It's all about the money, fast cars, and girls

Moscow reminds me of a bad late 90's rap song (which perhaps I've made up in my head), but I'm walking around with a little beat (in my head) for money, fast cars and girls. As we've walked through a variety of neighborhoods in Moscow, one thing is for certain, Moscovites LOVE their fast cars. Never before in my life have I seen so many $60k+ cars. In one block we saw a bentley, maserati, porsche cayenne, BMW X5/X6, Audi A5 etc etc. And they're all parked on the street! Unlike the states (where the preferred car color is silver) black rules. Although, there doesn't seem to be a car wash business since all the fancy cars are dirty and dust covered.
The girls love them some brands. It's head to toe armani/versace/burberry/prada - almost to a fault. We saw a woman walking with Versace labels from head to toe, yet she screamed florescent highlighter color combo pack (Pink shirt, yellow pants, green shoes).
We've done all the requisite sites in Moscow (Kremlin, red square, Lenin's tomb - who by the way is embalmed and kind of creepy looking, museums, etc) and the one that sticks out the most to me is the sculpture park. The sculpture park is the setting for last year's Amazing Race (There was an episode where the competitors had to count the number of stalin & lenin heads in the park). It's actually a lovely park, home to all the 'cast off' sculptures in Moscow. On a Sunday, it seems to be where all the Moscow families hang out, play chess (we saw a human Pawn! (dressed up obviously for a life size chessboard competition), and just chill. It was lovely to see 'normal' Moscovites doing their thing.
Lenin is a trip - did you know that when he died, Stalin insisted that he be embalmed so all of Russia could view him? Apparently, his brain was taken out in the process (to be studied of course) and every few days the body is wiped down and then submerged in wax/chemicals ever 18 months. In truth, he kind of looks like a wax museum figure (you literally are herded in like cattle, so for all we know he COULD be a wax figure).
Food wise, we haven't experienced anything special. I've eaten more beef than I have in the last 2 years, and wow, the potatoes. Mmm potatoes. Sadly, nothing terribly impressive. I've had beet juice, borscht (beet soup), but it's just rather filling, so nothing to really 'write home about'. We'll see if St Petersburg offers more options (albeit cheaper ones). When we read that Moscow is the most expensive city in the world, we were prepared, but really we weren't. Our cheapest meal so far (and I'm a bit ashamed to admit this) came at McDonald's! (which btw, is one of two food options at the Kremlin - the other being Sbarro - yay American chains?) McDonald's definitely subsidizes the food cost in Moscow, since the prices were the equivalent in exchange.. e.g. My milkshake was only $1.50USD... whereas every other meal (at non McD venues) was significantly more.. We had cafeteria (think 80's style public school food) dinner last night, which was a whopping $30USD for 2 hamburger patties on a plate, with a squirt of mashed potatoes. People weren't kidding about prices..

We're off on the train to St. Petersburg - Yay for the Hermitage!!

Tetris Tales

A : I'll admit to being unabashedly child like in the view of St Basil's Basilica. It's beautiful pregnant domes sweeping up from the Earth in front of me. I whistle the delightful theme to Tetris as I dream of monstrous blocks of techni-color falling from the sky. So shall I paint my masterpiece on the Kremlin.

Welcome to Moscow, Russia.

When I was a boy growing up in San Francisco I often puzzled at the ostentatious style of my Russian pals. A gold watch, spiked collar, stilleto heels on ladies or shiny diamonds just didn't jive with my parents message of understated.

Now I understand. Cast yourself in a modern Scarface - Range Rovers tearing around tight dark corners - wavering female ankles over 9 inch hot pink heels - white men's slacks bookened by white driving loafers stepping into a new Porsche Cayenne. The young and rich shall play in Moscova, da?

Home to the new oligarch and resplendent with nouveauriche' the area teems with the signs of luxury. C properly noted that sallow skin and blond hair are the lingua franca (russi actually) of this land. While the reality of today is not the dark stern countenance of the USSR of old, and Zangief is nowhere to be found - still the 8 bit GameBoy speaker in my mind bleeps on.

A Mocha is a Mokka is a mkaa

Apparently Dr. Evil really does believe in world domination (Austin Powers citation). We're currently hanging out at the train terminal waiting for the train to downtown Moscow, and guess what? Starbucks is here!!

This is a brand new, shiny, barely opened train terminal with barely any terminals except Starbucks... Upon perusing the menu, it looks the same (despite the text in syrillic).

On this trip, A and I have exchanged 'tourist' roles. Last year, in Asia, he was the "foreigner" who was scrutinized by security... Now it's my turn... Our customs agent asked that I take off my glasses to match my face to my passport photo, then proceeded to run my name through a giant database (from what A could see) that took forever.. it was a 'hot' list, and he kept asking me "tourist?" I mean, obviously.

For all the warnings we read in the travel books and from friends that Russians can be aggressive (think being swarmed with 'taxi taxi') this is nothing compared to India. It's barely a murmur! We can totally walk past that (also helps that we have no clue what they're saying to us).

And we're off!

So we're a third of the way to Moscow, hanging out at Jfk.
Interestingly, the ticketing folks were only (in Sf and jfk) interested in whether I had my visa, apparently Asa passes for russian (cue all bad jokes related to everyone looking the same).

Our itinerary for the next 3 weeks:
3 days in Moscow
4 days in st Petersburg
2 days in Berlin
3 days in Prague
2 days in krakow
2 days in Budapest
4 days in istanbul
though we're pretty much flexible once we get to Prague.

I'll spend the next 10 hours learning Russian on my iPod :-)