meredith + mike + moscow

...equals a seriously good time.

Wednesday, April 4
Michael Bigelow lands in Moscow's Sheremetyevo 2 airport around 3pm. I am headed there to pick him up, but I severely underestimate the time required to get to the airport (2 hours!), so I am an hour late, but it is all good.
The Bad News: no hotel. Irina wasn't able to find a nearby hotel with rooms for all eight nights, plus I couldn't check into a hotel with him without my passport. Plan B? Sneak him into the dorm overnight and let him sleep on the floor, hope that I get my passport back Friday, and make a hotel reservation beginning Friday night.
After presenting all this and getting him and his stuff safely to the dorm, we ate at the cafe in sector в and crashed.

Thursday, April 5
Mike was still jet lagged even though he came here from Amsterdam (two hours behind), so we slept in and didn't do much. Besides, he couldn't leave the dorm because we might have trouble sneaking him back in for the night. I went to class in the afternoon/early evening and returned with шаурмы for dinner.

Friday, April 6
I had a 10am class (Politology). Mike was going to join me, but he was very much asleep so opted instead to appropriate the bed when I left. He got up around 1pm. We ate lunch and spent the afternoon getting my passport back (yay!) and checking into a hotel (Гостиница университетская). That evening, we went on an adventure to the restaurant/bar "Sixteen Tons" I'd been to several weeks ago. We had a nice more or less Russian meal and Mike finally got to see something other than the main university building!


Mike and me walking from my dorm in the main building to the bus stop


The lighting was beautiful so I took a picture of a new view of the main building


Here's Mike during our evening at Sixteen Tons...


...and then he took a picture of me!

Saturday, April 7
We stayed out kind of late Friday, so Saturday we slept in ridiculously late. Discovered that the hot water only works for the second person to take a shower, which happened to be me... :) Mike had a few "what is wrong with this country" moments, I was amused and understanding, and eventually we headed out in search of some food and an ATM. We headed to the center of Moscow and ate in the food court of the Ohotniy Ryad mall. Mike had a few upset-stomach-run-to-the-bathroom incidents but thankfully that didn't last too long. Next up was a concert in the Большой зал of the Moscow Conservatory! We got there in plenty of time to take our seats and enjoyed a fantastic concert. It was four piano soloists playing with an orchestra (one at a time of course), and all the players were superb. One of the pianists even played an encore! After the concert, we headed to Red Square so Mike could see it at night and took a few pictures. Superb evening.


Mike in front of St. Basil's Cathedral at night (red square)


Mike being silly in front of a window at the department store ГУМ


Mike and me inside ГУМ

Sunday, April 8
Happy Easter! This morning we headed to St. Andrew's Anglican Church. We got there on time and managed to find seats no problem, though it was pretty full. It was a good service complete with string quartet and the Bishop of the Diocese in Europe presiding! Pretty cool stuff. After church, everyone was encouraged to head across the street to an Easter brunch in a hotel reception room. We were a little hesitent but figured we'd check it out because, well, it *was* time to eat! It turned out to be fantastic - they'd pulled out all the stops for the bishop. Random shishkebabs, buffalo wings, skewered fruit, sketchy fish on bread (hey it IS russia), grilled cheese, cakes, muffins, eclairs, and wine and juice. Delicious.
We didn't do much that afternoon, because a snowstorm rolled through. Yes, you read that right - a snowstorm on Easter. I got a bit of homework done and Mike read a book. That night for dinner, we took the metro a few stops to go to му-му (the cow-themed buffet style restaurant), and it was super! That place is probably my favorite place to eat here - cheap but super yummy. Mike said something about how the restaurant gave him a glimmer of hope for Russia, which amused me.


After church - the bishop is blessing some cakes and desserts they collected to give away


View of the main entrance to the church as people file out on their way to brunch


Mike and me heading back after brunch - yep, it's beginning to snow...


My favorite picture from the week!! Mike's wearing my fuzzy Russian hat, and standing in an Easter snowstorm.

Monday, April 9
This morning I had Thermal Physics, and Mike came with me because he wasnted to meet "a real Russian" (my professor). The result? When someone came to claim the empty classroom we'd found, he decided to end class early, and spent several minutes telling us about a Panorama Museum and place called Victory Park we should go see if we got the chance.
We had a late, slow lunch (but in a good way, not in a "why are the Russian waitresses ignoring me" way) at the cafe in sector в. I tried to figure out what was going on with my summer programs while Mike read and took a nap. That evening we were thinking of going to the only Mexican restaurant in Moscow, Pancho Villa, but while on the trolleybus Laura called and invited us to join the majority of the group at Boarhouse! So off we went, arriving a bit before 8, just in time to take advantage of the 4-for-1 drink deal and half off food deal. (At 8pm it became 3-for-1, so it wasn't exactly a bad deal.) Mike got to meet most of my friends here, everyone bought everyone else drinks, and it was a fun night.


Mike and me at Boarhouse

Tuesday, April 10
Another lazy, slow morning, because we had the whole day until my orchestra rehearsal that evening to do whatever we wanted! We pulled out the Moscow guidebook and found the park that my physics professor had suggested. We decided to experience Arbat Street first. Mike bought a military-style Russian hat (though he continued to borrow my fuzzy Russian hat through his visit since it's not exactly cool to wear a fake police hat around Moscow). He also got a small oil painting of St. Basil's Cathedral. We ate a bit of lunch at Teremok and some more at Yolki Palki.
Next, we took the metro a few more stops to what the guidebook said was Victory Park. Unfortunately the guidebook lies, but we had a nice walk and found a random arch and eventually found the park! It was a beautiful day, the only really nice day during his visit, so we enjoyed walking around outside and poked into the WW2 museum for a little bit. Then we headed back so I could go to orchestra, grabbing "toast" from Kroshka Kartoshka on the way.


Mike poses with Pushkin on Arbat Street


My favorite metro station - in the shape of a Soviet star, the station Arbatskaya on the light blue line.


Mike in front of the random arch we stumbled upon, near Victory Park


Random picture of me


Mike and me upon finding Victory Park


View from a random grassy hill - you can see the main university building on the left and three towers on the right that are near the medical faculty.


There were people flying kites on the grassy hill!! So Mike and I decided we need to go fly kites sometime.


In front of a random church proclaiming "Christ is Risen" (in Russian) (in gold letters, because everything is better in gold)


Pillar memorial in front of the WW2 museum (it's super tall, you just can't see that in this picture)


Inside the museum - a memorial to all the fallen Soviet soldiers


At orchestra that evening


The chamber orchestra rehearsing a movement without violas

Wednesday, April 11
Mike's last full day, and I had nothing scheduled - huzzah! We slept in and lounged around once again. We talked about several options , and eventually decided to go to the Space Museum in the afternoon and Pancho Villa (Mexican restaurant) for dinner. Well, we went to the proper metro stop, but then we couldn't find the space museum so we walked around a random area called ВВЦ that has a bunch of museums and fountains and arches etc. We rode a huge ferris wheel!! It was part of a very sad-looking, empty fairgrounds area, but it was still fun. (We had a closed compartment because the open ones cost more and it was pretty cold.) We walked around some more, found what is probably the space museum but we still weren't sure and by now it was closed anyway, and decided it was time to take the metro to get dinner.
Dinner was Mexican Food!! They almost didn't let us into the restaurant because we didn't have reservations, but I told the guy we'd be happy sitting at the bar so he let us in. Downstairs, I asked a waitress if we could wait for a free table, and about 20 minutes later we had a table (I win!). So delicious...a random band showed up around 9pm. It was funny because they were all very much Russian but dressed as Mexican. They were too loud but not bad. After a delicious meal we headed back to the hotel, packed some things up, and crashed.


Mike in front of another random arch


Mike and me in the park area in front of the arch


Ferris wheel!!


View of a Stalinist building from the ferris wheel


View of the sad, mostly-empty fairgrounds


Mike took a picture of me while I was on the phone...


Then he came up to me, put my hand like you see it, and took a picture before I could turn around and see what was going on!


Best Mexican restaurant menu commentary EVER


Mike at Pancho Villa - I had an avocado margarita (yum!) and he had something called a "gin fizzz" I think it was (because 3 z's are better than 2...?)

Thursday, April 12
Mike's plane left at 12:15, and he wanted to be there by about 9:30, which meant we had to leave by 8am, so naturally we left at 9am. Oops. Checking out took longer than it should have, and I'm still not sure if Mike got the proper registration stamp or not, but he made it back to States without being fined or anything. We got to the end of the green metro line a bit before 10am and sat in a yellow "clown car" as Mike dubbed them for a good 20 minutes before it was full enough for the driver to be willing to leave for the airport. Got him there at 10:45. Somehow he managed to make it on his 12:15 flight, and his bag made it too, and his connection in NYC was no problem. I swear I need some of his airplane karma!!

***

So, that was the best week I have had...well, since I began this blog! Pictures and all. Since Thursday I've been trying to get back into my "normal" routine, going to class and catching up on homework and reading loads of HMC emails. I'm definitely sad that Mike isn't here anymore, but it was WONDERFUL to share Moscow with him!

That's plenty for now. Congratulations for making it this far. :)