite often it is the case that shops run short of change but it’s just as common for the cashier to ask for small change quite politely, even in Russia. So I showed her all the small change I had, which wasn’t enough of course and we stood staring at each other wondering who was going to break sentense next. I knew if it was me she would come off much worse.
Before long she said, ‘give me the 10 rubles’ refering to the note that she saw in my small change. I handed it over knowing that it didn’t help her reduce the amount of change that she had to give me. Snatching it from me and angrilly punching the amount into the key pad was expected and acceptable behaviour from her now so I let it slide without incident. Next though was different.
When she opened the till to place the money and get the change I noticed that there was money of all denominations in plenty sufficient quantity for our transaction. Here is the exchange that followed:
[Me] Rudely but not as bad as I could have been ‘what’s that’s not enough?’
[Her] Point blank ‘If I give this to you then there will be nothing left for the next customer!’
[Me] ‘There is plenty there so what was the point in telling me that without change you won’t sell it?’
[Her] No response, just a stupid direct stare.
[Me] Still calm but getting ruder ‘this is complete rubbish, not my problem and anyway doesn’t mean you have to talk like you did!’
By this time I had my change, had made my point and was on my way with my toasty warm and expensive bread. Looking back the cashier was of course recounting our conversation from her perspective to the remaining cashiers.
Each time I make it through an incident like this I think, how much money can a good well run business with polite staff make in this town???
Getting Richard ready for school.
Well it is that time in life to leave the comfort of home and the easy life in pre-school and head off to school. For Mum and Dad this was a major process. After deciding against the English school options in Moscow (after negative feedback from various sources) we settled on Russian schools with English as a second language from the early years. We found school Arbat 1234 which has English from the 2nd grade. They even have kids who started there with no Russian skills at all!
After a scary interview with the director where Richard clammed up only managing to wisper a few answers to the easiest of questions we took a look at the sports hall. The director was searching for other skills in the kid which may make up for his apparent lack of speaking skills and then we found English. As soon as this was known we were in, with only the medical exams to go!
So off to the clinic to get a battery of tests done not unlike the ones recently done in Baku for his citizenship although in Moscow the surrounds were much more inviting. Passing the tests in flying colours we moved on to see the psychiatrist to get an all clear on his preparedness for shchool. This is a mandetory step for kids under 6.5yo in Moscow even though the kids can go to shchool from 5yo here.
New shoes, uniform, books, bag, and suit for the first big day!
Just a matter of waiting now. Roll on September 1st!
Move your office.
Richard has just started calling me at work now to find out when I am coming home. He hits the speed dial for my mobile and voila, he can speak with me!
Today he called me to ask what I was doing. I told him that I was going to have dinner in the restaurant at work. Very excitedly he asked if he could come to as he likes restaurants. I told him that this is a restaurant for grown ups (inside a casino) so he can’t come. Thinking quickly he asked if it would be possible for me to move the office to Mcdonalds so he can come and have dinner with me.
What a nice thoughtful kid.
Going to Tallinn – Estonia
I’m off to Tallinn today in Estonia. Actually I wrote this after I got home to Moscow but anway…
The overnight train from Moscow to Tallinn leaves Moscow in the early evening and arrives in Tallinn the next morning at around 8am. Paying for ‘Coupe’ compartment is what you want to do especially if you are travelling in pairs. It is two to a cabin and pretty comphy compared to the ‘plax card’ which is six people to a sort of a nook in a carrige with seven other nooks in it. In summer these nooks can be a bit overwhelming! I managed to share my cabin with a nice guy going for a day trip for business, I was going just to get a stamp in my passport as a requirement for not breaking my visa restrictions.
Arriving at 8am in Tallinn is fantastic if you manage to snag a balmy warm July day as I did. I wouldn’t much like it in winter I don’t suppose. I spent the first couple of hours with my cabin mate from the train showing me around the old city and pointing out where to have lunch and the main attractions. This was a valuable insight but the old city not being huge and having 10 hours before the return train I think I would have found everthing just fine. It was a very nice welcome anyway.
The day was spent mostly strolling around wherever the paths took me in the old city. I ventured out to one side for a little way but the city became remarkably like any other Eastern Block city, not very exciting if you happen to live in Moscow. The old city is the best place if you like the architecture of the era(s) when the city was built. I took plenty of photos some of which you can find here. I didn’t put them all there as I got a bit carried away, there is enough there to give you a taste and perhaps even the urge to go.
Lunch was great. Chicken breast, salad, some yummy fries and a litre and a half of the finest local beer. This took me a good few hours to digest and I could hardly stand up to get moving on to find parts of the city that I missed before lunch.
The afternoon was spent much the same as the morning just wandering around taking photos. This of course got a bit tedious so I lashed out and shopped for a few souvenirs. Vana a famous liqeuer from Tallinn was high on the list. Half a dozen bottle of this in varying strenghts oughta do it for the guys back in the office, ohh and don’t forget the red wine for the train trip home. Now I was in need of coffee, plenty of choice here. The main square is the place to do coffee though marveling at the cobbled square wondering about the poor souls who were chained to the walls for punishment so many years ago – or so the stories go anyway.
Whoops time to go. Its 5pm and I need to find cold beer and something to eat for dinner on the train. It is a BYO everthing affair and for 16 hours beer, wine, chips, bread, salami and something for breakfast is needed. Finding the beer and chips was no problem of course but it was musli bars pre packed in Moscow for breakfast. I made it back to the train in plenty of time to chat with my new cabin mate, a government employee going to Moscow to work in the Embassy.
Funny thing happened on the train. As I said I especially went on the trip to get the stamp and on crossing back into Russia (at some crazy time of the morning after 3 beers and 3/4 of a bottle of wine) the border guard found that my passport hadn’t been stamped on the way out. OMG now I thought I was going to get kicked off the train! It turned out afte I described the border guard that checked us on the way out that she was a dizzy blonde and that she regularly forgets to stamp documents. So as it goes they gave me an entry and exit stamp and let me back to sleep.
A lazy rocking trip for the remaining 5 hours drenched in the morning sun (which rose at just after 3am) back to Moscow was soothing. I arrived in the big smoke feeling fresh and ready for work which is where I ended up directly from the train.
If you get the chance go on this trip!
