A Tale of Three Cities (3/11/2002)

Hi Everyone,

Most of you haven't heard from me in a while because I've been running around both St. Petersburg as well as a couple other places. Here's a wrap-up.

As you can guess by the fact that I am writing to you now, the Siberia trip didn't come through. In short, we had originally planned a trip that would revolve around stays in Irkutsk (a Slavic settlement, very important in forging Siberian unity) and Ulan-Ude (in comparison to Irkutsk, a Mongolian city which the Lonely Planet Guide Book describes as "downright weird". Instead, our plans were changed from city life to country life at almost the last minute. The new plan involved a five-day stay on Baikal's largest island (Olkhon), which has no telephones or any other connections with the outside world. Added to that the need to drive across ice to get there, and it's not exactly my cup of tea. Yes, it would have been very interesting, the experience of a lifetime, yaddy yadda, but alas, I'm not the spirited traveller of my youth (Hey, at 21, I can call 17 "my youth.") But anyway, here's what has gone on...From February 28th till March 3 I was with the world's most beauiful lady (Christine) in the world's most beautiful city (Prague). Needless to say, it was gorgeous, a lot of fun, and over too quickly. The Gothic, untouched by war atmosphere gives it a virtually fairy-tale-like aire. This, added to open borders, means the one downside that St. Pete lacks: more tourists than the average healthy human should see in a lifetime. (Yes, I KNOW I was a tourist, so I really shouldn't complain. But still...) In short, make it to Prague. Have some beer and gulasch at U Fleku and even check out their Dunkin' Donuts -- it's the only one I know of overseas and is definitely worth a stop.

Following Spire Town, I returned to St. Pete for the most uplifting of all things known to man: midterms. Three in three days, all the while packing for Moscow and trying to reach a harrowing decision about Irkutsk. Nonetheless, I got through them, though won't find out how I did till the first few days following vacation.

Wedensday night our CIEE Fellowship, if you will, gathered at Moscow train station for a midnight ride to the capital. Despite Prague's pulchritude and St. Pete's still-trying-to-recover-ness, nothing prepares one for the Muscovite aura. An unofficial statistic (unofficial because I heard it from a friend and not any sort of record book) claims that a whopping 95% of Russia's finances are in Moscow -- a grandiose statistic that explains why the capital bestrides like a colossus over the rest of the world's biggest land.

Moscow is both threatening and endearing, unfriendly and cozy, daunting and fascinating. Several friends and I returned to Red Square more than once after our official tour had ended -- simply standing there inspires one a feeling incomprable with one from any other geographical location. To let it sink in that you are gazing at what your parents and grandparents knew as the epicenter of human evil is mind-boggling.

At the center of the square is, of course, Lenin's tomb, which as luck would have it, was closed for an "inventory check" and is scheduled to reopen on April 16. Allow me to rant for a second -- how does one undertake an INVENTORY CHECK of a TOMB? Now, I know it is FAR bigger than, say, the average mausoleum (is there even such thing?), but HOW can one have an INVENTORY CHECK that one cannot undertake in, say, an hour?!? Never having been there, I believe I can do an inventory check from the confines of St. Pete:

Dead Lenins: 1

Anyhow... enough ranting. A couple friends and I plan on going back at some point (when might be a problem, though), because the one thing one doesn't want to miss in Russia is Pickled Uncle Vladi. On that note, one would not believe the cult of personality that has (or had) sprung up around our bearded, bald friend. For example, in Moscow train station, the major back wall is graced with the following inscription: "On March 11, 1918, in this train station, in company of the SOVIET GOVERNMENT, from Petrograd to MOSCOW, arrived VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN." On most of the old buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg there is some sort of plaque commemorating "Lenin lived here." "Lenin overnighted here." "Lenin stopped and asked for directions here" or something similar.

Anyway, I'll let you know how things are coming. Keep me updated about happenings back home.

Matt
"Tri - elfiiskim vkadykam v podzbednyi predyel;
Sem - dlya gnomov, tsaryashchikh v podgornom prosmore;
Devyat - smertnym, chey vyveren srok i udel,
I odno - blastelinu na chyornom prestolye
V Mordore, gdye vekobehnaya tma:
Chtoby vsekh otyckat, voedino sozvat
I edinoyu chyornoyu volyey skovat
V Mordore, gdye vekobehnaya tma"