TravelStream™ news feed for member blakeblake on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/blakeblake en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:14:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215339900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215339900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215339900/tpod.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:14:05 -0400 July 2008-Russia, Germany, Holland and France

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Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation

Lisa'a cell phone number:
+(or 011)-79032235553
The operator can help you if you can't get through.

Anway,

I have spent all my time thus far in Moscow. I have been asked by many
what my initial reaction to and sense of the city is (they are very
curious) and my best answer has been: "It's HUGE!" In all things I have
seen, heard and felt here there is a sense that to understand the people,
culture and even the proper way to get around would take a much longer
time than I have to spend.

Lisa first warned me about the people. It's not that they are rude, they
just lack our sensitivity. In the metro they act like children - they
never say "excuse me," etc. and sneak past and in between slower people to
get to the escalators or on the trains. Watching them really does remind
me of small children who don't know about lines or proper manners. I don't
take it personally though, I actually kind of like it. I understand why they don't automatically treat everyone kindly. Everyone here is cautious with everyone else. I'm sure there is good reason for
this, but I have yet to see anything dangerous or feel worried about my
safety. The currency exchange, however, seems like a hint - without Lisa's
arguing (which I now understand why she's so good at it) with the teller,
I would have surely been ripped off in a big way.

I have been to a big business district, a peasant district, and a highly
cultural, tourist free district.

The big business district was first. I thought, since I had yet to see
anything else, and the city must be all huge buildings and extremely wide
roads (the roads in this area were as wide as the 405 in some parts). I
was happy that it was not the case.

Two or three nights ago we went to a hundred year old, famous theatre to
see the 40 year old and equally famous adaption of "The Master and
Margarita", the book Lisa gave me to read before coming here. I understood
most of it, though none of it was in English. I have never really cared
about acting before, but I was very impressed with theirs.

Lisa took me to a great restaurant - it was in the theme of a library. We
sat upstairs and ate at old fashioned tables among stacks of books.

Lisa's grandmothers, or Babushkas, live in a poorer district. Such is the
life of the elderly, I think. Anyway, I met her great grandmother on her
mother's side, who is nearly 90. She was a great surprise. Very, very kind
and sweet. She cooked old fashioned Russian food for me. We then met her
father's mother, who was the exact opposite. She smokes cigarettes
constantly and is very blunt. She has read every book in her huge library
and has resorted to reading the dictionary until someone brings her new
books. She gave me an old Russian copy of "The Master and Margarita".

Lisa took me to the Red Square. Only swear words appropriately explain my
reaction to seeing the Kremlin, Intercession Cathedral (the coolest
architecture I have EVER seen) and Military museum. Unbelievable. And, in
the middle - Lenin's tomb. We didn't go inside to see his corpse, but
between the colorful cathedral and the deep red brick wall that inclosed
the Kremlin, Lenin's magenta and black tomb was small and contrasted
terribly. It sat to the right of the stage on which he gave speeches to
thousands upon thousands of people some 80 (?) years ago.

Yesterday was Saturday, and Lisa's fathers first day off since I came
here, so he took us walking. The roads finally became more narrow, people,
laughter and empty beer bottles began to appear, and it was like we
finally went somewhere that was alive and interesting. There were small
alley ways, buildings that were so old that their structure bent in
strange directions, artwork, and smiling people (finally). We went to the
pond that Bulgakov wrote about in Master and Margarita, which I really
enjoyed. We also passed by Dostoevsky's house, the Military museum, the
Soviet Theatre, The largest cathedral in the orthodox church, a student
restaurant in the theme of an old time Russian railway station, and
countless, countless monuments of writers, poets, playwrights, and Lenin.
There is a sculture monument every five minutes it seems. The Russians
seem very proud of their culture. Tomorrow I hope to actually enter
Dostoevsky's home, see his museum, and visit the actually apartment that
Bulgakov wrote about in Master and Margarita.

That's all for now. I think I have gotten everything except their
apartment, food and church service, which I had to get up at 6 am for this
morning. We are about to go to Lisa's country house to make smores with
her little brother.

Really quick: we changed our plans. We want to land in Barcelona, drive
into France, go Northeast to the northern beaches of France and then to
Paris followed by Holland and finally Germany. Her dad has a TOMTOM and
tells me it will not be so much driving.

It's raining CONSTANTLY! Everything is great. I will call you as soon as I
can but I doubt it will be tonight as we are going pretty far into the
country side.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215790740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215790740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1215790740/tpod.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:57:00 -0400 July 2008-Russia, Germany, Holland and France

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St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation

Hey momma!

I'm in St. Petersburg. Lisa kept her family's opinions of this place
secret until a few hours ago... she admitted that both her and her father
dislike this city. I immediately understood why.

The two big cities in Russia could not be less alike. Nikolai (Lisa's
father) told me that when the Mongols came into Russia about 900 years
ago, they destroyed everything except a few hidden villages that they were
unable to find. Moscow was one of these small villages, that from there
grew to be what it is today. I have fallen in love with Moscow; I
desperately want to go back there and spend the rest of my precious time
there (even the rest of the month, though I know it is a good idea to take
this opportunity to see Europe). I LOVE Moscow. The people are very rude,
but I have learned not to take it personally. The food is OKAY (more about
that later) [EDIT: Lisa's mother's cooking was wonderful, it was the restaurants that weren't awesome]. But the feel of the place is unexplainable. It is magical.

St. Petersburg is beautiful, it's fine. But it lacks the feeling of
Moscow. I think maybe it is "The Master and Margarita" that helped build
my conception of Moscow so greatly - almost every scene in the book has a
real life counterpart; there is a place to visit for every chapter.

We visited Peterhoff (please google for more information, I am running out
of time) today, and though it was beautiful, it was filled with tourists.
I couldn't really enjoy it after the experience I had with Lisa and her
father walking through the alleys and kiosks of Moscow.
This place reminds me of Catalina. It has a main street that is pretty, but it feels a little
empty too... It is just a tourist attraction, as far as I have understood
it in the two days I have been here.

Soon we will be back to Moscow and then we fly to Germany. It turns out
that Spain will be too much for us. We will land in Koln, drive to Paris,
and drive back. What route is yet to be decided, but the choice is
entirely ours. Her parents have been great about this; they really trust
me, which I really appreciate.

I'm out of time, mom. I'll write back tomorrow. Please forward this to dad
and Nancy and if you don't have Nancy's email, please remind dad to
forward it to her.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216727280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216727280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216727280/tpod.html Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:39:28 -0400 July 2008-Russia, Germany, Holland and France

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

We stayed one night in Colognem three nights in Amsterdam and will
hopefully be staying the rest of the time here in Paris. Amsterdam is a
beautiful and very small city. Everyone rides bikes there and it is very
easy to find your way through and there are plenty of small places of
interest. However, there are tons of people who clearly moved there
to smoke weed and most of the tourists are high school/college guys. There
are two obvious extremes on every street.

Paris is great. I was expecting snobby, rude people but everyone speaks
english and most are very kind and willing to answer questions and (in one
case) back Lisa's car up a steep driveway. Today we ate at Duex Magots,
which was very good. Please send me the dish we are supposed to try, I
don't remember what it is called. Also, Nancy: all of my emails have been
deleted, along with the one you sent me about things to see in Paris. I
have already seen the major sights and am now interested in the smaller
ones. Any suggestions I will most likely have time for.

Talk to you soon

Tell the family I said hello.

bye!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216052280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216052280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/blakeblake/1/1216052280/tpod.html Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:25:12 -0400 July 2008-Russia, Germany, Holland and France

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Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation

Hello,

The cal lutheran server deleted my entire email inbox because I had more
than two hundred messages in it or something. Anyway, I can't remember
mom's email so please forward to her and Nancy.

I am back in Moscow for today and then tomorrow morning we are off to
Germany. I did not care much for Petersburg until yesterday. We visited
the royal family's burial and saw the coffins of Catherin the Great and
Peter the Great, among others. We walked by Dostoevsky's prison (it was
being renovated, so we couldn't go in his cell) afterward. It was a long
walk back to our apartment, but we were able to walk along the beach which
was nice. There was some very important person who kept flying on and off
a huge yacht in a helicopter. After the nice walk back to Nevsky, the main
drag of Petersburg, we saw that the entire rode was closed for repaving
and evryone was walking down the middle of the street. We did so too, at
sunset, and got many great pictures. We walked by Kazan Cathedral and saw
many people lounging in front of it. Finally, we thought, there seem to be
humans here.

We need to be fast today - wash our clothes and take quick showers -
packing and prepping for the trip so we can still go to a few more places
before tomorrow. We want to go see a real market, the kind with vendors
and fresh meats and butchers etc. Also, we are hopefully going to finally
see the apartment featured in The Master and Margarita.

Tomorrow Germany
In two or three days Holland
In four or five days France
In five or six days Paris

That is our plan, wish us luck!
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