Russian Brides Series Part II

Our featured photographer is Abbey. She has done some amazing work with her ongoing search for the perfect Russian bride-thank you for sharing-these shots are priceless!



Wherever this heart is in Moscow David and I are going to find it and take our own pictures!



 



Ruffles





Festive





This photo location is curious. People were publicly executed there for a few centuries.





This one was taken in a mall but a very pretty mall.



 



Bride or bridesmaid?





This ring around the newlyweds might be a local custom?





I love back to back shots




Everyone's favorite pose-the lean against the wall.



 



Why not ride a zebra on your wedding day?




Or spend some time at the Hard Rock Cafe?




At first I thought he was proposing again but then I realized he is mimicking the statue....





It just looks dangerous.




I am familar with the "everybody jump" photo but the bride and groom aren't even trying.



 



A winter bride




Ahhhhh....





Don't focus so much on the bride check out the lady in the foreground with the "arm warmers" that match her dress.

  



This couple wants to skip the wedding and get right to the making a baby part.





There is a lovely tradition here that has to do with locks and bridges-I don't understand it exactly but lots of people do it.





Everybody wants a picture with those damn wings!




These wings just keep appearing.





Again, please pay more attention to the foreground...





Classy




The upcoming ad campaign for Carl's Jr....have your reception there?




So much skirt




The middle woman seems to have lost her shoes and
they haven't even gotten to the dancing yet.




Everybody wants to buy a Russian souvenier on their big day-
maybe it was a destination wedding.





Pretty.





Do you think they posed with the phone or that was just an accident?





Yes!





Russian Brides Series

Wedding season is here, the perfect time to honor Russian brides. I know what you’re thinking. The internet. Russia’s infamous buy-a-bride services. But I’m talking about real ones. The lovely ladies of Russia who get married right here. In Moscow and across Russia, it is very popular for brides, grooms and their friends to drive around town in limos or stretch Humvees to take photos. Lots of photos. This goes on in America too, of course. But Russian bridal parties have an obsession with wedding photography. They approach this ritual with a level of passion and determination unseen anywhere else in the world. Perhaps it’s that most Russian women like having themselves photographed anytime – posing like models in parks or in front of major landmarks – so they must take it up a notch at wedding time. Especially on weekends this time of year, bridal parties are running around the city, and running into each other. You can find them fighting it out for time in front of St. Basils Cathedral, or The Church of Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg. A trip down to Red Square in the summer can be like watching a wedding reality show on television. Sometimes wedding couples are fighting. Sometimes everyone is happy. Sometimes everyone is just drunk. It’s very entertaining. In addition to the zeal with which Russian girls approach this event, I think what truly puts these brides in a league of their own are the dresses. I have never seen so many layers of shiny fabric. Lace, beads, short skirts, long skirts, occasionally experimenting with colors that are not white. I think you have to see it to believe it so I am posting my collection of the Russian brides I’ve caught on camera so far. I hope many of my friends in Russia will see these pics and send me their photos too. I will post them as I receive them. The photos range from the lovely to the unbelievable.
 You decide your favorite.

This is just an everyday example of photo posing that we encounter at malls, historic landmarks, the supermarket....no wedding need be involved. Photo credit: Kristen

The boots are my favorite detail.

The man sash is my favorite detail

The champagne bottle is my favorite detail. This bride was the gift that kept giving. Please note the bride lined up for her turn on the bridge.

Pretty

Very pretty

Very shiny

I zoomed here so you could get a better look at the shine.

Layers and lace

She has inspired many of those pretty cake toppers

Wondering why I am the only one taking her picture...

The splash of blue was nice on a cloudy day and complimented this mermaid look.

You don't need a limo when you can do this to your car

Car topper

But these folks got a serious limo

These two are my favorite-wait for the close up.....

Unbelievable. This photo and the two before are credited to my friend Kristen-well done!

The Fourth of July Expat Style

Many of our friends and family have asked what we could possibly do to celebrate America’s Independence Day – in Russia. You would be surprised…Of course everyone had to work like any normal day. All the petitioning of the Kremlin could not get expats a little July 4th leniency. And yet, the holiday did fall on a Monday this year. If being foreigners celebrating a foreign holiday in a foreign land is traditionally frustrating – we had a three-day weekend this year to compensate. In retrospect, we may have over-compensated.

Saturday was the American Women’s Club picnic. Think softball games, barbecue, potato salad, watermelon and (bad Russian) beer. It honestly felt like, somehow, we recreated a little of home in a Russian park.

 On the actual 4th, the day started with a reception at the American Ambassador’s house. It was not a small, intimate event but a party of at least a few hundred people. I have never been to a July 4th event in the States that was quite so elaborate. There was a band, flown in from North Carolina just for 24 hours -- your US tax dollars at work. The entertainers sang country music and if I closed my eyes long enough I might have thought I was home in Ohio. But all I needed to do after that was open up and get a look of the Russian appetizers: little shrimps perched on a dollop of sour cream and a dash of mint balanced on a mini toast. Way more like wedding reception cocktail hour than backyard barbeque. Not a cob of corn to be found. Then again, give some credit where credit is due. Lynchburg lemonades were available at the Jack Daniels sponsored bar. And I did nibble on red, white and blue sugar cookies that were scattered on the snack tables. The explanation for the non-American food might have been the fact that there weren’t very many Americans at the event. The guests represented every corner of the globe. There were military uniforms from around the world. The brass and medals were on display and quite impressive. My favorite outfit had to be the guy who looked Russian, and was with a Russian girl, but happened to be dressed like the Dalai Lama. We pondered his clothing choice for a while but came up empty-handed. There were African diplomats in colorful formal wear, an array of Russians with bad dye jobs and uncomfortable shoes and a bunch of American Embassy staff who looked miserable. I assume this was because their bosses were hovering, likely making the Jack Daniels bar off limits to them. After speeches and a little mingling we decided it was time to go….to Chilis. Yes, they just opened a brand new one in the center of the city and we felt it appropriate to go -- only because it was the 4th. After imbibing on the best margaritas in town (really they are the best I've had) we headed for a final stop at an American diner called Frendy’s. They serve American beer and Corona. The wings have real buffalo sauce on them and are actually spicy (Russians don’t like spice normally). After nachos, fried cheese, wings and burgers we rolled home around midnight. This is the overcompensation I was talking about. We paid for it with stomach aches but it was worth it…for one day of the year. We missed you America but tried to make you proud from here.

When It Rains In Moscow.....

When it rains in Moscow you really don’t want to be outside. You might think it’s unpleasant to be outside anywhere in the rain. Moscow is different. Give some of the world’s pushiest and rudest people free use of a weapon – an umbrella – and it’s war. One day recently, we were out of groceries and I had to go to the store. Exhausted from traveling, I lost track of time. It was 5pm. Rush hour. You never walk the streets at rush hour. Not ever. Certainly not when Russians are wielding umbrellas. I entered a sea of colored umbrellas. All I saw was red. Potholes had already filled with water, so ladies in their stiletto heels were trying to sidestep the ponds, not caring who they had to push out of their way. Drunk men crashed their big boots directly into the puddles, splashing everyone around them. There were motor bikes. And children. And Russian babushkas blocking the sidewalks with their vegetable kiosks. And everyone… every last Russian… was navigating all this chaos with an umbrella in hand. I had to keep my eyes on each passer-by, so as not to find the corner of a pointy umbrella in my eye. It was war. The normally 20 minute walk became 35 as I fought through the crowds, dodging water-resistant weapons while trying not to step in every puddle. All this, while carrying my bags of provisions. The groceries were hopefully enough to sustain us until the rain was over, as I decided not to leave the house again. I felt like a wife on the prairie, provisioning for the hard winter, hunting and gathering against the forces of nature to feed my family. These are the things you think about when you’re walking home in the rain in Moscow. I made it back home and decided to stay in and tell you where we’ve been these last few months. It is safer inside. And now I’ll explain why there haven’t been any blog posts.

We have been lucky to travel almost constantly these last few months-it has been wonderful. Here are the highlights and a few photos.

London – February was mild there, no snow! We spent time with good friends and even got to Scotland which I count as a country but is technically part of the United Kingdom. (I’m always sad when I don’t get a new passport stamp.)

Portugal – We spent a week travelling the country with friends from New York. We went from Lisbon to Porto and a couple of small towns along the way. We tasted Port along the riverfront and ate al fresco in February.

Venice for Carnival – a great pre-Lent celebration! Not as crazy as New Orleans but full of food and music. Got lost repeatedly and took the water taxis all the wrong ways.

Quick stops in Slovenia, Paris and a romantic run to Casablanca to meet David while he spent over a month in North Africa covering the Arab Spring. With a quick stop in Brussels (think beer and chocolate) on the way home!

We had many wonderful visitors this spring and we travelled with many of them to St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki. I went alone to Oslo, and met a wonderful friend I had met in Italy 5 years ago. Then I found a $200 ticket to America by way of Copenhagen – one night there was better than none.

We got to return to London for the Royal Wedding! I wore a hat, drank lots of tea and shopped! Then we went straight from London to Kazakhstan – a normal travel route of course.

We made a last minute trip to Israel where we visited our good friend Alex who had just moved there and saw the Greene family at the same time-they were there for a conference. Tel Aviv was a blast and Jerusalem was fascinating.

Finally, we did Croatia for a week, with a one-night layover in Freising, Germany.

I am finishing this post en route to America on a United flight to DC for a very quick visit with family. We are fortunate. It was all amazing. But I might be a little tired now…..



Big Ben



Visiting old friends in Scotland

Portugal. Amazing.

Viva Carnival in Venice!



Casablanca



Cousins visit and tour St. Pete

Afternoon in Tallinn



Brave Ohioans visit when winter is still going strong



The Royal Wedding

Oslo



Helsinki



Estonia



Kazakhstan



Jerusalem

Israeli Food

The Western Wall



The music of Croatia



Vladimir

Since arriving in Moscow, Russians have always told us, “Moscow is not Russia and Russia is not Moscow”. They mean of course that this is one huge country with a lot of different people and cultures mixed up inside. In not so many words they are telling me to go out and see it all before coming to any conclusions. Fair enough. So I have been making a concentrated effort to see more of Russia this year. Last year I vowed not to travel in Russia during winter but this year I’m changing my ways and accepting that most of the year is winter. If you don’t travel when it’s cold, when will you?

During the last week in January David and I travelled to Astrakhan, Russia. It’s a city in Southern Russia near the Caspian Sea. The town sits on the Volga River and for years its economy has relied on the fishing industry for its existence. It is where the majority of Russia's caviar comes from. At one time Astrakhan had been a wealthy city but like many other Russian port towns it has fallen on hard times.  I was really excited about driving out to the sea because the Caspian has always intrigued me for some reason. I have included it as one of the places on earth I need to visit. It has always sounded very exotic to me. Maybe that's where the curiosity comes from or maybe because it shares its shores with some of the most interesting places -- Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. Whatever the reason David decided to indulge me and we asked the hotel to find us a driver. We have had very little success renting cars in the past and in such a remote part of the country it just makes sense to hire somehow who knows the area. And that is how we found Vladimir.

Vladimir is a grandfatherly type. It turns out in fact that he has some children and a few grandchildren. Sadly two of his sons are in jail. By the look of Vladimir’s tattoos I would make a bet that our sweet driver had done a little time himself. But he was taking his job of tour guide very seriously. At first he was quite confused by our request to see the surrounding countryside and maybe some small villages. “You want to see nature? Maybe you come back in summer”, he said to us.  After some explanation (and after consulting the only touristy brochure that seemed to exist in Astrakhan) we settled on a drive and a price. Our journey did in fact take us to some little villages and dear Vladimir tried to get me to the Caspian. But we found out that without Russian citizenship and special passes we were not getting to the sea. The Russians actually have a military barricade on the road to the Caspian. I assume it has something to do with the “interesting” places I mentioned that all have borders on the sea. My hopes were dashed and Vladimir felt badly but I gave up when we came too close to the Kalashnikovs. We did find the most amazing irony in the local Lenin statue (photo below). A fading and crumbling past, glorified in the center of town. The statue in itself made the drive worthwhile. But we also stumbled across a charming part of the country, in spite of the poverty we saw. We visited with ice fishermen and sat waiting for random cows to cross the road. We visited an age-old fish market where we were offered a wide array of fresh and dried fish. The entire day Vladimir went out of his way to try and indulge the whimsical Americans and he did a great job. Even if he didn’t fully understand my excitement over exploring the rural Caspian delta, I’m glad we did it. This was a good start on my journey to discover the Russia outside of Moscow.

Vladimir with a serious fisherman

Vladimir

Good old Lenin

Fish Market

Selling sturgeon at the market