A Country of Thieves

Trip Start Aug 01, 2006

Trip End Aug 13, 2006

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Flag of Russia Moscow, Russia
Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Monday, August 07, 2006
Moscow, Russia
Midnight

Dear Readers:

The truly ugly side of Moscow makes its appearance today, as two of my clients suffer robberies on the Metro and one of the same two realizes a credit card has been pinched from his suitcase in the hotel. We love the place we are staying, and find it difficult to believe that one of the employees took it, but my client has ransacked his room and it didn't turn up. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The day is off to a beautiful start, with the sun shining and everyone in good spirits after a restful evening

01 Monument to Peter the Great

. Almost everyone who went out last night ended up at the same restaurant, which is probably due to the recommendations of the staff at the front desk, and everyone had a good meal even though communication with the restaurant staff was difficult. I'm wearing shorts, and so are three others. It is really the first opportunity we have had to do so because of the rain, and we are enjoying not having on long pants.

Our first stop is across the river from the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer where we take photographs of a very strange monument to Peter the Great. It was originally intended to be a monument to Christopher Columbus, but the people who commissioned it changed their minds, so the artist swapped out the head of Columbus with that of Peter the Great and it was erected here in Moscow. Our guide considers it a terrible eyesore.

We board our bus again and drive back across the river to visit the Cathedral. The original Cathedral was blown up on Stalin's orders in 1931. It has only been rebuilt in the last 10 years, based on photographs and meticulous drawings of the original that had been preserved.

The sunny spirits with which we began the day begin to chill along with the weather at this point

02 Cathedral of Jesus Christ the Redeemer

. The Cathedral looks closed. Some cleaning workers come out and tell us that it is always closed on Mondays until 1:00pm for cleaning. Why didn't the local agency tell us that? Why did they let us waste our time coming here at this hour? These are all good questions that my clients are asking, and for which I have no suitable answer. Furthermore, say the cleaning ladies to our guide, those men in shorts wouldn't be allowed to go in anyway.

We decide at least to make the most of our visit by hearing about the history of the building, so we all sit on the grand stairs leading up to the doors. We are minding our own business and not bothering anybody, and everyone is fully engaged in the guide's explanation of why the Cathedral got its name. It was originally built to commemorate the miraculous deliverance of Moscow from Napoleon's Grand Army in 1812. That year there was a very hard and early frost, and Napoleon decided to turn his troops around and march them back to Poland, losing a huge number of them to winter cold along the way. (A similar scenario decimated Hitler's troops in much the same way in World War II.)

All of a sudden a door to the church opens up and a security guard shouts out something very aggressively to our guide, who makes a grimace and responds back in Russian with something obviously dripping in sarcasm

03 Faux Bronze Statuary

. She translates that the man has shouted out that we have not been blessed so we cannot sit on the steps of the church, and must move the group away from the entrance! Natalia, the guide, is livid, but she just shakes her head with the practiced resignation of someone used to living under a repressive regime, and we all move off. I am last, and I make a show of pointing my camera at the fellow and taking his picture, but he turns away before I can click the shutter. Such an experience really leaves such a bad impression on the visitor.

There is a small museum in the basement level of the Cathedral with a separate entrance. Natalia takes the group inside and continues explaining more about the history of the building. Those of us in shorts must continue to wait outside. I hear later that there is a tremendous row between Natalia and someone inside the museum who tells her she is not allowed to guide inside and then tells her to shut up, and when Natalia answers back she is ordered to leave. Yes, there is a definite chill in the air.

We decide to continue with our day of touring, and our plan is to visit a few of the grandest Metro stations in the city. Eva and I, together with the lovely young girl, Anastasia, who has been with us every day since the beginning of the tour, separate from the group in order to purchase tickets to the Russian Circus for this evening

04 Gatekeeper / Warden

. We agree to meet the group as they begin their tour of the Arbat.

We are able to obtain some of the best seats in the house for our group, and I hand them my credit card as payment. They tell me they do not accept credit cards. Eva and I have to scramble to an ATM machine. The cost of the tickets is 15,200 rubles, but the machine will only allow each of us to withdraw 6,000. I try to withdraw a second 6,000, and get a message that I have exceeded my limit for the day. I am sure it was only for that particular machine, but we didn't have time to run around looking for another machine, so Eva was good enough to withdraw a similar amount, and also to exchange US$100 so that we could purchase the tickets.

Mission accomplished, so we stop next door to the circus arena for a coffee before racing on to meet the group on Arbat Street. We join up with Natalia, and she has already released the group to tour the area on their own and grab some lunch. She leaves clear instructions (or so we think) about where she will meet the group who want to return to the hotel at 1:45pm. More than half the group shows up at the appointed spot and time, and there is no bus and no Natalia. Evidently she and Anastasia were waiting in another location and when nobody showed up she released the bus driver so that overtime charges wouldn't be applied as we only had the bus for five hours today on the schedule

05 Eva and Anastasia

.

Meanwhile, Eva and I and two other tour members are waiting for our lunch order to be delivered at a caf� down the street from where so many are waiting to be picked up. We are just being told about the robbery that happened during the Metro tour when someone approaches to tell us the group is stranded, and ask what is to be done? I ask Eva if she would mind eating very quickly and escorting the guys back to the hotel. We all gobble our food and race back to the group. Eva takes them under her wing while three of us decide to walk back to the hotel. It is during this emergency transfer that another robbery takes place.

We have a very enjoyable walk back to the hotel taking us past Pushkin Square and a fantastic ultra modern furniture store carrying designs by Philip (?) Starck, who recently opened a new restaurant in Moscow named "Bon". We wandered through the store with our jaws agape at the amazing quality of merchandise rivaling anything you would find in the finest stores of Milan or Paris. Obviously only the very rich Russians can shop at this store.

Back at the hotel I arrange for our bus to come back and take us to the circus tonight since they screwed up the transfer to the hotel at the end of the day's touring

06 Metro Art

. I think that is all worked out, and the clients are happy since they will be able to reclaim their belongings which remained on the bus and which they need to finish packing for our departure tomorrow. The hour arrives, and a different bus appears, so the clients will have to get their things back in the morning before departure. We are loading up and I learn that the second man to be robbed on the Metro has discovered a credit card missing from the wallet he has hidden in his room for safekeeping. In all the commotion we are delayed getting away, and are ten minutes late for the circus. There seems to be another very early frost intent on driving us away from Moscow, and (frankly) I think many of us are just as happy to be going.

The high point of the day, however, is the circus. It is an absolute wonderment and joy to behold (not to mention all the beautiful young men and women in tights who were also a delight to the eyes). There are dancing dogs and chimpanzees, clowns, acrobats, jugglers, fire eaters, high-wire acts, trampoline artists, and the most amazing troupe of guys dressed like Roman soldiers who did acrobatic acts (including flips on stilts), but whose movements were all tightly choreographed similar to the soldiers in the movie "Titus" directed by Julie Taymore. If you've seen the movie, you know what I am talking about. Very hot!

07 Arbat Street

The circus concludes with the tiger act. A single man and a woman handle nine of the most enormous and gorgeous tigers, and it is truly thrilling to be sitting in the third row able to observe them from such a close distance. (Sincere apologies to animal rights activists, but I was truly carried away.)

We return to the hotel by Metro, and compulsively clutch our valuables having become extremely Metro shy today! We huddle together, literally watching each other's backs. We make it back without incident and set the wake-up calls at 7:00am for tomorrow.

We are aboard an overnight train to St. Petersburg tomorrow night, so it will be a while before I am able to post another installment of this Russian Saga. We look forward to better hospitality in our next Russian city!

Until St. Petersburg . . .

Hugs,
Dan