And the things I forgot.....

I knew that there would be things that I forgot to mention about Moscow, but luckily I kept track of things that I wanted to write about on a handy Teremok napkin. So here goes.

The Metro. How could I forget to talk about it? The Metro in Moscow is gorgeous, and brilliantly designed; it has a ‘ring line’ that literally makes a ring around the city to connect the lines that radiate out from the center, unlike in St. Petersburg where in order to get to stops on any other line you must take the metro into the center and then back out again on the other line, which is obnoxious. Probably because the Metro is so fantastic, there also seemed to be less buses and marshrutkas around (marshrutkas are like shuttle buses that move on designated routes; they’re separate from the official city system, and not covered by the travel cards we use on the metro, buses and trams. They are apparently also THE way to get around, if you happen to know where they go). But back to the Metro. Perhaps to Lenin and Stalin a metro was the ultimate sign of industrialization, because it is literally fabulous. Each metro station has its own sort of ‘theme’ and decorative style, ranging from the simplistic to the simply sumptuous. To give you an idea of how they are laid out, in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, the station is basically a long hall with stairs of escalators as the access; arches lead from the hall to where passengers enter the trains, something like this:

Tracks HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH e

Platform s

Arches ------ ------ ------ ------ (stair access)------ ------ ------ ------ c

a

Hall l

a

Arches ------ ------ ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ t

Platform o

Tracks HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH r

Often, the escalators are the access into the stations from the surface, and the stairs are used to get to stations on other lines. The pure amount of underground space that is used for these stations and access ways in amazing, especially in St. Petersburg where the ground is technically swamp land. Anyway, the Moscow metro is probably the most beautiful in the world, and almost certainly the most interesting (and I thought SP’s metro was impressive, and didn’t really believe people when they told me to wait until Moscow. Ha!) Here are a few highlights;

Ploshad Revolutsii (Place of the Revolution) Station is decorated primarily in a dark red on the walls, as befits the metro stop closest to the red square, and in accordance with its name iron (brass?) sculptures of soldiers and other revolutionaries adorn the pillars supporting the arches, sculpted to appear constantly in motion and watchful, seeming to lunge out from the walls at the passing throngs.

Oktyabrskaya (October) Station (it may be another) contains beautifully tiled wall and ceiling vignettes depicting the harvest and generally happy peasant folk; a little ironic, given the prosecution and exploitation of farmers, particularly under Stalin. They really are lovely, though, especially in contrast with the almost creamy surrounding walls.

Teatralnaya (theater) Station would, of course, be one of my favorites. The station is decorated with many little statues depicting the arts, especially theater of course. Its not the most decadent, but I think its sort of elegant in its simplicity.

That’s all the stations that I will describe in particular, but all the ones in the center are particularly beautiful, and even the outlying stations are elegant. Additionally, the connecting network between the stations is also complex and impressive by itself, and the walk between stations and seeing the change in decorations. On a final note, one of the most enjoyable parts of the metro ride from the hotel down into the downtown was a closed metro station on the route; passing by the empty, dark station in the process of reconstruction was fascinating and very enjoyable.

At the circus, I forgot to mention two things; one, the clowns made jokes about death, where one of them was ‘killed’ by a bullet. Maybe this is normal everywhere, but I didn’t remember seeing that as a child. They also had someone dressed up in a giant mouth costume, complete with massive teeth and tongue. Second, Russians sometimes clap in unison. They’ll start out in the standard scattered fashion, but eventually end up clapping in time. Not everywhere, and not all the time, but it certainly happens and its rather odd.

Moscow is less aesthetically floral than St. Petersburg. A good indication of this is the kind of drinks sold on the street; in SP there are a lot of fruity mixed drinks (in English colloquially known as ‘bitch drinks’), while in Moscow its more business with mainly wine, beer, and somber-colored mixed drinks without much fruity pizzazz. Compare the SP Gin and Grapefruit of ‘I’m the girlfriend of a sex god’ cranberry drink to a gin and tonic or half litre of Baltika in Moscow. Generally, less florally excess; florally might be the wrong word but it seems proper, somehow. There were also less flowers generally in Moscow, and stands as well, but they still made their presence felt.

I might have mentioned this, but the women in SP are more attractive, and the men in Moscow are more attractive. Perhaps this has something to do with the ‘less florally’ ascthetic, more manly really in Moscow with its more utilitarian bent.

That probably pretty much covers it, as much as it is possible to encompass such a massive amount of experience in a few pages of type.

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Breaking to current news, I managed to lose (or rather, possibly my friend managed to lose) my wallet, which wasn't as big a deal as it could have been but which was still damn annoying. The weather was, as still is sometimes, unseasonally and thus worryingly warm. I find myself constantly confronted with the reality of global warming, although we'll see how the rest of the semester goes.
The time changed on saturday, and now it gets dark, as in really dark, by seven which makes me want to sleep at absurd hours. There are other things going on, but that's most of it. And Russian life continues!