« Serveur, moins d'obésité, SVP! | Main | This St. Petersburg is not a sunny Florida resort »
May 05, 2005
Red Square at night, tourists' delight
MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION - It's 11.30PM in Moscow, day 3, and Russian tanks are rolling into Red Square. Last time I heard of tanks in Red Square (1991), the New York Times headline read, "KGB-Military Rulers Tighten Grip; Gorbechav Absent, Yeltsin Defiant; West Voices Anger and Warns on Aid"--as tanks were ready to fire on the Kremlin and the USSR disintegrated. Today, it's all part of a celebration for Victory Day (called V-E day in the US), which has closed Red Square since we arrived. In fact, the day we arrived, guards were accepting bribes of $10 to let tourists onto the Square, but we found that they have since cracked down.
Russia is, in many ways, what one would expect: the big, broad streets lined by Art Nouveau facades, strange rules, hard-speaking cops, and lots of red tape. The McDonald's is hopping busy, full of trendy middle-class teenagers with Brittney Spears blasting from speakers. Stalin's "Seven Sisters," a set of seven buildings in Moscow with copies in other Eastern Bloc cities, dominates the skyline.
In other ways, we've been surprised. For one, the Metro (subway) stations are amazing. A million people ride the subway each day, trains come every 60-120 seconds, and the place is the most well-organized zoo I've seen. The stations themselves are works of art, with many featuring elegant chandaleirs, marble and granite, mosaics of Lenin, and other architectural details saved for museums in other cities. In fact, Moscow is a very clean city, with almost no litter, and the public is generally very well-behaved despite their hard and stoic countenances. It's like Singapore but without all the stupid signs telling one how to board a subway.
A second surprise has happened to the men, who have noticed how aggressive Russian women are. "It's like they go out of their way to get foreign guys to hit on them," commented a friend today. "Do you think I look foreign to them?" I asked. Apparently I do. But frankly, I have no need for a Russian bride at the moment.
I guess it's not a surprise, and in ways it's pathetic, but the communist past of the Soviet Union has been fascinating. Today we visited the place where they dumped some old Stalin and Lenin statues, and I found myself eerily fascinated with the larger than life representations of the leaders. Communism killed 100M people, nine times as many as Nazism, but still there's some fascination with the communist leaders and Russian tanks rolling onto Red Square.
St. Petersburg is coming in a few days, and I'll get pictures of the Victory Day celebrations and fireworks over the Neva River for posting when I return.
Posted by adrianjo at May 5, 2005 03:32 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.innogize.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/159
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Red Square at night, tourists' delight:
» cheap-alprazolam from cheap-alprazolam
[Read More]
Tracked on February 27, 2006 06:29 PM
» big boobs from Jane
huge boobs huge tits big tits huge tits
[Read More]
Tracked on February 28, 2006 10:44 AM
» jennifer lopez from jennifer lopez
jennifer lopez [Read More]
Tracked on March 7, 2006 12:38 AM
» diazepam from diazepam
[Read More]
Tracked on March 7, 2006 03:58 AM
» Shemale Hand Jobs from Shemale Hand Jobs
College guys jerking off bleary college guys jerking off men jerking off for free well-made men jerking off for free. [Read More]
Tracked on March 12, 2006 06:25 PM
» free ringtones from free ringtones
free ringtones is a niceblogers. [Read More]
Tracked on March 14, 2006 02:11 PM
» Meet People In N.h. For Sex from Meet People In N.h. For Sex
One night stand sex supersensitive one night stand sex meet people for sex unobtrusive meet people for sex. [Read More]
Tracked on March 15, 2006 07:59 AM
» History Of Texas Hold Em from History Of Texas Hold Em
Online texas hold em sweat-saturated online texas hold em. [Read More]
Tracked on March 18, 2006 09:34 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)