Lenin’s Tomb

I finally went to see Lenin’s tomb and all the other stuff behind the chains on Red Square. Woah.

Somehow, it was appropriate that it was drizzing outside, but it didn’t dampen (sorry, couldn’t resist) the …. excitement? I dunno if it was excitement, really, but there was definitely something there.

I took the metro to Okhotniy Ryad and exited to Red Square. Walked right through the arches only to see that Red Square was cordoned off. Whoops! Turns out, it was because Lenin’s tomb was open. Over to the side, there was a short line of people entering through metal detectors and walking silently to the entrance. This meant I had to walk all the way around the Historical Museum. So, if you want to go see Lenin’s tomb, be sure to remember, Red Square is inaccessible and the entrance is on the side, near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and eternal flame. You have to check your bags, phones, cameras, etc. Then you enter, walk to the front of the Mausoleum in the front door, to the left, down, around to the right….. and into the room wherein lies Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin.

It’s an odd feeling seeing him lying there. Lying in state, but for how long? Six or seven decades? The people in front of me, and I’m sure countless others, whispered that he looked like a Madame Tussaud figure.

Nevertheless, this is the guy. He’s the one who made it all happen. All the statues in all the cities, all the paintings in all the museums, even the pictures of the sarcophagus didn’t prepare me for this. And here I am, almost 100 years later, walking by him, seeing him with my own eyes. I wonder what he would have thought having about a born-and-raised capitalist gazing upon him. This assumes, of course, that he ignore the fact that he never wanted to put on display like some kind of hero. Thanks, Joe!

After walking around all three sides of Lenin, another passageway led us out. But, that was not all. No, no. Then, we walked the full length of Red Square gazing at two very long monuments to other heros (including John Reed) and also lots of other plaques (Gagarin, William Haywood and Arthur McManus) and busts (Stalin, Chernenko, Andropov, Brezhnev, but not Krushov). There were many, many others. I’ll have to go back and get some more names.

So, it was a short excursion, but that was actually good. I wouldn’t want to stand in line for hours just to have three minutes with the man.

Blogged with Flock

Good Customer Service at La Cantina on Tverskaya

Recently, I was on the lower part of Tverskaya at the Okhotniy Ryad metro stop and had some time to kill before an appointment. I hadn’t eaten, so I walked into an unassuming little restaurant called La Cantina. I was drawn by the Mexican food, which seems to be rare in Moscow.

The restaurant / bar is quite nice. Some nice beers to choose from (for instance, Kilkenny), good food at reasonable prices, friendly staff and apparently live music in the evenings. All-in-all, a good impression.

I got my bill, put down my 1000 rubles and left without waiting for the change. But the bill was only about 370 rubles. While I like to think that I’m a good tipper, that was of course a bit extreme. What happened was that I had one 500 ruble and 1000 ruble bill in my wallet and pulled out the wrong one. I realized my mistake when I got home. Way too late.

I returned that evening for the live music. When I arrived, I greeted the man who had been my waiter earlier and whispered “I believe I made a mistake earlier today.” He looked at me funny for a second, then a light bulb went on in his head and he nodded vigorously. I thought that was the end of it. I mean, I made the mistake, right? My mistake is someone else’s good fortune. Especially here in Russia.

Imagine my surprise when, five minutes later, he comes to my table with exact change from my earlier bill. Very matter-of-fact. No discussion, no haggling, no dirty looks, nothing. Service with a smile. Wow! I was dumb-founded.

Needless to say, I gave him a sizeable tip for his honesty and Menschlichkeit. And I stayed for all the music. And I’ve been back several times since.

Such unexpected behavior, and therefore so pleasant.

Blogged with Flock

Problems with Aeroflot

I know, I know. You’re thinking “If you’re going to rant about Aeroflot, you only have yourself to blame. I mean, come on, Aeroflot???!” Well, that’s not fair. Aeroflot recently had an airfare sale and we booked several trips. The short haul trips were fine. But, after giving them two chances with long haul flights, we’ve given up on them. The last straw was on our return flight from New York.

First, I called the Aeroflot number to confirm our flight and then asked about special meals. I couldn’t remember if I had ordered one for my son or not. I had a vague memory of asking an Aeroflot representative about it a few weeks earlier and also seemed to recall their description made it sound more appropriate for an infant, not a toddler. But I wasn’t sure. So, I asked the person on the phone, “What does the child’s meal have?” The response was comical, first giving me suggestions as to what might be in it, followed immediately by rude and abrasive comments like “How should I know what’s in there? We don’t know that information.” When I tried to tell her that a previous Aeroflot representative had known the information, she basically told me I was lying. Way to go, lady. But, that was a minor thing. No real worries.

No, the real problem was the two hours we stood on the tarmac. While unfortunate, it’s not so bad – if they tell you what’s going on. We settled in, got out our books and things and prepared for take-off. The plane backed away and then stopped. Still, pretty normal. But then an hour went by. Some people asked the occasional flight attendant what was going on and I think I overheard that we had missed our slot so we had to wait until another slot was available. But, I’m not sure. What I do know is that neither the pilot nor the purser nor any flight attendant made any effort to inform the 150+ passengers why were waiting or how much longer we would be expected to wait. I mean, the pilot was in contact with the tower, right? They have the entire day planned and they know full well when we’ll be able to taxi for take off. Other times this has happened with other airlines, the pilot tells us, even urges people to stretch their legs, go to the bathroom, get things out of the overhead bin, etc. Not this time. Nope. Just sit and wait. Well, like all good Russians, people eventually ignored the “Fasten Seatbelt” sign and started to stand up and go to the restroom, stretch their legs, etc. even though we weren’t explicitly told we could. But, when the engines shut down, it seems pretty safe, no? Well, I guess not. It didn’t take long for a flight attendant to make a “Please remain seated” announcement, in two languages. I guess she was serious. But, does that mean we took off in the next 5-10 minutes? No, we sat there for another hour, without comment, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Now, you might ask me if I asked the flight attendant myself. Makes sense, right? If you want something, ask for it. It’s what I’m trying to teach my son. I tried to ask. Several times. First, I pressed the flight attendant call button, as they were still walking around the cabin. I waited a time 5 minutes. I pressed it again. 3 minutes. Again. 1 minute. Repeatedly. Over and over and over again. You know what they did? Instead of firmly but politely telling me to knock it off and/or actually respond to my calls and/or answer my question, they actually turned the entire armrest button system off. That’s right. All the call buttons stopped working. All the volume control buttons stopped working. And, with all the cabin lights off, all the individual seat light stopped working. So, we were not only sitting there forever, but in the dark. I’d hate to think that someone actually had an urgent situation that needed to be addressed. But, I didn’t stop there. Later, when flight attendants were walking by (remember, we were there over two hours), I tried to ask what was going on. Without breaking stride, she said she didn’t know. I raised my voice (she was receding) and told her that perhaps she could ask; the pilot probably had some information. She just kept on walking.

It was, of course, comical when shortly after take-off a flight attendant handed out the head phones. I politely asked if they were going to turn on the audio system since they were so kindly handing out head phones.
Now, Aeroflot recently joined the SkyTeam airline alliance. I don’t know WHAT they bring to the table. Seems like a pretty one-sided thing to me. But, unless Aeroflot changes their ways, focuses on quality and providing good service, they may find themselves being politely shown to the door. They are not quite ready for prime time. Not for the long haul, at least.

Have you flown Aeroflot in Economy? What was your experience? Same? Better? Worse (shudder)? Let me know.

System Failures in Movieland

I like to see movies in the original language. I can’t stand dubbing. But, the resources I’ve found here to see which theatres are playing movies in English are quite unreliable. About a month ago, I was looking on www.afisha.ru which actually has a link for “movies in original language” but it only shows you a list of theatres which show movies in their original language. But, the links next to each theatre don’t give you a list of movies, much less a list of movies in the original language. Poor interface design.

In my case, I knew the name of the movie I wanted to see. So I just typed in “Da Vinci Code” and I was immediately shown that only the Oktyabr theatre was showing that movie. Great! So, that’s one option you can use: Search for the real, original language name of the movie. It worked for me. It also worked for “Cars.”

But, here’s where the System Failure part of the title of this entry comes in. It doesn’t work any more. Yesterday, it failed completely with a cryptic error message which indicated the entire search function was not working. Today, it simply doesn’t find “Pirates,” even though I know it is playing at Oktyabr. In fact, they are also showing “The Hills Have Eyes.” In an almost teasing fashion, the search function seems to work for “Hills.” The last search result has the title in russian but with the words “without dubbing” (без перевода). Success! Success? I clicked on the link and see a picture from the movie, some Hollywood info (director, actors/actresses, etc.), some reviews in russian and, where I expected to see the list of theatres it’s showing, the following line at the bottom: We have no information about this movie. If you know anything, please tell us. Can you imagine the Oxford English Dictionary doing that? We know there’s a definition, but we don’t know what it is. If you do, please tell us. How pathetic.

You thought I was done, didn’t you? Nope. Just like the Ginsu knives, there’s more.

One GREAT thing about the Karo Film chain of theatres is that you can reserve tickets via SMS. You don’t even need to know all the details. Just send an SMS to 7727. You are prompted for the theatre, the movie, how many tickets, etc. The first time I used it, I was standing in a loooong line at the theatre. It only took 2 minutes and I just stepped over to the empty Ticket Reservations line and was on my way before the other line had even budged.

Great system. Easy to use. Wonderful time saver. Doesn’t work now. It didn’t work yesterday. Doesn’t work today. Instead, regardless of which theatre I choose, I always get the same response: “No movies at the chosen theatre.” Hmmmm. Does anyone do any quality control in Russia? I know, that’s a big generalization. Nevertheless, I think it’s a valid question.

And of course, trying to tell someone that the system isn’t working is an exercise in futility. Unfortunately, my futility muscle is well developed. Buff. Ripped. Bulging, even.

Do you have your own story of System Failure in Moscow? I’d love to hear about them, and, more importantly, what can be done to fix them.

Update 11 Aug 2006: still doesn’t work.

Update 12 Aug 2006: still doesn’t work.

Looking for German TV by satellite

We recently moved to a new apartment which has two separate satellite dishes. We want to watch German TV, such as ZDF, ARD, RTL, and so on. The more the merrier. Does anyone have any idea who can offer that?

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, have you been to the NTV Plus site? Try to see which channels they offer. I want a simple list, maybe with logos. I couldn’t find it in 30 seconds. I left the site. Bad site design.

technorati tags: German, TV, Satellite

Russia’s Result in Eurovision 2006

Someone has to say it, so I will.

Russia’s entry for Eurovision 2006, Dima Bilan, was awful. I know he’s not singing in his native language, but neither were most of the other competitors. Dima’s choice of clothing made him look like a heroin addict – thin guy in a white muscle T-shirt – not some teen idol or pop star. And what was with that stupid jump in the air, kicking his legs bent at the knees to the side? That was simply laughable. At first, I thought it was just part of the excitement of being at Eurovision, but then I saw another performance yesterday, and he did it again. If he’s gonna have a trademark move, at least be as noteworthy as Michael Jackson’s crotch grabbing.

Oh, and I’m sorry, but having some lady painted entirely white rise from the white grand piano…. lame, lame, lame.

But, as bad as all that was, you know what was worse? The Russian TV commentary. The commentators could not say a single good thing about Russia’s second place finish or about the Finnish winners, Lordi. They just bitched and moaned about it, asking wasn’t it obvious that Dima was better? How could the people think that that was music or art? How could people vote for them? It really got annoying. Instead of being even the slightest bit objective -  I know, difficult for Russians – and pleased that after placing only third in the semi-finals, Dima had risen to second in the finals, they were just complaining, complaining, complaining. Sour grapes? Who knows.

But, Russia, Russians and Dima should be ecstatic that they even placed that well. There were other much better, much more original and much more enjoyable performances than his.

So, Russia. Be happy. Be gracious. Accept defeat. It happens. And, no, not all things Russian are good.

technorati tags: Eurovision, Russia, Dim Bilan, Lordi, Music

Jagannath

Recently, we took the nanny out to dinner for her birthday. She’s a vegetarian, so we found a vegetarian restaurant caled Jagannath. The menu is quite a mix of indian, chinese, and other, but all vegetarian. Highly recommended.

But, for me the highlight was the all Apple Macintosh internet café on the premises! Way cool. They have four or five iMacs and Mac minis with big screens. Check them out.

technorati tags: Restaurant, Moscow

World of Arts

Yesterday, we went to a theatre to see a movie. On DVD. Of our choice. It was way cool.

You see, a few months ago, I was reading one of the many english language newspapers in Moscow (let’s see, that would be the Moscow Times, Moscow Tribune, Moscow News, eXile. Have I missed any?) and saw a one column article discussing cinema in Moscow. Seven theatres were listed, the first one was the World of Arts (Мир иÑ?куÑ?Ñ?тва).

What is cool about this place is that it’s a small personal cinema. There’s a big screen in a room set up with about eight rows of chairs. Ten chairs per row, I’d guess. The chairs are nicely spaced and there is still 10 paces of space between the front row and the screen. They have a library of DVDs to choose from or you can bring one of your own DVDs.

They have a regular schedule of movies which they show every day, every week. Sunday mornings they show some children’s animated movies for free. But, there are several evening time slots during the week which one can reserve. 90 minutes costs 1600 roubles, additional half hours cost 500 roubles more. You can bring up to 20 people for that price; more people and there’s a surcharge.

One downside to the place is that they don’t allow food or drink. Luckily, there are several cafés, bars, restaurants nearby which one can visit before or after the show.

We had a long list of movies we considered showing. First, we thought we’d watch something with a Moscow or Russian theme. But, we wanted a feel-good or comedy movie. So, I thought of White Nights and Moscow on the Hudson. Couldn’t find them in Moscow. Not in time, at least. Then, Fisher King, Fish Called Wanda, Rocky Horror Picture Show, As Good As It Gets and others made the list only to be impossible to find or just not appropriate for such an event. Then, I thought about getting a recent movie which hopefully most had not yet seen, such as Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and Walk the Line. Well, even though the DVD case said it was in both russian and english, I had the guy check. It wasn’t in english.

So, right before I went to Gorbushka to try my luck there, I saw two movies in my local store. An Unfinished Life and Elvis Has Left the Building. I knew that AUL was supposed to be good, but I hadn’t heard about the other. All I knew is that Chris/Aidan from Northern Exposure/Sex and the City was the lead actor and Kim Basinger was the lead actress. It was a comedy, whereas the other wasn’t. So we picked it up (in Soyuz, by the way). We watched it to make sure we weren’t unleashing an atrocity on our friends.

It was great. Really odd, but laugh-out-loud funny more than once. And quite random. But, funny.

If you haven’t seen Elvis Has Left the Building, try it. It’s a riot.

Happy Soldier’s Day

Today is 23 February. In Russia, this is the former Soviet Red Army day, but now it’s just Soldier’s Day. It’s basically a counterpart to the widely celebrated and recognized International Women’s Day on 8 March, which just means it’s another opportunity for men to drink too much.

If you know any Russian men, be sure to wish them well today.

Amazing Bakery Found

Americans are not, on the whole, into bread. That is, bread at home is used for sandwiches, not much else. Yes, there are rolls, biscuits, buns, and the like, but usually for a fancy meal, like for a holiday. And, bread served at restaurants is often good, so much so that one’s dinner is spoiled. But, mostly, Wonder Bread and Home Pride sustain most ‘regular’ Americans. I know that when I live in the US, I’m a regular Home Pride consumer.

But, in Europe, it’s different. It’s a staple of almost every meal. I love the dark German bread. I remember breakfast with Nutella on it or a snack with some ham, cheese, and mustard. Hmmmmm, yummy. In France, the baguette ruled supreme, but of course it was just a vehicle for other delectables for the myriad of cheeses, meats, patés, etc. In Ukraine, they have some bread which is very similar to the German bread, which I fell in love with again.

And now I’m in Moscow. Pardon the constant comparison, but in Ukraine there was a bread kiosk on almost every corner, all of them good, some of the great, a few of them excellent. Here, the bread selection is disheartening to say the least, not to mention it’s just hard to find a bakery with fresh bread. The bread here is edible, but it’s nothing to write home about. I guess when the USSR collapsed, Russians lost their bread connection with the Ukraine.

But, over the weekend, we found a great bread place. It’s called Volkonski, located on Bolshoi Sadovaya 46/2 near M. Mayakovskaya. Phone number is (+7.495) 299.36.20.

This place is great. It’s both a bakery and a cafe. They have several sorts of bread, including one which is reminiscent of German dark bread. They have patisseries, croissants, cookies, cakes, pies, and so on. We bought some bread, an assortment of cookies, and had some hot chocolate and coffee with croissants and everything was great.

Furthermore, they also have breakfast starting at 8:00am every day of the week. This in contrast to the several places I’ve seen which serve breakfast starting at 10:00 or 11:00. This makes no sense at all for weekdays.

We have already eaten all our bread, so we have to get more. Treat yourself and visit this place for yourself!

If you know of other places in Moscow to find good bread, please leave a comment here. I’d really like to know.