{"id":1828,"date":"2011-05-27T11:55:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T18:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2011-05-27T11:55:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T18:55:12","slug":"spring-forward-day-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-70\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Moscow, Russian Federation
\nMay 21, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of Stalin's "Seven Sisters"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine Las Vegas and Beijing having a baby, and that\u2019ll give you a good idea of what Moscow looks like.\u00a0 It\u2019s massive and rough around the edges with bad drainage and crumbling roads, like Beijing.\u00a0 But it\u2019s decorated like a theme park, like Vegas.\u00a0 I swear, when you are looking at the glittering domes of the Kremlin, the ridiculously gaudy and weird St. Basil\u2019s Cathedral, the new-ish and much-hated statue of Peter the Great, or the massive wedding cake of Christ the Redeemer Cathedral, it feels like you are looking at the new Soviet Union-themed casino on the Strip.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of the heroes of WWII<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s also not a little scary.\u00a0 When I checked into my hotel, the front desk gave me something they called \u201ctemporary registration papers\u201d for me to keep inside my passport, which, they stressed, I needed to have with me at all times.\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 In Moscow you really have to have \u2018papers\u2019!<\/em>\u00a0 Today I\u2019ll get my official, non-temporary registration.<\/p>\n

\"gold_fountain\"<\/a>But it gets better.\u00a0 When the concierge was coaching me on my planned use of the subway system, he warned, \u201cNow, whatever, you do, don\u2019t show your papers to fake<\/em> police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fake police<\/em>?\u00a0 Yeah, I feel so much better now.<\/p>\n

Some rain delayed my explorations for a few minutes, but happily stopped.\u00a0 My first task:\u00a0 Find the Client\u2019s office so there would be no drama on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of St. Basil's domes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I began to walk around the city, I was at first predictably intimidated by the fact that everything was not only in a different language, but a different alphabet<\/em>.\u00a0 Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which contains some letters that look like and are pronounced similar to their counterparts in English, letters that look like English letters but are pronounced completely differently, letters borrowed from Greek, letters borrowed from Hebrew, and some letters specific to Russian.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite a jumble.<\/p>\n

But I quickly discovered the Great Cyrillic Decoder Ring:\u00a0 American franchise businesses!\u00a0 Yep, within a block or two of my walk, I began to see Starbucks, McDonalds, Cinnabon (which I first identified by SMELL, I swear to Rapture Jesus on a Pterodactyl), and others.<\/p>\n

\"See<\/a>
See if you can figure out the name of my hotel. You can do it! First person to put it into a comment wins!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s look at those names:<\/p>\n

Starbucks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CTAPBAKC<\/p>\n

McDonalds\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MAK\u0434OHA\u043b\u0434C<\/p>\n

Restaurant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u0440\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0430\u043d<\/p>\n

Sbarro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C\u0431APPO<\/p>\n

If you just take a breath, you start to see the connections.\u00a0 Pretty soon I was doing better, which is a good thing, because the subway in Moscow is an adventure.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"hamme_and_scicle\"<\/a>First of all, it\u2019s world famous for its beauty.\u00a0 Yes, its beauty.\u00a0 The Soviet government pulled out all the stops, and\u00a0 many of the stations are like underground Art Deco palaces.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it was important for me to get more comfortable with the Cyrillic alphabet so I could figure out where the hell I was going on the subway.\u00a0 And I\u2019m doing great; I\u2019ve taken several rides (including transfers) and haven\u2019t gotten lost yet.<\/p>\n

I walked the entire length of the Arbat, \u00a0 a historical street that\u2019s now a pedestrian mall.\u00a0 It was good for people watching but as sightseeing was about on par with the Venice Beach \u201cboardwalk.\u201d<\/p>\n

I then walked around the river and went into the spectacular Christ the Redeemer Cathedral, the tallest Orthodox church in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shame I couldn\u2019t get photos inside, because it\u2019s jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n

My Moscow-as-Vegas theory was given more legitimacy when I discovered the insane state of Peter the Great on the river.\u00a0 It\u2019s less than 20 years old and would be completely at home in front of Treasure Island on the Strip.\u00a0 It\u2019s on the list of the world\u2019s ugliest statues, and Moscow has already tried to give it way to several other cities (\u201cThanks, but we\u2019re good, \u201d said St. Petersburg with a shudder).<\/p>\n

There seem to be no black people at all in Moscow.<\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds\"<\/a>On the other hand, the very Caucasian men and women of the city are extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemly attractive.\u00a0 Seriously, the women are smokin\u2019 and the men all have an intense, \u201cMust escort my girlfriend back to our flat and then head to the gym\u201d sort of look.<\/p>\n

Finally got to Red Square.\u00a0 St. Basil\u2019s has to be the most insane house of worship I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 It\u2019s from the 1500s and it\u2019s so unusual that it\u2019s really without precedent in the history of Russian architecture.\u00a0 I\u2019m going\u00a0 to try to go in on Saturday morning\u00a0 before my train.<\/p>\n

Also went into Gum, the enormous shopping structure directly across Red Square from the Kremlin.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful Art Moderne mall full of high end franchise stores.\u00a0 Gorgeous to walk through.<\/p>\n

Then home and collapse!<\/p>\n

Some of the Cooler Churches I\u2019ve Been In<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • St. John the Divine, New York<\/li>\n
  • Chartres, Chartres, France<\/li>\n
  • Notre Dame, Paris, France<\/li>\n
  • Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, carved out of the Baths of Diocletian, Rome<\/li>\n
  • St. Peter\u2019s, Rome, duh<\/li>\n
  • Christ the Redeemer, Moscow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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