Starting the day
I got off the train at 9:30 am. The driver took me to the hotel, and fortunately the room was ready. I dropped off my things, having already hurriedly dressed on the train, and went downstairs to meet my guide. I am exhausted. Worried about getting everything ready and packed to get off the train first thing in the morning, I kept waking myself up, thinking I was going to miss my stop. Moscow was the last stop of this train, though. Also, I somehow left my deodorant in Yekaterinburg, and have been without any this train ride. Casualties so far: hairbrush, deodorant.
Red Square
We started the day by driving straight to Red Square. Outside, there is a giant ice slide, which I make note of to go down later. There are tons of things going on, lots of Christmas decorations, ice skating in the middle of Red Square, vendors, etc. I tell the guide I haven’t eaten yet and we stop at a booth and grab some Austrian cheese pancake things with jam and a cup of tea. Then we walk into the square. There are tons of police around, and the entrances and exits are guarded and have security checks, but most often they just wave us through without checking our bags, letting us take our purses through the metal detectors. First stop, however, is getting in line for Lenin’s tomb. Here, they are very particular about checking our bags, and the line is quite slow. Similar to the previous tomb I visited, he has been so preserved he might as well be a wax figure. But in this one, the lighting on his face is natural/white, not red, so he doesn’t glow an unnatural hue. There’s a bit less procession this time, no buying flowers or bowing. Just walk through, view the body, then leave through a pathway that has monuments to Russian leaders and then plaques for famous Russians buried in or near the Kremlin wall. Stalin’s birthday was this week, so there are tons of red flowers at his stone.
Saint Basil’s Cathedral
We got to the majestic St. Basil’s Cathedral right as the actual services were ending at noon. I can’t really overstate how awesome this building is from the outside. The spires and the colors, especially in the snow. It’s just awe-inspiring. Then we went inside, and the inside is nice. This is like the 5th or 6th church (though the first Catholic one) that I’ve been to this trip. I do find it a bit uncomfortable to go inside actual working churches. Gawking like a tourist at people while they are praying seems perverse. The Russian Orthodox churches often had people actually praying. The Catholic services were over for the day, at least. Anyway, we looked at more ornate paintings and golden halos. The icons were, to my eye, indistinguishable from the Orthodox ones, but I’m no expert, particularly on saints. The walls inside the halls, between the icon rooms, are painted with tulips, and there is a fantastic male quartet of singers singing what I assume are hymns.
My Guide
My guide today is … interesting. Her English is not great, so it makes some things nonsensical. Telling me about a statue of a famed Russian Orthodox Priest from the 18th century, she tells me he was so powerful that no one wanted to kill him because they were afraid of him. “So they stopped feeding him and he died”. (….?) She also, in explaining St. Basil’s Cathedral, told me some of the stories of St. Basil. He lived to be 73 years old, in the middle ages, which is no easy feat, and he never wore clothes. But she always said he was naked. But she used naked as if it were the past tense of nake…like she was saying ‘snaked’. So maybe 10 times, she pointed to ‘naked’ pictures of St. Basil. She also has ….opinions…on the rest of the world. I don’t blame her. I know that propaganda is prevalent. But she asks if Christmas trees are legal in California, and if I have one in my home each year. When I affirm that I do, she tells me that Christmas trees are illegal now in Germany because it offends Muslims. Now… clearly this is untrue. But I can see where it comes from. And it’s sad to see the utter conviction and disgust with which she tells this story, unquestioningly.
Once we finished our tour of St. Basil’s, she said we could take an hour and a half for lunch and meet back at 1:45. My itinerary says that the tour is over at 2, so I assume we’re meeting at 1:45 to drive back to the hotel. So I ask, and tell her she can just leave me here. It’s only a mile. I’ll walk back. She says no, she has an itinerary until 4. I show her mine, which says we’ve been to everything on it and it ends at 2. I tell her I have ballet tickets and dinner reservations. And she says ‘well you can cancel them.’ Ok, so seriously, what the hell here? In my opinion, I am paying this person to show me around the city. And their job is to make sure I see the things in the contract, and otherwise, they work for tips and their job is to make me happy, show me things I ask about or whatever. I am employing a person. I am not a captive, here for them to go through their rote spiel every day. Right? Anyway, after a bit of tense negotiation, we agreed that she would show me the 2 other things she had on her itinerary, but instead of dropping me at the hotel at 4, she would take me to the restaurant where I have a reservation. Fine. I was planning to have some down time, relax by myself. But whatever.
Lunch
So I had an hour and a half to explore. I walked through the souvenir and food market in the middle of the square, there for New Years. There are little wooden shops circling an ice rink and some rides. Then I went into the GUM department store. Now, I had heard of GUM before, but I did not understand. I mean… this place is amazing. It’s huge. It’s full of incredibly high-end brands, none of which am I going to buy. But no one is buying. Most of the stores have shopkeepers just standing around. But there are tons of people in the corridors. Tourists doing full fashion shoots, posing with all of the amazing decor. The place is decorated for Christmas, and there are girls everywhere dressed as Snegoruchka. There are New Year trees and exhibits with toys from the 1950s and everything is very retro styled. And all these fancy couture stores have window displays to rival those on 5th Avenue. It’s just a cool place to walk around.
But I don’t have too much time to walk around. I head upstairs to the recommended lunch spot: Stolovaya 57. It’s like the IKEA cafeteria, self-serve plates, but the idea is that it’s Soviet food from 1957. My guide said it was definitely worth trying to experience the Soviet food so I could see how it’s different and how much better things are now. You guys. This was so good. I had a fruit mors, some potato and mushroom dumplings with sour cream, and a beefsteak, Moscow style. It’s like a tiny meatloaf, minced ground beef in a patty, topped with some kind of orange sauce, then pickled tomato slices, then cheese. Holy cow I was not expecting to like this but it was super good. And potato dumplings? Carbs (noodles) stuffed with carbs (potatoes)? Sign me up. I also finally tried a sauce I’ve seen on many menues: adjika. It’s a super garlicy raw garlic tomato sauce. SO Good. I finished it up with a potato cake, which was cute, but nothing to write home about.
Final 2 hours
I met back up with the guide at 1:45 and we drove far outside the city center to the university. It’s nice. Giant skyscraper tower, the highest of 7 built by Stalin. Then there’s a scenic overlook, which we went to but it’s super snowy so the visibility is low. Then there was a convent we were going to visit, but it was under construction so we didn’t go. Instead, we spent almost that entire time in the car in rush hour traffic, first getting to the university, then getting to the restaurant. When we finally got to the area of town where the restaurant is, we circled it like 3 times and I was like, you know what, just let me out, I can walk. I thought they were having trouble finding it on the array of one-way streets. But no. She said they were looking for the theater where the ballet was because they wanted to drive me the route I’d have to walk so I don’t get lost. I told her I have a map and I’d be fine. They released me from the car.
Walk
We got to the restaurant at 4, but my reservation was at 5. So I set off on a walk. I had an hour, and I made the most of it. There is a park across the street from the restaurant and it was full of fun New Year events. Tons of games for kids to play. No prizes, but all free. Not sure if the people working them were volunteers or paid by the state. But fun carnival games where the kids play just for fun? Almost unheard of. There were hockey games, a little pretend snowboarding area, some nerf gun games. Then there were actors in costumes, Ded Moroz and Snegoruchka, a santa clause marching band, all kinds of things I don’t understand. The ice rink had a performance of figure skaters performing some play called Cippolini, which actually appeared to be about onions. It was so festive and fun and snowy!
Dinner
I had dinner at one of the most famous Russian restaurants in Moscow. The inside is beautiful, decorated like an old library with books and mahogany and leather. The service was amazing. The waiters wore shirts with puffy sleeves, vests and cravats. So cute. But the food was just ok. I had marrow bones with puff pastry as an appetizer (I know Mai will be jealous). It was amazing. Served with flaked salt and onions and spicy mustard. So fatty and delicious. Then I had the Russian tasting platter. Pelmeni, which were not special compared to others, a pickle pie, which was uh… a pie with pickles. There was a chicken cutlet that was quite delicious, served with undercooked fried potatoes. Then beef stroganoff, and some mushrooms in a cream sauce. Good, but not exceptional. Then I ordered dessert. It came out in a glass dome, which the waiter removed to reveal a New Year tree. It’s made of cookies that are crumbled and then mashed together in the shape of a tree, then frosted, with the center filled with caramel. So sweet, and so good.
Ballet
To end the night, I went to the ballet. I got to the theater just in time and found my seat: front row in a box seat. It was perfect. The theater is beautiful and my seats were great. I chose a ballet I have never seen: Snegoruchka by Tchaikovsky. Though it was apparently panned by the critics of his day, I thought it would be the a great Christmas time ballet to see and not see the Nutcracker for the millionth time. I did not bother reading the actual synopsis of the ballet.
Snegoruchka is a Russian fairy tale character. She is the niece/granddaughter of Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, Russian Santa Clause. He lived in the woods alone and created her from snow, so she is the Snow Maiden. I assumed that the ballet of the Snow Maiden would be about some Christmas/New Years things. But no. It’s a weird love story about the innocent, naive Snow Maiden seeing a couple in love, wanting to know what romantic love feels like, so seduces the man from that couple on the day before his wedding. The man chooses to cast aside his fiance, cancels the wedding, and marries the snow maiden. The warmth from the love in her heart (and spring(?)) causes her to melt and the man kills himself, all while the former fiance watches. I … ok. Not Christmasy but whatever.
The dancing was, of course, beautiful. The costumes were amazing. Because it’s a Russian folk tale, the costumes are Russian nationalistic costumes, which adds a fantastic colorful pop to the ballet. And lots of Russian dancing is incorporated to the ballet, especially the men. It’s athletic and lots of boot slapping and really fun. The music was very cliche Tchaikovsky, forgettable, and the story line was not terribly deep or original. So I get why it wasn’t super well recieved.
