russia!!!

my trip to russia has been way fun so far. it’s my third day here and we just got to st petersburg today. the last 2 days we’ve spent in moscow. let me tell ya, russia is a crazy place. we’ve been rushing everywhere trying to see as much as we can in what little time we had. it’s such a trip to be back here and see the place that i’m from. everywhere i go people are speaking russian and it’s a trippy feeling to be able to hear that.

anyways… here are some random thoughts/happenings form the last few days:

In moscow, the main thing to go see is the Kremlin and the red square. we saw it the very first night that we arrived and then kept going there over and over for various reasons over the next 2 days. even though i’ve seen many many photos and pictures of it before, it was pretty unreal to see it live. st basils cathedral totally looks like something you’d only see in a fairy tale. in front of the kremlin is lenin’s tomb. dude, there is something way eerie about a huge mob of people walking around a room and staring at a dead body in a clear casket. i guess there’s some debate as to whether the body is really lenin or whether it’s just a wax replica. as you walk thru the room, all the armed guards glare and reprimand you if you speak or put your hands in your pockets.

actually, the police i russia are pretty damned scary. there’s people in a variety of different uniforms (police, camouflage, armed guard, you name it) all over the damn place. they do everything they possible can to make you feel really unwelcome. our first night there we got stopped by the police, who proceeded to ask us for our passports. now these cops weren’t like the cops back home…. they had submachine guns on strap around their shoulders and huge metal batons i their hands. dude, it was wayy scary. i think they were trying to get us to bribe them, but my dad never caught on so we ended up just being let go eventually.

Ã’h yeah, we sw a communist protest outside the red square. all these old people running around waving USSR flags and shouting. i found it pretty ironic that these people were protesting and asking for a government that would never allow anyone to protest. i was talking to my dad about it and actually it’s a pretty sad situation. all these people who lived their whole lives under communism… working for a cause that they believed in until they became old, should be receiving a pension now. but because communism ended, all of them are left w/ nothing and all these old people just have to beg in the streets for food.

The food here is super cheap. ridiculously cheap actually. the first meal we had came out to 4$ total for 3 people’s worth of food including beer! most of the food we’ve been eating (pirogis etc) comes form these street vendors and each item costs like a dollar or so. coke here costs 50 cents, beer is 60 cents. bottles of vodka are only $3!! oh, and they’ve got beer here that puts american 40 ouncers to shame. they’ve got 2.5 liter beer bottles! and they are only 1.50! unfortunately so far i’ve been way too jetlagged and tired to do much drinking so i havent bee able to make the most of this awesome situation.

So, nobody here wears shorts. i mean nobody. i think i’ve only seen like 9 people wearing shorts this whole time.. and i assume they were tourists. it’s actually pretty interesting to see how people are dressed here. the over 30 crowd dresses really plain and boring using a lot of drab colors. as far a the under 30 people: guys wear either jeans or slacks w/ dress shirts…. girls wear either super tight jeans, or shirt skirts and reveal as much skin as they possibly can. oh, and i havent seen a single girl wearing sneakers… only either open toed shoes or these insanely pointy high heeled shoes.

anyways there is tons more i want to write…. but my time on the net is running out. hopefully i’ll be able to add more tomorrow.

-vlad