Thursday, June 16, 2005

Is Moscow - Russia?

Read a post at blogchik about a (yet another) trans-siberian train journey. She argues that Moscow *is* Russia, although a general belief is that it isn't. I will rant soon on this one.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Mr and Mrs Smith

The only place in Moscow where you can watch movies with original soundtrack (that is, English in most cases) is - again - at Radisson-Slavyanskaya hotel, "America-Cinema" movie theatre. I just watched a "Mr and Mrs Smith" there. Some people found it boring for an action movie, but I thought it was great. You know why you thought it was boring for an action movie? Because it's not an action movie at all. It's a movie about marriage and going through tough times together ;) Angie and Brad do a great job acting and they definetely enjoy each other's company, and it shows.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

.. however, most of the time


Horoshevka 2
Originally uploaded by rentgen.
it looks more like this. Oh, yes, and you have to either wash your car every day or not bother at all until summer comes.

Winter in Moscow


Temple
Originally uploaded by rentgen.
Is the ugliest season. On rare occasions when it's sunny on a weekend and you are able to get to one of the parks, it can be quite nice. Like this picture of a Cathedral in Kolomenskoye estate here.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Angelina

Ads of the new magazine of the Men's Health type on billboard all around the city. "Angelina Jolie: the whole world wants her". Must be pretty scary if you think of it.

I hate these restaurants

Shoot, I just paid more for 2 cups of bloody english-breakfast tea from a packet than for a bowl of soup and spaghetti bolognese combined. I understand when they make money on spirits, juices and the like, but packeted tea!

Well, at least they give wi-fi for free.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Best sushi in Moscow

Like I said, Sushi is big in Moscow. It's probably more common than chinese food in NY. The problem is getting a good sushi though.. If you are ever in Moscow, you are bound to see the Red Square, Bolshoi Theater and Tverskaya street. If you start from Kremlin, pass by Okhotny Riad undeground wanna-be-luxury store and go up the Tverskaya as the traffic flows, you'll inevitably bump into a line of pretty young girls, a couple of couples and, obviously enough, some tourists. That's a Ginotaki restaurant - arguably the most popular Sushi place in Moscow. Well, at least the line is always there.

Don't eat Sushi at Ginotaki. Don't eat sushi in "Planet Sushi", "Rice and Fish" and even "Sushi Vesla" either. I mean, they are ok, some more, some less. But if you want to have a really good treat, go to "Radisson Slavyanskaya" hotel, ground floor - you won't miss the place.

It's not like I've been to every place in Moscow and I would never expect a decent meal in the hotel restaurant either. But this is the best I tried. They are much more expensive than any other - cheapest sushi set is around $45 and California Roll is something like $25, but believe me - it's worth it. They got a japanese cook - a rare thing in Moscow, and the fish is very fresh. I guess these two things do that...

Friday, June 03, 2005

Gastronomical paradox

Greek salad in Greece looks just the same as it does in Moscow. Same cucumbers, tomatos, cheese, olive oil, green stuff... It even tastes the same. Only much better.

On the other hand, MacDonalds Cheeseburger in the States is significantly worse than it's counterpart in Moscow.

I find it highly ironic.

The mediterranean

DSC02506It gave me a very strange feeling. Only 24 hours ago I was wasting my nerves in a typical moscow traffic jam, breathing gasoline and led. Tonight, I was walking on the stones around Poseidon Temple, built 500 years BC. Looking at the sea from the same very cliff that Egeus (I'm not sure how it is spelled correctly), father of Theseus, defeater of Minoutaurus, had been standing on some couple of thousand years ago looking for the ship with black or white sails. They turned out to be black, so he took a dive from that cliff - though he didn't have to.

Seeing Greece as it is today really makes one think about how irrelevant all human power and arrogance is before the face of time. Civilizations rise and fall, and only marble temples remain to remind us of the glory that used to be.

Don't take it too serious.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

What is it with Hollywood and Sean Bean?

A funny thing happened: I watched Equilibrium a couple of days ago, then started a blog (not because of, just after) - and the first comment I get is from someone named R with the blog named "For I, being poor, have only my dreams". This is a line from a poem that is read by Sean Bean's character before being shot.

Anyway, Equilibrium. I like this movie. It's a good movie. Naive, sometimes, but good - good acting even. But what disturbs me is this: why oh why do they always kill a great actor that Sean Bean is in the beginning? Equilibrium - shot by a friend, maybe 10 minutes passed. The Lord of the Rings - killed by Orcs in the first part. C'mon, folks, let the guy play for a change!

Aeroflot nostalgie

Today, I almost missed my connecting flight to Athens in Munich. Which made me think...

Those of you who had a chance to fly Aeroflot in the Soviet era may remember what they used to serve as a meal. They did not have any microwaves or anything, so it was all cold and it was all the same - every time. I remember it very vividly: some rice, boiled chicken, a piece of cucumber and carbonated drink called "Buratino" (Russian equivalent of "Pinoccio"). And this smell.. I did not take flights too well when I was a kid, so this smell made me sick every time.

On their wings, every aircraft carried proud four letters: USSR. Written in cyrillic, of course, which looks like CCCP - Soyuz Sovetskih Sotsialisticheskih Respublic. Naturally, every english-speaking passenger pronounced the word as "see-see-see-pee".

What I did not know at the time and was told only when I had entered the University and made some american friends is how they deciphered the omnipresent acronym. You guessed it - "Cold Chicken and a Cucumber on the Plate".

I think I damaged some of my internal organs laughing when I first heard this.