Living the high life.

Woke up this morning with the intent to head out early-ish and check things out. I actually managed to get downstairs this time for the free breakfast. Standard hotel/hostel fare in Europe. A selection of sliced meats and cheeses. Sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and yellow bell peppers. A bunch of tiny pastries, hard boiled eggs, some sausages (though they were more like small fat hot dogs), cups of yogurt, and cereal. Drinks were apple or orange juice, milk, or tea/coffee which the gal at the desk would gladly make for you. Meh. It was good but the same as everywhere else for the last 9 weeks. I prefer to eat out and find different tasty vittles.

Fortified by my pint sized smorgasbord I headed to the Central Station to figure out how to hit the TV tower. I noticed in both here and Prague that when they decided to build a huge tower to improve TV transmissions, they decided to do it up right and make it into something cool. Every day I would look out over the Daugava River and see a huge tripod building sitting on an island. When the tour guide yesterday mentioned that you could go up into the tower, I realized I needed to check it out.

I managed to find a metro map and hit the tram car out to the island. It was a long walk down to the base of the tower, but it was along the river with no one around anywhere. No cars, no people, nothing.

Riga's way of saying, "Howse YOU doin' , baby?"

But it was a really nice walk. The chill in the air was just enough to balance out the exercise from walking, the river air smelled clean and wet, and the leaves on the trees lining the island were just starting to turn shades of yellow, brown, and orange. When I got the the tower, the gal was friendly but spoke absolutely no English. Likely she was bored out of her skull. Apparently, no one likes the TV tower this late in the season. I got a ticket to ride up to the first teir observation layer, along with two young Latvians that showed up just after she came back from a back room to find the pass to head up. 

The view was incredible, but the overcast skies and light fog limited what we could see of the city. I got some good pics though, especially of the surrounding island the tower was placed upon.

After wandering about the tower for about all of 10 minutes, us three had seen about everything that you could see - we headed back out to town. They drove off and I got another nice walk along the shoreline back. 

I then ended up hitting Riga's Central Market. In Prague (and I think here also) they called it the Russian market. I assume that it is due to most of the goods being Russian and that it is a traditional type of thing. Anyway, this market was huge.

The three quonset hut style buildings, each large enough to easily hold a zeppelin, was only the indoor portion of the market - maybe about 1/3 of it. The various vendors were loosely placed into similar groupings. The clothing section (marked out as pants, shoes, suits, etc,), the produce section, the meat section, the fish section, the miscellaneous section. This thing was monstrous. You could easily walk around for hours through the aisles. I didn't bother taking pictures in the market itself as it pretty much all looked the same as any outdoor market, except each booth contained only one particular type of item (plumbing, or children's toys, or what have you) and all the booths next to it had almost the exact same things. Since not a lot of folks spoke English, I suck at bartering, and they had almost no touristy stuff - I didn't bother getting anything. 

My plan at this point was to hit the history museum, but my shoes were sabotaging my plan. The back of the shoes was rubbing my Achilles's tendon and  it was starting to bleed. I had to detour back to the hotel to get a couple blister packs for it (with a quick stop in for a donner kebab). So this decided me that I would take a canal boat tour at the nearby park I had visited previously. 

The park was wonderful, just crazy gorgeous and the tiny boat docks held a couple of picturesque boats that let you see the canal running through the park and then down to the Daugava River in a loop. There was an electric boat with a cute English gal trying to get passengers, but they were the new folks or the block. Also a tad cheaper, but I liked the look of the other boat better - more viewing area. I would have changed my tune if I hadn't realized it was diesel before I paid the guy (he didn't speak English, so I figured I would just use his boat).

The boat trip was about 40 minutes but it was a cool view of the park and the area surrounding Old Town. Plus its good to just relax and bob in the water, enjoying the view and taking in the river air. Apparently it is duck season as they were out in droves. I missed getting a picture of Kung Fu duck. The camera was closed up and we were past before I could get a shot. Ducks usually sleep standing on one leg with their heads tucked in back. The guy must have been startled or something halfway through his routine and he was standing on one leg, the other straight out sideways, both of his wings slightly out - as if he was about to side kick the duck next to him. Also he had nunchuks,

Refreshed from the boat ride I headed over to see the OTHER high point view in town. There was a hotel a little ways up Brivibas Iela (which translates to Freedom Street), just past the Freedom Monument. On the 26th floor is the Skyline Bar, which has a view of Riga from the middle of downtown (similar to the Portland City Grill at Big Pink). I walked up to Hotel Raddison Blu Latvia, flew up the glass elevator, and strolled in to the bar to order a brandy and some Cesu beer (local). 

The view was incredible.

The pictures don't do it justice. You had a perfect view of the Freedom Monument and then past it Old Town. Beyond that were the two bridges, the traffic with its headlights on due to the overcast and rain. The other side of the bar shown over the rooftops of the newer city section, yet the buildings were mostly the Art Nouveau style. Simply beautiful. I probably spent about an hour sipping down my two drinks, enraptured by the overhead view of the buildings, headlights strolling over the bridges, and the slowly turning leaves of the trees below.

Enough of that - I ended up walking all over the newer part of town for many blocks after I got out of the bar. The buildings still looked cool, but it was neat to compare the ground floor view against what I seen from up top. I walked until dark, then walked some more to take in the night scene. After a while, my stomach told me that there was a donner kabob place near my hotel.

All in all, it was a productive day and I really do love this little city on the Baltic. 

Wait... you liked who more?

Didn't get much sleep last night. No idea why, though I did spend an inordinate amount of time reading The Shining (I can't believe I hadn't before). I had just downloaded the sequel and figured I should read the first one. Stephen King sure can suck you into a book. I stayed up late reading, but when I tried to go to sleep - it just wasn't happening. Part of it was a damn mosquito that had managed to get into the room. I would be about to fall asleep when the damn tell tale buzzing would erupt near my ear and I would try to swat it instinctively. Rinse and repeat until almost 5am. When I did get to sleep I ended up waking around 10am when someone was fixing something in the hotel. <sigh>

So I managed to get out of the door and headed down towards the starting point for the hop on/off bus tour. I like taking them all the way around to give me an idea on places to check out later on. I hit a cheap coffee place for some solyanka, a latte, and a couple eggs with bacon. Then hit the bus.

A rooster on a cat on a dog on a donkey. Stick em between two slices of bread and I'm good.

There were two bus lines, green and blue, and I decided to take both of them one after another. I asked for the 48 hour bus tour, so that I could use the bus tomorrow to get to some cool places I want to check out. I liked the bus tours and they had an audio guide that described the various places. I figured out that I want to hit the giant TV tower, the Central Market, and the Art Nouveau area where all the embassies were located. Apparently, there are over 700 buildings in that style in Riga.

This made sense as every time I wandered around Riga, I found more really cool architecture to see. Riga is starting to top the Golden Bend in Amsterdam in terms of really cool buildings all placed next to each other. We also headed across the river to check out the other side of the city with some of the buildings set around there. All in all the tour was pretty cool.

Disco Buddha chick? Oh 80s, you are so silly.

After I got done with that, I took in the Occupation Museum next to the area where the bus starts. It takes into account the period of history from 1918 or so until 1991 when Latvia was released from Russian rule. It started out being Russian from the 1700s, then it Germans occupied it in WWI. After which it became independent. Until the Russians took it over prior to WWII. Then the Nazis rolled in and took it over. After the war, it was declared part of Russia during the aftermath. The tour guide that lead me, some English, and some Germans sounded somewhat miffed and felt that the Western powers didn't push Russia to get the Baltic states their independence. This kind of confused me - my first thought was "dude, we play in too many of other's peoples sandboxes". It seems a no win situation. If we get involved - we're assholes for manipulating another country's politics. If we don't get involved - we're assholes for not supporting democracy in other countries and we're letting down their people. At the time, I'm pretty sure no one in their right mind wanted to see the US and Russia declare war on each other at the point - right after nukes started coming into the picture.

Anyway, Latvia finally got their independence after a bloodless revolution when the Soviet Union was dissolving. It was weird hearing of all the nasty things both the Germans and Russians did to the Latvians. They were basically a middle ground between the two. What especially surprised me was that the Latvians looked forward to the Nazis invading as they though it would be better than the treatment they had from Russians hands. Even after the Holocaust, the Latvians STILL felt that the Nazis were marginally better than the Russians (sorry Natalia, it wasn't me saying this!). Wow. I really felt for them. The choice was between the Holocaust and Russian gulags. That's pretty harsh. (Sooooo, how would you like to die horribly - door number one or door number two?)

Kind of a buzz kill, but it was a fascinating museum with a lot of memorabilia from 1918 to 1991. The ways that the Latvians tried to live in both concentration camps and in gulags were strikingly similar. Hand drawn artwork and written names on cloth napkins, cleverly hidden to prevent their destruction. Side by side the collections were no different. But even then the Russian occupation HELPED Latvia by somewhat lifting them out of dismal abject poverty that they faced in the early 1930s, when the death toll from starvation was between 50 to 80 percent - depending upon the village.

Damn. And here get bummed when I run out of microwave burritos. That was a big reality check.

They closed up at 5, so I headed out to walk around Old Town.

Y'know, I could spend hours just walking around and finding all the cool little hidden niches.

The cool angular buildings.

The awesome artwork on them.

And the way cool sheer beauty of the place. Its no wonder the EU declared it as a top cultural city.

I eventually made my way back to the hotel to drop off my stuff, then I headed out again to find some munchies and something alcoholic. I walked up and down the main street dividing Old Town (Kalku) but didn't see anything appealing. It was nighttime though and it was cool checking out all the clubs and people walking about.

I ended up at Mallone's. A quasi Irish pub that served English and American food. It had a burger that I found lacking (NEVER put Thousand Island dressing on a burger - its just WRONG), onion rings, fires, and an English cider. The people seemed friendly and cool, but they just didn't speak English very well and my Latvian is on par with my Russian (which is to say, I can say the phrase "please put the banana in the washroom" - but only when I'm actually asking where the restroom is located). Some hockey was playing on the TV and it seemed like a nice locals type joint nestled in the midst of bars competing for tourist business. The guys in the red jerseys were beating the crap out of the guys in the white jerseys. Every once in a while they would put some American guy on that was playing for one of the teams and he would have a deer-in-the-headlights look as he described whatever the sportscaster wanted of him. I'm pretty sure he didn't speak a lick of Latvian and being imported to play where he understood only to get the puck into someone else's net was confusing to him. 

At least the girls in the audience were hot Eastern block gals. So when they hollered at him, he could look confused and wave a lot.

Melnā Kaķa Mājas and other things to piss off The Guild

I awoke around 9ish but decided to lay in bed for a hour reading. I had gone to a Mexican restaurant last night and had stuffed jalapenos and chicken enchiladas verde (with jalapenos). It was tasty (though not up to Ochoa's standards) but I kinda paid for it last night.

So up at 10 and headed to the mall to get a new camera. I was getting tired of the old one. It does a fine job, but its bulky and I need to carry a backpack in order to lug it around. It also started having an issue where, if you tried to use the flash - it would sometimes lock up and the batteries needed to be disconnected briefly. I mean I've had the thing something like 8 years or so - so its done it job. I wanted to try and find something that I could fit in my front pocket for when I didn't want to make it super obvious I was a tourist.

This is the mall on the corner across the street.

I ended up getting a Sony that had a MUCH better panorama mode, 18 megapixel resolution (my old was 10), and 20X optical zoom (my old one was 10). PLUS it folded up flat to easily fit into my front pocket. Voila! No more lugging around a backpack if I didn't want to.

I then headed out to hit the nearby river. The streets in Old Town are very picturesque. Old buildings and cobblestone streets overlooking new trendy shops and custom craftworks. I went by the hop on/off bus tour starting point, so now I have one place to hit tomorrow. I eventually ended up for a nice walk along the river.

The day was perfect. I even took off my fleece jacket since it was a little warm walking around with it on. The river view was gorgeous and I was mostly alone with the sound of traffic off on my right hand side. The bridges had two different architectural styles, one old school stone and mortar, the other was modern and done in an artistic fashion.

I ended up walking up to the bridge and then down into the newer heart of the city. I passed parks, then a stretch of parkways, and then the city proper. 

Well this is a pleasant peaceful little park and a neat statue, I wonder what its about?

Oh... awkward... I'll just kinda chill on the happy smile I have for a bit...

It was taller building built in a new Western European fashion, glass and steel, but also allowing for traditional brick buildings in between. Stores and restaurants of all sizes shapes and fashions. Also a TON of beauty salons. One of the reason East block gals look so good is because they takes great pains to look good. 

I then wandered down the road leading to the Freedom Monument. a large pillar in the center separating Old Town from the new city. right beyond it was an absolutely stunning park, decorated via autumn in shades of auburn, red, yellow, green, and a rich dark brown. There was a canal running through it, ponds and fountains, and a painted steel lattice lined bridge - though now covered completely with lovelocks. They have a canal boat tour which I'm afraid I'm going to have to check out. Apparently there is also an island nearby off the coast or some such that is gorgeous too. I'll have to figure out how to get there sometime this week.

 I wandered about, to and fro, and managed to make my way into a confectioner's shop. I had a bottle of a local soft drink made from wheat and herbs called Kvasa. Unlike the kefir, a fermented milk drink with grain wort in it, that I had which - sorry to say - is disgusting. The Kvasa was odd but somewhat tasty. I wouldn't drink it again, but it was cool in terms of trying something new. I prefer the Swiss Rivela better though.

I wandered down into a tea shop which smelled incredible and which I will have to go by again; then into a Latvian craft store. I asked the gal in there what the deal was with the black cat on all sorts of Riga tourist stuff. She remarked that it was based upon the Black Cat's Restaurant across the square. Hmmmmm. I headed back to the hotel to drop off my goodies and head the the restaurant.

 I knew there was a reason I loved Riga. Here's the blurb about the building with the cats.

"The legend known by most Rigans, which is also told to tourists, comes in at least two versions. One version of the legend has it, that the wealthy tradesman who commissioned the building was refused membership in the Riga Tradesman Guild, mostly just called the Great Guild. The central element of both versions is the anecdote, that seeking retribution, the tradesman had two copper statues of angry-looking cats with arched backs and raised tails placed on the turret rooftops with their tails turned towards the house of the Great Guild, situated across the street.

The other and perhaps older version of the cat legend has it, that the wealthy tradesman placed the two statues of angry-looking cats on the building turret rooftops with their tails towards the Riga Town Hall, following a dispute with the Riga City Council, after which he urged the erection of the building. The Riga Town Hall at the time was in the same direction as the Great Guild, but it burned down during World War II, was demolished 1954 and only rebuilt at the very same place in the years 2000—01."

I had a delicious meal there -
Sauerkraut soup with smoked pork and pearl barley.
Wild boar with porcini musrooms, mashed herb roots and cowberry jam.
Cottage cheese cream with cherries, raspberries, and caramelized oat flakes.

The dessert was something my kitteh Dago would go nuts over. I used to buy Swedish cream from the New Season's grocery store down the road. She loves the stuff and has since she was a tiny kitten. I dip my finger in it and let her lick it off the tip. Its a treat for her.

This was basically like the Swedish cream but on steroids. It was a little sweeter and was a lot more fluffy and creamy, topped with real whipped cream. Its only fitting that they would have it at Melnā Kaķa Mājas.

So far I absolutely love Riga. No fair having a black cat restaurant Riga, no fair at all.

Ciao Moss Cow and Viva La Riga

Woke up this morning late. It was my day to sleep in as I had no deadlines or tour guide to worry about. My train didn’t leave until 7pm and the driver was scheduled to pick me up at 5pm to take me to the station. I woke in time to get the breakfast downstairs but decided to roll over and sleep some more.

When I did wake up I figured I would head out to the Metro one last time. The reception guy said that there was a mall with restaurants and the last metro stop, which was only about three stops farther down the line. I figured I had the time, so why not enjoy a better quality meal.

Big mistake.

This stop was at the very farthest edges north of suburbia. Not bad in itself and there were plenty of restaurants to choose from, but why learn English out in the burbs? Can’t blame them. So none of the four restaurants I checked had English menus or anyone that spoke it. I eventually figured it would be better to be able to have the meh food in the hotel restaurant, than eating whatever I wildly guessed to be food.

I ended up getting a donner ham pita sandwich. The ones with the meat log turning vertically in front of a heater. And a Coke. It turned o0ut to be a pretty tasty meal, and it was cheap too. Unfortunately, it was not a full meal, so after sitting in my room for a couple hours, I hit the hotel restaurant again. Had the pasta carbonara,  some Russian pancakes with sour cream, and a Coke. Then back to the room to chill out until my ride came.

The ride was prompt and the traffic was fine on a (rare) sunny Sunday afternoon. The train station was one of many in the city, and since it only went to Latvia and such - English wasn’t really spoken. It took about ten minutes to figure out what the distinctly peasant Russian matron to sell me a key to the lockers so I could stash my things for an hour and a half until I could get to the train.

Apparently they don’t have an electrical grid setup to Latvia as the train was strictly a diesel engine train. There were also no first class sleeper bunks, so rather than have two bunks, I got a top bunk in a four bed. The other bunk mates wanted to swap me out for another room so that they could hang out with their buddy, but that didn’t work out as customs/borders keeps strict control of where you bunk and confusing them is not a good idea. But when it became apparent that five of them all hanging out in the bottom bunks eating and drinking would suck for me, the conductor offered to move my bunk to a less crowded cabin. That works out great for everyone involved. The guys could use my bunk for their buddy and stay up without disturbing me. I got a four bunk compartment with a completely silent guy in the bottom bunk (I think he can’t speak any language anyone knows), and a businessman with a tablet working on things.

The train itself has seen better days and it reminds me of the train I took from Prague to Amsterdam many years ago. A vague smell of stale smoke, and the smoking “rooms” were basically closet sized compartments between the train cars. So moving through the cars to hit the restaurant car for a beer was a smoky affair in itself. However, mission accomplished and now I’m relaxing in my top bunk writing away in my blog. Moscow looked to be a fun and amazing city, but god damn do they love their cigarettes.

Next day - ok, so I got very very little sleep. And when I finally did get to slumber I was awoke when we hit the Russian border checkpoint. Which lasted about 45 minutes and you had to up and ready with your passport and papers. Then about 30 minutes later, the same thing is repeated at the Latvian border.

Also the only thing they gave in terms of sustenance was strong black tea. They had nothing else. Plus some cheap chocolate covered wafer thingy. So no water and only black tea to drink since yesterday at 4pm. And almost no sleep.

So I get out of the train station and buy a cheap map just to find the hotel. I manage to hit it pretty much dead off, which was good because I seen warning that pickpockets target people with backpacks. Again, I need to stop listening to travel blogs. They must be written mainly by rich pasty white US kids as I felt completely safe once I was near the hotel.

So tired, beat down, dehydrated, and highly caffeinated - I drag myself into the hotel lobby. The gal already has my reservation on her desk and when I describe my status, she smiled and said “Do not worry, your room is ready for you - even though check in is at 2pm.” Sweet.

I had to actually book two berths in a more expensive room as they didn’t have a single occupancy room that would last my entire six nights - and I didn’t want to mess with pulling my stuff out of one room, storing it in the lobby, then moving it to another at 2pm. But mind you, I’m talking abut the difference between $30 a night and $65 a night.

So let’s go into what I got for $65 a night in Riga…

First off, the elevator is surrounded by a mini-coy pond with a water fountain on each side with a marble tile bridge leading to the elevator door…

But if that’s too much for you, you could always go up the marble staircase…

To a room with a 15 foot ceiling, a giant solid wood, four bed that fit’s a family of four. Four hanging lights, a bathroom with a tower warmer and bidet. A massive room divider with glass and mirror knick knack shelves. Two chairs, table, and solid wood flooring. In a room about the size of my living room, kitchen, and dining room put together…

Plus it was a balcony (the only room in the hotel that does), that overlooks the Old Town cobblestone streets.

And not only THAT, but let me describe the four corners that the hotel is part of.
My corner, where the balcony juts out from, is where the hotel is located.
One corner is a café with a Turkish coffee place next to it.
One corner has a pub on it.
The last corner is actually an opening to the high end, four story galleria - with a huge supermarket on the bottom floor.

So to recap:
Moscow - $130 a night - “This is best place for money. You not allowed in center. Carpets crinkles but be glad hotel staff not using anus as pleasure toy, like in cheaper hotels.”
Riga - $65 a night - “Does the supermodel bed warmer suit you sir, or would you like a different one?”

I chilled out for a bit, then decided to head out and wander a bit. So far the city is fucking stellar. Cobblestone streets, fashionable Western Euro gorgeous hotties. Everything is spotless and inexpensive, yet looks like a high end West European city.

I ended up at the Rockabilly Café (or something like that) where I had solvanka (the sandwich soup I had in Russia), a large Pilsner, and a large pepper steak with veggies and wedge cut taters. It was a higher end joint and ended up costing me 25 latvias (or $50), but it was just what I needed to fill the void in meh belly.

I then wandered around a bit and back to the mall beside the hotel. Picked up some milk (Russia and Latvia have unpasteurized milk, and it tastes SSSOOOO GOOODDDD), some pastries, a gallon of water (can’t drink the tap water here), and some tasty cookies fruit thingies.

Now I’m back in the giant hotel bed. If I get up some energy, I might walk the 20 feet into the café, bar, or mall tonight.

Did I mention that so far I’M LOVING RIGA!

Metros, Kremlins, and Arabats - oh my!

 So I actually woke up early enough this morning to get the free breakfast they offer in the restaurant. It was decent when compared to the hostels I've been to. A selection of meats and cheeses, porridge, eggs, pastries, etc. Basically you just go down the buffet and fill up.

So I was ready when Olga shown up at 10am. We hit the Metro and started the first part of the tour, the Metro stations. Moscow takes pride in its Metro system and they have a special circular route in the very middle specifically to take you to other exchange points. The train simply travels in both directions in a circle around the heart of the city center. So these Metro stations were decked out. And with the police everywhere, there is zero crime in the subways and absolutely no graffiti. Seriously, you do NOT want to end up in a Russian jail, some folks don't EVER leave them. The stations all had different themes, usually tied to one Russian era or a specific ruler or a specific region. The artwork was stunning, each one done with a different theme and all decked out in marble.

We hit about 6 different Metro stations, the best six according to Olga, and she described the different meaning in each one. Two of them reflected the livelihoods of the the Russian states, Georgia and Ukrainian. We also got a special treat. One of the trains that travels around the inner ring is a gallery train, where one side of the train is dedicated to works of art. Reproduction photos obviously, but still a really cool thing to encounter on a subway train.

After this we hit the subway station to get out at Arabat. Its a cobblestone street that basically is known for its touristy shops, street musicians, street art for sale, and restaurants. Kind of a touristy place, but for the people that actually live in Moscow.

A cool Georganian style restaurant on Arabat.

The street was pretty cool, but I despaired to see Dunkin Donuts and a Wendy's there. There were also a number of 50s style shiny chrome "drive through" style American joints. So I could have settled down and had a burger, milkshake, and fries. I think its kind of a novelty for the Russians, but it seemed out of place to me. Kinda cool though, but we didn't stop in to check it out.

After our cruise around, she dropped me off in front of the Kremlin so I could get tickets and check it out. I got tickets to walk the grounds (though there were plenty of police making sure you didn't wander into the "working" section) and to check out the Armory.

The Armory basically consisted of rooms full of royal treasure for the last 500 years basically. Tons of silversmithing, ceramics, jewelry, etc. The coolest exhibits I seen though there the incredibly ornate book bindings for the bibles they used in the cathedrals. Beaten silver with painted ceramic and jewels adorned bibles that were about a foot wide and two feet long. They also had an entire room devoted to just royal carriages. Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photos of anything. I'm sure I can see it online though.

The Kremlin was, well... boring. The building were cool looking, but you couldn't go in most of them. And only about half of the Kremlin was accessible for the public. I wandered about, checked out a couple exhibits, and headed out.

Who's got big balls? Fine Putin, you win...

I left the Kremlin and was going to head back but I wanted to check out the Christopher Columbus statue first. Y'know, the one they tried to sell us and ended up stuck with, then stuck Peter the Great's head on it. It really is kind of hideous. Funny thing is - this might have been our Statue of Liberty had we not turned it down.

Lets see... what does statue need... MOAR SHIPZ!

I am so glad I decided to walked around the city a tiny bit before hitting the Metro. Moscow if fucking huge. I mean, absolutely, gigantic. It houses 11.5 millions people and - well here's Wikipedia's blurb on it.

"Moscow has the largest community of billionaires in the world. Moscow is the northernmost megacity on Earth, the most populous city in Europe, and the 5th largest city proper in the world."

The buildings aren't as tall all over as New York, but its more spread out with buildings. Also a lot older.

Anyway, the statue was situated on a little island in the middle of the canal connected by bridges. Once I got on the island, I started hearing live music.It was a popular band and song - I want to say "Just a Girl" by No Doubt, but it wasn't that. Something similar though. There was a bunch of people standing out front looking for tickets to get in, the place was called Rolling Stones. So this was a cool little rock and roll island with clubs, restaurants, live music venues, and recording studios. More English on the signs there than anywhere I've seen in Russia.

Way cool, and for Russia - its phenomenal.

On of the things I really got a kick out of was in a parking lot at the tip of the island, the had a large cage with a tree and a squirrel house in it. The little red tailed squirrel went nuts when I walked up to it. It was in uber-hyperdrive zooming up and down the cage front. It would haul ass up, look at me, then zoom down. It kept repeating it continuously. People obviously would feed it since if you put your hand somewhere near the cage, he would zoom up and sniff your hand. Then zoom away again. It was severely cute.

Natasha! Qvick! Is squirrel!

I walked down off the island to the southern grey line Metro station. In the process walking by an open air food market. Had I been staying longer I would have picked up some jam, seasoned meat, or fresh fruit they had out. But alas, I am leaving tomorrow so it would simply go to waste. I'm going to miss Moscow actually. Its a huge city, but with the police presence - you have to go out of your way to find a place where you wouldn't feel safe. If I ever take the time to learn the Russian alphabet/language, I could easily spend a couple weeks in Moscow. I will miss it.

Then again, I'm not sure my lungs could handle it. I don't have asthma or anything, but the sheer amount of pollution makes it seems like you are chewing on car exhaust every time you open your mouth. Feh.

Anyway, Metro station found and headed back to the hotel. On the way out I seen a Scorpions poster and a Baskin Robbins. So here is why travel in Moscow is difficult. The map in English you get shows the streets and such as how it sounds. Presumably you could use it to ask locals where a street is located. But the Cyrillic alphabet completely throws you off as the signs don't grok properly.

Your honor, exhibit one for your viewing pleasure.

So I hit the restaurant downstairs for dinner. The Russians don't believe in a non-smoking section and I got a weird look for even asking. Cest la vie. Had a cream of mushroom soup, some kind of ground beefsteak with sweet chili sauce, apple strudel (that was the only good thing really), a Budvar, and a shot of vodka (its a usual to have one with meals). Unfortunately, there are no restaurants anywhere near the hotel. You basically have to drive or take the Metro to find one.

I'll likely do that tomorrow. Tonight I'm watching a group of neighborhood folks make hot air balloons using the thin rice paper bag trick. I heard cheering and wondered what was happening. I also hear fireworks, so I assume some kind of "thing" if being celebrated tonight. If I only knew more Russian.

Eerrr... actually any Russian...

The long view of the Red Square

Woke up this morning feeling somewhat more chipper. The gal showed up at 10am on the dot. I guess my luck was set to break as she was not a 20 year old college model. Her name is Olga and she's an elder gal - nice person but not the drop dead gorgeous model I was expecting. Cest la vie.

So I found out from her that the hotel I was in was located pretty far out in the suburbs. Like about the same distance as I am in Hillsboro to go to downtown Portland. Well feh. Good news is that she said the area I was in was really safe and nice, though there really isn't much around here at all.

So we hopped on the subway to get to downtown Moscow. The metro (what Europe calls a subway) is very efficient with trains coming by every couple minutes. The marking are clear and subway maps are everywhere.

we ended up coming out near the Red Square but first by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There is a 24 hour honor guard stationed there on each side of the tomb, and there is an eternal flame always on. Pretty cool tribute to their fallen comrades. We started to make out way to the Red Square but we stopped by a massive high end mall to get a coffee real quick.

I ended up having a halva latte (which was quite good) and a Russian cottage cheese filled pancake thing with jam on it. It was a traditional thing. The weird thing is that there were police keeping an entire section of the mall closed. Then later, when we went outside, we noticed that the Red Square was blocked off and that there were police EVERYWHERE. The Kremlin is next to the Red Square, so I think what was happening was some kind of political summit or Putin was doing something or other. So, in a nutshell, we had to forgo a lot of the tourist things that we were going to do.

There are 8 churches under one roof. One for each war victory.

We ended up having to take the long way around to see if we could check out the Red Square/Kermlin from an opposite side. Which was cool since we walked over a bunch of bridges while she pointed out cool stuff that was in downtown Moscow. 

Apparently way decades ago, Russia created a giant statue of Christopher Columbus and wanted to sell it to the US. We though the thing was butt ugly and told them so, refusing to buy the thing. So the Soviets did the next best thing. They cut the head off of the thing and instead placed the head of Peter the Great onto it. This thing was HUGE. The photo was from a great distance.

There is a tradition in Russia where you engrave the name of you and your lover on a lock, then lock it to a bridge and throw the key into the nearby canal. This apparently dates back to the WWII days in Serbia when a young war couple (Nada and Relja) fell in love. When he went off to Greece, he ended up falling in love with a gal over there and Nada died of a heartbreak. After which, young Serbian women would engrave they and their partners names to a lock and attach it to the bridge where the young lovers had met- in hopes of not falling to the same fate.

Years later it has become a tradition across Europe. In Moscow they even built special iron trees where newly married couples would stop during their wedding day to attach a lock onto these trees. Now they are all over Russia but there is an avenue next to a park near the Red Square where this is especially a tradition. The streets is lined with iron trees covered in locks. Once there are too many, they set down another tree.

So we walked all the way around the Kremlin and Red Square until we were back to the Metro station near the Kremlin entrance. Unfortunately, since I had forgotten my Visa card and had little money, I could't get tickets to check out the Kremlin. So I plan on hitting it up tomorrow after the Metro/Arabat tour. I did get some bitchin' outside pics though.

I headed back to the hotel and chilled out for a while, then decided to walk around the local area in search of food. Moscow seems to basically be Russia's version of New York. Big financial area, mostly working, but with a huge downtown. The city really is huge and very modern. But dirty. Really really dirty. The cars don't have catalytic converters, the factories have no incentive to be eco-friendly, and everyone and their mother smokes (seriously, everyone's moms smoke more than they do). Russia took one look at their environment and said "Nyyyaaaaaa, fuck that..."

As a result, you can see the smog in the air at ground level. Anything more than a couple blocks away has a foggy feeling - but that there isn't fog son. Walking next to the roads you can taste the pollution and my nose somewhat stung after being in the for a while.

I ended up walking under the railway tracks to the nearest highway road. I figured there would be some restaurants on it. No such luck. Tons of buses and cars about, but the stores lining the road were more of a utilitarian nature. Auto parts stores, clothing, rugs, banks, etc. Not even many markets. In Europe they tend not to have a lot of big markets, they have lots of small markets spread out all over so people can walk to them.

Anywhose, I finally ended up walking all the way back to the hotel and hitting up a tiny buffet style place called De Cafe. It was a cross between a Paris and New York themed interior, but serving strictly cheap Russian food. I had some kind of meat patty with a poached egg on it, macaroni noodles, cucumbers with sour cream drizzled over them, a bowl of beef and veggie soup, and a Coke. It only cost me 300 rubles and it was filling, so what the hell.

Bullet trains and concrete jungles

The train out to Moscow wasn’t due until 13:30, and the driver to take me to the station wasn’t due until noon, so I was able to sleep in until 10. Got up, showered, packed my stuff, hit the ATM and then the bank to break it into smaller change. The driver showed up promptly at noon for a silent drive to the central train station. Silent mainly because he spoke zero English. He didn’t seem the cheeriest type even if he did. When he looks at you, you want to encase your spleen in some kind of armor in case he might get hungry. And not because he particularly was violent, you just happen to be there.

I was surprised by how sparkling clean the train station was. But then again, not really after looking at the number of police hanging about. They were mainly there to ensure no terrorist acts happened (you went through a metal detector on entering and again when hitting the train gates). A pickpocket would have to be really ballsy to try something there, and Russian police are not known for having a forgiving nature (Siberia, my friend?). They even had a couple K9 units walking through the main hall and along the gate region.

One cool thing I noticed while waiting for the train to leave. There was a cigarette/snack stand just outside the window. It resembled a larger version of the glass and painted metal police boxes you used to see in the UK, the infamous Tardis from Dr. who. Except it was larger (maybe a 10 foot octagon), painted dark green, and the glass had shelves lined with examples of the soft drinks, smokes, and snacks they sold in the booth. The front had a small ledge for change/goods in front of the window where the proprietor sold their wares.

 Coffee, tea, or kitteh sir?

 Kitteh!

Apparently they had a cat, white with a couple small black spots. I watched it poke its head out, look around, then settle itself down on the ledge. It was utterly fearless. I watched military officer buy a pack of smokes and the cat just looked at him. Even when the K9 unit came by, the cat simply turned and stared at the dog. If I would have had tie, I would have went over and bought something just to pet the kitty.

So I hopped on the train and the only train I’ve had better seats and service on was in Germany. Everything is efficient, spotless, and comfy. The seats adjust with a number of buttons for lumbar support, there is a recliner footrest, in a fluffy leather seat. There was drink service, then a meal with appetizer, and a tea with dessert.

The landscape looks a lot like the east coast forests of my youth, spotted every once in a while with a small village or town. The houses look fairly cookie cutter. Old painted wood house, generally dark red, grey, or dark green. Usually two story, many with an outhouse in the back. The roofs were all corrugated metal and most of the houses had yards and small gardens in back. I didn’t see any brick chimneys, but I seen plenty of metal smokestacks peaking out of the roofs. They were fairly spread out and the roads looked like hard packed dirt and sometimes asphalt. This may appear to sound run down or poor, but the cars in the driveways didn’t say that. I would say more along the lines of these houses being old, yet cozy in a welcoming manner. The flowers and playsets in the back, the wooden picnic tables, spoke more of growing up in your great grandpa’s house and keeping it in the family.

So the landing in Moscow was somewhat odd and a tad worrisome. When I got off the train in St. Petersburg, the driver was next to the train with a sign. Here he met me in the station, so I guess they wouldn’t let him past a certain point or he was late. One of the two.

Nice seeming guy. He had a cross and rosary beads on his steering wheel and off his rear view mirror, which gave me a good feeling. If you are a mafia type that wants to kidnap tourists or some silly thing, I doubt you would be sporting a cross. Though he started driving farther and farther from the train station, I started  to get a little worried. I got even more worried when we started heading down an industrial street with nothing on it and then he pulled into a walled off steel construction yard/concrete dumping place.

He was just turning around, as he missed the turnoff - but it did shock me a tad bit.

Anyway, we got to the hotel and I got checked in. Dropped my stuff off to walk around the corner and get water and drinks (you can’t drink the tap water here). Then I hit the restaurant on the second floor for some a dinner meal of a fish salad, fried fish topped with cheese, a salad with tuna fish, and sparkling mineral water with anchovies juice.

Ok, the water didn’t have fish - but man did they get happy with da fish for my meal.

The hotel good and evils.
Good: The room mini-bar prices and about a third of the one in St. Petersburg.
There is a restaurant in the hotel with a large menu.
There is an ATM in the hotel lobby so I never have to walk around with my card.

Bad: Everything else.
There is only one socket in the room. Actually two but I have to stretch the laptop cord across the bathroom door.
There is no air conditioning, so either I leave the window open or I’ll likely be uncomfortable.
The bathroom is functional. That’s as happy as I can put it. Maybe the heated tiles spoiled me in St. Peterburg.
The neighborhood is loudish and maybe somewhat sketchy.
No room safe.

It seems like a seedyish Motel 6 from back home, but from 20 years ago. Meh, worse comes to worse - I find a neighborhood restaurant and bar. Moscow is not at all walkable like St. Peterburg. I only have to be here two days and maybe I can work on writing, reading, and meditation.

K, just wanted to add something. Its midnight and I just heard nine gunshots. Large caliber handgun. No mistaking that sound, nor the deliberate spacing between the shots. Two quick, then the rest evenly spaced with just enough time to adjust for the recoil. So the last seven were aimed well. Someone emptied their gun into a corpse. Though it did sound to be a block away at least.

How many days am I here again?