Travelling in the Old U.S.S.R

Let me tell you about travelling in the former Soviet Union.  You never know what you’re going to get. We’re talking propeller planes, over-crowded trains and hotel rooms that are so gaudy they would give Donald Trump’s plazas a run for their money. Driving is often out of the question, with the looming threat of having to bribe traffic cops and also the traffic preventing getting in or out of Moscow. At rush our, it can take three hours just to get across the city – and you have three hours of rush hour in the morning, another three at night. But train travel can mean being shoved in an archaic commuter train like a sardine while young Russian men drink large, luke-warm beers around you and everyone smokes between the train cars. Travelling here must be done strategically and must be well thought out before embarking on a trip.  Things will go wrong.  But if you are prepared for that you end up laughing and sometimes even being pleasantly surprised by a bad situation that turns itself around.

There are so many aspects of post-Soviet travel that I could elaborate on but this post is dedicated to the hotel rooms.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to explore one of the small towns that surround Moscow -- Vladimir. We knew it was not the quaintest of the Golden Ring cities surrounding Moscow but it has a lot of history and we wanted to see it nonetheless. As if to reward us for our adventurous spirit, the hotel we stayed in decided to upgrade our very inexpensive room when we checked in. We still think they might have had us confused with other Americans staying there -- maybe VIP, important Americans of some type -- because rare is an upgrade in Russia without greasing the palm of a hotel manager or security guard. Now that I have used the word “upgrade” you may be thinking about the time Hilton upgraded you to a suite just to be nice. Or some amazing room you once stayed in. Erase those images and think of the apartment of the nice old lady who lived alone down the street where you grew up. Or maybe think of the bathroom at your local Buca de Beppo. We have no idea why we were given the most extravagant room in the hotel but boy, did we ever appreciate the blue and white heart-shaped pillows, the smell of smoke that had been collecting for 30 years, and the drafty windows. I think the real draw was the balcony (which we sincerely liked) but it was 20 degrees so I don’t think we fully enjoyed it.  Our room did occupy an entire floor of the hotel and from the outside you could see that we were actually in -- a turret of sorts. But regardless of how rough around the edges our room was, we really liked it for all of its kitchiness. It was one of the many unexpected moments that happen here a lot.  Mother Russia can be cruel but every so often she sends us little reminders that it’s not so bad.

I had to pass on the photo evidence to this shrine to Soviet style. There will be more of these rooms in our future for sure and I won’t forget to document every last one of them. Please enjoy the photos.

Love the baby blue!

Did I forget to mention the bathroom?

Private dining for two...

Our turret

The terrace

The view from our terrace

1 Year

This week marks my one year anniversary of living in Moscow. I survived and I've learned a lot. Allow me to share the top ten:

"Things I've Learned in Russia"

10) In the winter remember to always look up. Falling icicles are the silent Russian killers.

9) Do not challenge babushkas. Ever. They yell loudly and attack with grocery carts.

8) Just expect to cry while going through passport control. You will be pleasantly surprised when you don't.

7) Learn the metric system (fancy grocery stores in Russia calculate weight by every 100 grams) so you are not shocked when a kilo of something costs David's entire paycheck.

6) Love yourself a lot. Or convince yourself that those tall, skinny, seemingly hot Russian girls who walk around in stilettos and skin-tight jeans when it's snowing are terrible, terrible people. They must be.

5) Wear fur. It is a matter of survival here.

4) When lamb kebabs and lamb tongue kebabs are both on the menu -- appearing identical (to me) in Russian -- be sure to point very clearly to the plain old lamb.

3) The mullet and the scrunchie are not dead. Always go with David when he gets his hair cut to monitor what's happening in the back. A line of defense is necessary.

2) When riding the metro during rush hour get out of the way when the train stops if you're not getting off. The Russians will run you over and/or physically lift you out of the train and put you on the platform which only leads to crying and blaming David for everything.

1) Wealth don't buy class.

Spring

This was our third update home. Then we went on sabatical. Now all updates will come through the blog but you needed to know the beginning.

Dearest Family & Friends:

I know we are behind on our updates. I'm sorry. I just got behind on things here in Moscow during the months of January, February and March because I ran away. I ran away from winter in Moscow because it was harsh my friends. Much harsher than I thought it would be. I thought I was ready but I wasn't-so I ran. Not anywhere tropical really. Just places that weren't Moscow: Ukraine (almost Russia but the 'lighter', nicer version), Austria, Italy and Florida (ok this one is tropical just not while we were there). In search of stories David went to Ukraine twice, Siberia twice (he is there right now) and also made stops in Kaliningrad and the Islamic militant region of Southern Russia-Dagestan. Also not tropical. David spent four days covering the over-throw of the government of Kyrgyzstan. He got his first taste of urban warfare and anarchy-I was just thrilled.... But we still managed to travel for fun a bit by celebrating David's 34th birthday in Egypt and we also stopped by Tallinn, Estonia. Our travel during the last couple of months was a mix of work and traveling with brother Joey Previte as he explored Europe. The places in the world that you can get from Moscow are amazing!

Since we miss and love you all we thought we would make you appreciate wherever you are today by telling you a little about how winter was for us in our new country. I know all of you in America are beginning to see spring and think that you survived the worst winter ever. But you still have no idea what winter is. So I thought that by sharing a few details about our first winter in Russia it would make you all appreciate spring even more. In the process you will get the idea of how we are doing....

David and I arrived back from Barcelona around December 7th. That same day I put on long underwear for the first time in my life and I didn't take it off until the beginning of April.

We did not see the sun for the entire month of December. It was grey all day and then it was completely dark by 4:00pm. For two straight weeks it was -17 degrees Celsius. There were no school delays or closings. They didn't even talk about it like it was an issue. Trust me, it was an issue in the Previte/Greene household.

In January the sun started to come out. I looked out the window and thought the worst was over. But it turns out that the sunny days are actually colder than the grey days-who knew? They tell me the clouds are actually keeping the little bit of warmth we have in and without the clouds it was really, really cold. If we saw the sun in January I knew it was below zero outside. When it is below zero in Moscow every part of your exposed body hurts. If I took my hands out of my gloves to answer the phone for example, my fingers were in pain within minutes.

Snow. It snowed and then it stayed. It didn't melt. It just started to melt a couple of weeks ago and there are still a few patches left outside the city center. When it first started to melt a little the sidewalks started to flood with water because of how much snow was all of a sudden melting. Then it got cold again and the water froze and the sidewalks were COVERED in ice. Not just a little-pure ice. The Russians do not believe in putting salt on the ice. After a few days of record numbers of broken wrists they threw dirt on the sidewalks-that was supposed to make it easier to walk. Now remember how the snow melts a little some days? Yep, then you are walking through rivers of water full of mud-awesome Russia, awesome.

I fell a total of three times-never broke anything-just bruises on my bum. David only fell in Ukraine. Mother Russia brought us to our knees, literally.

In addition to the floods of mud, let me tell you about the other dangers of a Moscow thaw-icicles. The first thaw we experienced seemed like a break from the sub-zero temps. For days David and I faced the cold, snow and melting mud water-we walk as much in Moscow as we did in New York. But our already difficult winter walks started to get more difficult because all of a sudden whole city blocks were blocked off with caution tape. For a moment it seemed the Russians might have been working on the infrastructure in the middle of winter-silly me. For days, all over the city we kept experiencing these blocked sidewalks but never saw anyone putting up the tape to ask about its purpose. So instead I walked around cursing the city for making me walk in the snow covered streets until finally I looked up. Above me were icicles that looked more like huge stalactites hanging all over the buildings. Apparently lots of people die every year because huge icicles fall on their heads. So Mother Russia was trying to be nice to us after all and save us from walking under the icicles of death!

Every day is a battle of some sort-just to get around. But this place is also full of contradictions. Some days Mother Russia is kind and some days she beats us down. But she sure is making us stronger. And honestly the place is growing on us. We just need to know that winter is not the only season they have here.... And it looks like the end might be near (see attached photo). We are putting away the fur hats and the winter coats! I have earned the fur coat that I will buy for next winter but for now David will have to deal with temperatures above freezing again. He always gets sad when winter ends.

We will be travelling the entire month of May and some of June-mostly in the U.S. so we hope to see many of you!

Much Love-
R&D

The first green I saw in Moscow and proof they had more than one season.

Setting the scene....

This was our second email home:

Hello Family and Friends!

That blog will be up and running very soon-just as soon as my pesky Russian classes are over. So you must endure another group email. You will see that we have changed the title to "dispatch" since our weekly email goals were not fully realized.

David suggested that each of our notes include a Russian word that we've learned-so you all can learn a little too. So, our word for the day is "Pectopah." Seems easy enough. Until you recall that Russian involves an entirely different alphabet. Using Russian letters, this word is, in fact, pronounced, 'restaurant.' And that is exactly what it means.

Early on in our trip David made the mistake of asking NPR's Russian staff what in the WORLD this word was -- "PEC-TOE-PAH" -- that kept showing up on signs and storefronts along every block in Moscow. They laughed really hard and informed us that every American asks the same thing when they arrive. (Maybe they were just making David feel better).

I will try to keep this short but we are covering two very busy weeks in Moscow here and the Russians are keeping things interesting-so just the bullet points:
- I began Russia classes. Four days a week, 9am-1pm. I don't like Russian. I really want to like it but I don't. The teacher speaks barely one word of English, she doesn't like American women and "told on me" to David. David is taking far more advanced classes than I am but he is still in the same building. When she learned he was my husband she came up to him, pointed at me and said, "We have problems"-more English than I had heard her speak to that point. It was like I was being discussed at a parent-teacher conference.

The only entertaining thing about my classes so far is that they take place in a Soviet dream of a school building-please see the first attached photo for official documentation of what a true Russian experience I'm having.

- Our first American embassy party was interesting. There was an "ancient music" concert involving a famous "countertenor" who came to sing. We didn't know what that meant going in to the event. Now we believe it to mean that a counter tenor is a man who sounds just like a woman singing really high notes. Call us uncultured now but we promise to be very worldly by the end of this experience.
Other embassy highlights: David picks up a drink being passed on a silver tray, thinking it was a nice Russian whiskey without ice. It was apple juice. To go with the apple juice, the embassy did serve pigs-in-a blanket. (I am not sure whether or not they were imported from Costco). The entire experience felt like the beginning of an Indiana Jones or James Bond movie. We were waiting for some Russian oligarch to be poisoned, as drinks were passed, diplomats were mingling, music was playing... then the opening credits roll and the adventure begins.
- The street food here is fascinating-for less than a dollar you can have an entire baked potato with all the trimmings served 'to-go'. And by trimmings I do mean butter and bacon but also things like pickles, mushrooms and fish (not sure what kind yet).
-Speaking of food, we saw a sign in a restaurant window that said pizza in neon so we actually walked in thinking we could buy a slice-it all seemed too familiar for a minute. There was a high table with no chairs in front of a countertop, so it seemed to make sense. The confusion that ensued over us standing there was unbelievable-we were coldly asked to sit and promptly served an entire cheese pizza. (The quest for a New York style slice goes on).

-At restaurants the bottled water (which you must drink-tap water is not exactly reliable) is more expensive than beer. So we order beer.

-We took a lovely overnight train to St. Petersburg last weekend. We had a fabulous sleeping car with a flat screen t.v. and a waitress there all night to bring whatever we wanted. We loved St. Petersburg and the Russian train system-the Russians get high marks here! See photo #2.

-The down-side of the train system is the buying of tickets. You must go to the station where no one speaks English. There are no computers or kiosks-to buy a ticket you must go to the window where you fight off Russians trying to cut in front of you for an hour or more while you wait in line. You pay in cash only. They get mad when you don't have exact change. In fact, you might ask a nice young person (because they tend to be nicer and might speak English) if you are at the right window and if there is a chance you will ever make it to the window before the station closes. Said young person might even wait for you to finish buying tickets in order to present you with a laminated postcard of his favorite Orthodox saint. Why? We don't know-but he did. This country is the capital of random things. Please see photo #3 for a visual of how I felt about the overall train station experience.

But the GREATEST downside of buying these tickets is what happens if you are at the station for three hours and have to go to the bathroom. Please see attached photo #4. I had to PAY to use that facility while a drunk woman was carted away from the booth by uniformed, scary-looking guards. God bless Russia.

-We are on roll-Day 20-no sunshine. Not even one ray.

-David got to watch his very first Steelers game at a bar on a big screen. The bar only serves food from Singapore (again-why?) so he had to get used to eating dumplings with his beer as opposed to the normal chicken wings-but he will make it. Sadly, they lost.

Finally, we want to wish everyone the happiest Thanksgiving ever! We are very sad to be so far from home at the holidays but we are thinking of all those we love. In case you were wondering, there are NO turkeys in Russia. I just learned that the only way to obtain turkey here is to order them (only at thanksgiving time) from the American Embassy or the American school-and you have to have a connection. Awesome. But we have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at the U.S. Embassy, so imported turkey we will have! (And hopefully more pigs in a blanket).
All our love-

Rose and David

Language School-Moscow State University

Overnight Train to St. Pete

Rose expressing feelings about train station experience.

Train Station Toilet....

From the beginning-

Instead of starting this blog right away I originally decided to just send some email updates home to family and friends. They are really the best way to start this blog so I'm posting them first and then we'll get caught up. My apologies to the friends and family who already read our first few updates.

My first week in Moscow went something like this:

• It snowed 2 inches in an hour.
• David's "school bag" was stolen in a cafe while he was intensely studying the Russian language. We became some what sad and angry at Russia for a day. We thought of all kinds of government conspiracy theories for why the bag was taken. Then a lovely Russian man called and said he had the bag-he found it on the street and wanted to get it back to the owner (David's press i.d. was in the bag). There was an early morning hand-off where we presented the man with flowers and chocolates in thanks-we bought them with sincere hope that he was not actually going to kidnap us (that was part of one of the conspiracy theories). The bag was intact with the exception of David's IPod and tape recorder.
• We have met quite a few Canadian, American and British expats who have adopted us and invited us to lots of things which has been really nice-we even went to a party.
• At said party I met my first real Russian girl who would actually talk to an American girl. She proceeded to explain to me why Russian girls have problems with American girls, and I quote, "You American girls just don't dress the part. You know we Russian women take care of ourselves all the time". We will not be friends. I went back to talk to the Canadians after that.
• Old women (real babushkas) here push you out of their way with their shopping carts at the grocery store and then grab the cheese you were going to buy. I think that qualifies as assault in New York.
• We had a drink on the Ritz Carlton roof top which has a most beautiful view of Moscow-we'll show you when you visit....
• We went to a "Mexican" cantina-they put cabbage on their nachos. There was a band who played Eric Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven' and everyone danced. It became a strange Russian/Mexican bar mitzah.
• All 7 of our checked bags made it to Moscow from New York!
• There are only "gypsy cabs" here-you wave your hand in the street and an unmarked car stops and you get in-so far they've safely taken us home every time. It goes against everything I stand for with regard to the taxi cab industry.
• We still have a "roommate".