Krème de la Kremlin

It was a very early morning, as the group had to be at the airport by 7am. Yuck. We did not arrive at our Moscow hotel until 6pm. A long day of travel. Russian customs is as bad as you might expect - surly women in steel heels prying apart the first page of your passport to see if the picture has been altered. Traffic was also snarled. A good article about this in the New York Times recently. However, we were stalled right next to a very nice billboard which I will have to share later.

Oh, did I forget to say that it was cold? Freezing. Snow everywhere.

Still, we decided to go out for a “traditional” Russian dinner near the hotel, meaning that the waitresses wore goofy (but cute) outfits. As we walked there, we immediately began speculating as to who would be first to bust ass on the slick patches of ice. No one did. What a shame. We pigged out. We had caviar on pancakes, borsch, other stuff. Again, sing the chorus with me: “pictures later.”

After dinner I lead a troop to find the local bookstore. I wanted to find a copy of A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov, in Russian. This I did. I also got a copy of Rolling Stone with Jack Nicholson on the cover, with Cyrillic lettering. Pretty cool. Our troop then returned to the hotel and had Irish Coffee in the lobby bar to warm up. The Libertine and El Guapo were both bushed, so I went out for a drink with a new rep buddy, the Anglo-Czech. It was Moscow, Saturday night – we had to go out and see what was going on, especially since it might be unadvisable.


We went to a place called The Pyramid, or something. It had funky ersatz Egyptian décor. We had a couple of beers and people-watched. The guys looked stereotypical Russian. The women made Anna Kournikova look average. We were on the main drag of Moscow, now one of the most expensive cities in Europe, where 80% of the nation’s capital circulates, where there are 150,000 new millionaires. No wonder there is a high concentration of high-caliber women. They looked fierce.

We hopped back on the bus at 9:30am to make a trip to one of the largest open markets in Moscow. Our guide told us that the micro-climate there actually makes it colder than the rest of Moscow. Unfortunately, she was not kidding. Cold air oozes up off the Moscow River and climbs up your spine. Thank Lenin I bought that overcoat in Boston. As soon as I bought something that required me to carry a bag, and thence take at least one hand out of my pockets, I was forced to also buy a new pair of gloves (remember, having lost one in Dresden). All in all, I bought a lot of stuff. Took care of a lot of Christmas presents. I won’t say what I bought, because it was for people who might read this blog. I would have bought more, but I was afraid it might be illegal. For example, I would never buy 15 black-market DVDs for $40. Never. Lunch was awesome. Skewered meat over wood-fires. Spiced, hot wine. Simple and lovely.

We had time to freshen up at the hotel before going to the American Center for presentations and a college fair. We shouldn’t have bothered. There were more of us than there were students. I had one visitor. He was looking for something my university does not offer. Oh well. Back at the hotel, I got some work done and then went to dinner with The Libertine. We ate some sushi at a place I’d noticed on the main drag. Sushi is all over the place here. Luckily, our neighbors spoke English, because our waitress did not, and they were able to translate when we had trouble.

Next was the best part of the whole trip. The Libertine and I stopped by the hotel to use the WC, then walked to Red Square. It was stunning. First of all, it was beautiful – covered in snow, lit up, incredible architecture, including St. Basil’s. But more viscerally, this was the place that as a child I saw as the center of all that was evil and life-threatening. This was the square where I saw Soviet troop marching in formation on the news. This was the home and holy place of our arch-enemy. Now here I was, watching people frolic in the falling snow. Surreal. A triumph.


We had to wake up at 6:30am and check out. Then we loaded onto the bus for more seminar sessions and a college fair at the Anglo-American School. Was good. We were allowed to go back to the hotel and change some of our clothes in the bathrooms. That way we could get better dressed for our walking tour of the Kremlin and Red Square. I will not bore anyone with the dry details until I have the pics to go along with them. It was a good tour, but I am so glad that I took the opportunity to see the Square the night before. The snow was now gone...

After the tour, to the airport again, and Warsaw...