Kremlin with Anticipation

This is the second-to-last installment of Megan and Briana's Semi-Unwise Foodie Road Trip Across Eastern Europe, aka Eastern European Grand Tour of 2016. For the beginning of the adventure, please see this post here. 

I've been trying to think if I should start out this post with something sappy, like, "we left St. Petersburg as a grey sunrise dawned upon the city . . ." or something like that, but that would make the trip seem a lot more peaceful than it was.

Because let's be honest. Even in the most ideal of situations, travel in Eastern Europe is never smooth sailing.

I can't remember exactly how the trip to the train station went, but I think we went the wrong way at one point . . . good thing we planned in extra time to get lost and confused, because that always happens when you travel with me. Hurray.

But we made it to the train station and got on the fast train to Moscow (403 miles in 4 hours). Moscow in the summer is like most big cities in the summer: hot, crowded, smoggy, and smelly. Yet I love it. I really do love Moscow. I love its metro system, I love its history, I love its people. Some of my best moments of this trip were just sitting in Alexandrovski Garden, eating breakfast and watching the crowds pass by. Moscow has such a distinctive feel--in American terms, it feels like a mixture of New York and D.C., . . . but Moscow is its own entity entirely. And I love it.

[Red Square on a summer's day.]

We didn't get many pictures in Moscow together--Briana was scrambling to get settled in her new place before I left (and I had to leave all too soon because my visa was going to expire), so most of those Moscow days are simply committed to memory. But I was so grateful for another chance to see this remarkable city. Again, I hope I get another chance to go back. It's impossible to know where life will take me or the history of this world, but I do know that there seems to be a magnet drawing me back to all things Eastern Europe. 

. . . but the trip saga still isn't over. I had one last stop before heading back to England's green and pleasant land and then onto the land of the free and the home of the brave . . .

Helsinki. 

Я люблю Москву (I love Moscow)

My last day in Moscow I went to the Kremlin. I wasn't able to go when I had planned (on Thursday), because apparently it's closed on Thursdays. 

[Walking up to the Kremlin gates.]

[Scaffolding and Japanese tourists.]

[Hey look, Mom! I'm in the Kremlin.]

[And now a nice photo for the fridge.]

[This is Uspenski Cobor. It is where the tsars of Russia were coronated.]

[Doors to Uspenski Cobor.]

[Golden domes.]

[A giant bell.] 

The Kremlin was really cool. Not only did I get to see an important part of Russian history, but I made a friend there, too. Her name is Irina and she is from Kazan, Russia. I noticed that she had been taking selfies of herself, so I offered to take some pictures for her. Later, we ran into each other outside of Uspenski Cobor and she asked me if I would like to tour the Kremlin together. She was super nice and it was wonderful to make a new friend. I really do love Eastern Europeans, especially Russians and Ukrainians. 

After the Kremlin, Irina and I walked down Old Arbat Street. There are more street vendors there in the summer, but there were still a few people there selling their wares. 

[I also got to see a Pushkin statue. Pushkin is basically the Russian Shakespeare. So kinda a big deal.]

I really enjoyed my trip to Moscow (if these pictures and what feels like five thousand pictures I posted on Facebook and Instagram are any indication). Of course I thought the touristy things were neat. But what I loved the most was just being there. Seeing the layout of the city, riding the Metro, hearing Russian on the streets and up and down the escalators, the smells, the atmosphere of the city. It is a vibrant place to visit. 

[Moscow.]

I think just another reason Russia appeals to me is how old it is and how foreign it is. I know that there are old things in England, too. And I've seen weapons, pottery, and gold used by the Anglo-Saxons. But there is a kind of richness to Russia and to Eastern Europe that I just don't feel in England. Perhaps it is all in my head. But I think there is an "otherness" to Russia and to Eastern Europe--perhaps it's the fact that they use a completely different alphabet. Perhaps it's because I could feel the music in cathedrals reverberate in my bones and sense the legacy of blood, power, reform, and struggle in the walls and the paths around me. But there is something special about this place. Something that you breathe but cannot completely understand. And I want to make it a part of me. 

Good-bye for now, Moscow. до встречи! I will see you. Hopefully sooner rather than later. 

Moscow Metro

In addition to the Tretyakov Gallery, I figured the Moscow Metro also deserved its own post. Because it's a work of art in and of itself.

When I first got onto the Metro, I was swept back to Kharkov. The platform smelled like those familiar platforms in northeastern Ukraine, and the cars looked like the metro cars in Kharkov, too--a blue-greenish color.

(I was just talking to a friend from Kharkov, and it makes sense--both Kharkov and Moscow were rebuilt after WWII, so there's a reason why the Metro systems are similar . . . even though Moscow's metro system is much bigger than Kharkov's.)

Something I like about any metro system (whether it be in New York, London, Kharkov, or Moscow) is how when you step out of the station, you feel like you truly have entered a different part of the city. Moscow is no different. But something cool about Moscow is how different each of the stations are, too. 

[And, of course, Lenin looks on.]

[This station is called "Revolutionary Square." It was one of my favorites. There are statues representing those who fought in the Russian Revolution.]

[People rub certain statues for good luck. For example, this guy's knee is apparently good luck. There is another soldier's pistol, and then a dog's nose which are also good luck.]

I wasn't able to get pictures of all of the Metro stations I was in (nor did I get a chance to go to all the ones I wanted to see), but I hope this gives you a taste of the uniqueness of the Moscow Metro system. 

The Tretyakov Gallery

The Tretyakov State Gallery was founded in 1892 when Pavel Tretyakov, a merchant and patron of the arts, donated his art collection to Moscow city. There are now over 170,000 pieces of art by Russian artists in the Gallery, and the artwork spans about 1,000 years.

And it is absolutely incredible.

Going to the Tretyakov Gallery was up there on my "to-do" list while in Moscow, because of one person: Raissa Vulfovna, who was my Russian Cultural History professor. She is a delightful Russian woman who loves her culture--art, music, literature, dance, etc. There is a rich tradition of beauty in Russia, and she was eager to share it with us. 

And I, ever the student, was eager to take it all in. 

So imagine my sheer joy and giddiness when I was able to see some of those pieces we talked about with my own eyes. It was just . . . it was a wonderful moment for me. 

Rokotov. Portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772). Often called the Russian Mona Lisa. 

Pushkin.

[Yep. This was pretty much my face the entire time. Megan = really, really happy.]

One painting I was looking forward to seeing was Ivanov's Christ's Appearance to the People. I wasn't sure where to find it (I didn't buy a map . . . call me a lazy museum-goer if you must), but then I turned the corner and wham! There it was. 

[It is huge. Absolutely huge. It is a depiction of Christ coming to John the Baptist to be baptized. The entire painting is masterfully done. But what I found incredibly moving were the expressions in the different faces.]

I also wanted to see Kramskoi's Christ in the Wilderness. I actually ended up asking one of the museum workers where it was and she opened up a few of the barriers so I could go straight to it. And I wasn't disappointed. 

[It is an extremely moving picture. I think it really captures the idea of the Savior being a "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." I have a lot more I could say about it, but I will save that for another time.]

Some more paintings by Kramskoi: 

Portrait of Lev Tolstoy.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman. 1883. 

Some other paintings I liked: 

Life is Everywhere, by Yaroshenko. 

Conscience of Judas, by Nikolai Ge

Portrait of Dostoevsky, by Perov

Honestly, being there was like my Russian 330 class come to life. It was so nice to know the history behind these paintings. It made being there much more meaningful to me. 

Bogytyrs, Vasnetsov 

Boyaryna Morozova, by Surikov. 

[This painting depicts an episode in Russian history called the Raskol, or the Great Schism. It was a break in the Russian Orthodox Church between Old and New Believers. Some of the arguments included whether or not you should cross yourself with two or three fingers or use two or three "Alleluias" when praising God. It wasn't just a matter of fingers to them--it was a matter of worshiping God in the correct way. The lady being carted away is an Old Believer--you can tell because she is lifting two fingers to heaven. She was a noblewoman who defended what she believed, even though she went to prison and died for it. We sometimes think arguments like this are foolish, but often we do the same thing--we argue and even kill over faith and morals.]

Ivan the Terrible and His Son, Repin. 

[Another episode out of Russian history. Ivan the Terrible got into an argument with his favorite son (also named Ivan) whom he had chosen and groomed to be king. In his anger, Ivan the Terrible ended up killing his son. Repin (the artist of this painting) didn't like doing historical paintings, but after the assassination of Alexander II, he felt that this was a way that he could protest against violence.]

The Trinity.

[One of my very favorite pieces of Russian art.] 

The Tretyakov Gallery is exquisite. I'm so grateful I had the chance to go and hope to be able to go again someday. 

Bright Lights and Cityscapes [Moscow Day 3]

Moscow continued . . .

On Thursday morning, I made the trip out to Парк Победы (Park Pobedi)--Moscow's Victory Park. It is massive. I didn't realize how big it was going to be. I should have. I mean, WWII is a really big deal in Moscow. And it's built near the place where Napoleon watched Moscow burn in 1812 . . . and then decided that if the people weren't fangirling over him like he thought they should, and since it was freezing cold, maybe Moscow wasn't worth it to him. He's not the first and hasn't been the last person to realize that you should not fight a land war in Asia. And that Moscow is harder to take than you'd think. 

 When I walked out of the Metro station, it started snowing. I thought it was very fitting.

[On my way to the monument. It was a good seven-minute walk to get to the monument. And this was at a brisk pace.]

[I am including this selfie mostly because I think it is funny. It's one of those accidental selfies. I didn't smile in time. But that's okay because I think it 1) captures the feeling of me being cold, and 2) probably captures the feeling of what the French felt when they made it to Moscow. "Enhhhh. This is not what we signed up for."]

[That's more like it. Cold but happy to be at Парк Победы.]

[And with the monument behind me. Again, I apologize for the amount of selfies. I was the only one at the Park that early in the morning.]

[Russia crushing the forces of fascism. With a dusting of snow.]

[Views of Moscow.]

[To remember.]

[Beautiful Moscow.]

[A monument to those who fought on the Ukrainian front. There were four Ukrainian fronts memorialized.]

After Park Pobedi, I met up with Derek again and we took a small hike through a Moscow forest to see a beautiful view of Moscow: 

[Moskva, Moskva.]

[Apparently this is part of a map which lights up at night. The thick white band is the Moskva River. The Red Star is, you've guessed it. Red Square.]

We were right across the street from Moscow State University (MGU), so we stopped by. It is a very impressive building. And I have a feeling that in my other life (the one where I grow up in Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus), I would have aspired to attend university there and try my luck in Moscow. 

[Our friend Lomonsov. The founder of the Russian university.]

[MGU.]

[The doors were really cool.]

[Me with the "Geography" panel. The didn't have any history or literature panels . . . MGU specializes in science and math. But I do love my geography.]

Derek set me loose again and I followed my heart and went to the Tretyakov Gallery. I will do an entire blog post about that art museum because I took so many pictures and I absolutely fell in love with that place. So it deserves an entire post where you can admire the pretty pictures and I can talk about them to my heart's content. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from the inside: 

Yep. Beautiful. 

I then went to Kitai-Gorod, which translates into "China City," but it's not a China Town at all . . . it's just a really old part of the city. And there are a lot of old cathedrals scattered along a path which leads from the Old Square to the New Square. 

[Really, the bright colors--the greens, reds, blues, and golds--are so striking, especially on grey days. You can tell that this city was made for winter. And made for looking great in winter.]

 [Inside a cafe in a monastery.]

I then went to the State Historical Museum and got to see a lot of beautiful, old things. Because that's what you do in museums. 

[Just look at that ceiling.]

[Big globes.]

[A really old throne that you can tell was frequently used.]

After my museum detour, I met back up with Derek and other Russian friends (including Maxim Efoshkin, who served in the same mission as me--it was fun to see him again) for LDS Institute. It was neat seeing the church building there. Something that surprised me was that the church building smelled the same as the ones in eastern Ukraine, where I served.

And, of course, since Red Square has a magnetic draw, a few of us went there after Institute to enjoy the lights, crowds, and blini. And take glam shots by the yolichka (Christmas tree), obviously. Because what else do you do on Red Square? Especially when there are yolickhi and reindeer involved?

[There is also a picture with me, Derek, and Maxim, but I don't have it on my phone. But Maxim was there, too, and as we all know, trios have more fun. Also. The most important part of this fotka? THE SUPER KONTIKI I AM HOLDING IN MY HAND.]

 короче (in short), Moscow doesn't fail to impress.