A visit from a friend

November 21 – November 27, 2016

My friend Chantale is coming to Moscow to hang out for the weekend; my first guest from “home”. She and her Viking family had also been my last guests in Ottawa as we dined among the packing boxes the week I moved. I can’t wait!

I have spent the last couple of weeks planning lots of fun cultural and shopping opportunities for us. The first part of the week seems to be a century as I am really looking forward to her visit.

Soon enough it’s Thursday and Chantale arrives bag and baggage with her colleague Ivan. After a few glasses of wine and lots of laughs, we head out in search of sustenance.  First stop is the Georgian restaurant close to the Embassy, Elardgi. Nothing doing without a reservation so we head to a larger Georgian place on the main drag. 

There was only one table free directly in front of the stage, the doorman suggested we wouldn’t want to sit there but we gave it a shot. After a few minutes of deafening Georgian lounge music, we headed off for somewhere we could hear ourselves think and ended up at Voronezh Deli.

The first floor of Veronezh features both a meat counter where you can buy  fabulous local steaks to cook at home and a casual deli with great food. Our dinners we all very good but the star was a ginger/lime mayo that came with the home-cut fries. Yummmm – I need to figure out a recipe to make some.

Ivan and I on the Metro

Chantale @ St. Basil's

Sated, we hopped on the Metro for a quick trip around Red Square so that Ivan could have a chance to experience a bit of Moscow before his flight home tomorrow. After our microburst of tourism, Ivan headed back to his hotel and Chantale and I headed home. A couple more glasses of wine and lots of catching up later, we called it a night.

Friday was going to be a busy day so we fueled up before heading out on our guided tour of Moscow’s Kremlin. Our guide, Oksana, was amazing and regaled us with stories, history and facts for four hours without any problem. Alex and I had come to the Kremlin in August and wandered around but the experience was totally different with someone who the knew stories surrounding the sites and the lines were short so we were able to get into all the open churches without any problem. 

After touring the grounds including Cathedral Square, we headed to the Armoury Chamber to view the wealth of the Russian Empire in all its iterations and the Russian Orthodox Church; wowser! Originally the royal arsenal the museum is now a museum bursting at the seams with treasures ranging from Faberge eggs to a collection of carriages and everything in between. We spent two hours learning about some of the more significant pieces and barely scratched the surface.

Four hours of history was somehow exhausting so we headed home for a bowl of soup and a nap before our next ”event”; Vendor Night at the Embassy – another event in support of he GCWCC. A couple of glasses of wine fueled a bit of a spending frenzy and I leave with lots of beautiful gifts for friends and family back home and a beautiful Santa for me – a Russian carved from a single block of wood and decorated with jewel colours and gold leaf!

My Russian Santa

We sent our treasures home with Craig and headed out for a bite to eat with Fadi and Stephanie. Another busy night so we cooked up a scheme to drop the name of our colleague at Pinzeria when we arrived. Our scheme worked like a charm and we ordered pinzas, salads and drinks. Great food and great company made for a lovely evening. Chantale and I chatted again into the wee hours.

Saturday and we are up and headed off to the International Winter Bazaar sponsored by 30+ Embassies in town. Muscovites have no sense of personal space so the event is a mad house! LOL, somehow we manage to buy a few things but as a shopping opportunity it is a bust – an aggravating experience that does not need to be repeated. Since we were close to the Euro Mall we went to check out Natura Siberia where we purchased a plethora of lotions and potions for ourselves and as Christmas presents.

Saturday outside the Euro Mall

Moscow Cake for Lunch

On our way home, we ended up on the Arbat where we ran into some old "friends"; Hare Krishna dancing down the street.

🎵🎵🎵 Hare Krishna 🎵🎵🎵

After a quick lunch, we headed home to drop off our treasures and relax for the evening. We ordered Georgian food, with some help from Cat, and settled in for the night. The food took hours (2 +) to arrive. It was good but not great because it arrived a bit on the cold side. No matter, the company was great and we watched the History of the Eagles into the wee hours before crashing for the night.

Sunday is Chantale’s last day in town and we have lots of things to see and do. First stop GUM to check out the beautiful building that is tarted up for Christmas.  We had a quick bite at Stolovaya 57; a Soviet-style self-service restaurant on the third floor.

GUM

GUM

Back on the Metro and we are heading to Izmailovsky Market for some Russian souvenirs and more Xmas presents. The excursion is a success and I even managed to buy the elusive fur hat that I have been seeking.  Probably not the last but it’s my first!!

Izmailovsky Market

Russian Cafe

My new mink toque

After a late lunch and some final chatting, Chantale is whisked away by a cab for the drive to the airport and her flight home. My SQ feels a bit emptier now that she is gone but it was a great few days.

Chilling in Moscow

November 14 – November 20, 2016

Nothing of much import happened early in the week so I will share a couple of my insights about Moscow.

One of the daily adventures involves the traffic. I'm not sure whether it is because there are approximately 12,000,000 people in Moscow or because the city has grown as a series of rings with not many places where left turns are allowed or maybe it is just the crazy Ruskies all driving their luxury autos like they are headed to the hospital with a woman having a baby but it’s insane!

The traffic is so bad that when you order pizza or other fast food to be delivered, the delivery guy hops on the Metro with his carrying bag and then hoofs it to your door because it's quicker than driving! I’m quite glad that I decided not to bring a car though groceries can be a pain! Luckily, there are a few Embassy colleagues that are more than willing to lend a hand there.

Traffic is one thing but parking is something else and in the last few years the city started charging for parking. You were supposed to be able to pay using your phone (that works better now apparently but at first not so much!) but no one likes paying for parking. Over the first couple of months, I noticed some really strange things – people cover part or all of their license plates with CDs, paper, tape, whatever and people parking on the sidewalks with their trunks open. Very weird! I finally figured out that the goal was to hide or obscure the license number to avoid paying for parking and/or parking tickets (which by the way are 10X more expensive than speeding tickets!!).

I find all of this quite fascinating but I have never lived in a really big city before so it is possible that what I perceive as something unique to Russia’s capital is not but please do not burst my bubble!

Fast forward to Friday and we are on to the next activity for the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign (that old GCWCC follows you everywhere!); the semi-annual Canada Club Poker night. I will confess that I do not have a poker face but since I love playing cards, having fun and supporting charity, I signed up to play Texas Hold ‘Em along with 40 or so folks from various Embassies around town (several Danes, Belgians and Americans joined the Canadian contingent for the event).

After a couple glasses of wine and some Mexican food made by some of the ladies at the Embassy, 40 men, women and children (the youngest player was 12 and she finished 4th!) sat down with our stacks of $4000 in chips. My table played fairly conservatively but the wine was flowing and we were having a few laughs so all good.

Fast forward 4 hours or so and there are seven players left for the Final Table and miraculously I was one of them. I was the short stack and should have been knocked out easily but as luck would have it, I was seated on the right of the first dealer. This meant that I didn’t have to bet for several hands and the boys were too liquored up to restrain themselves (the winner apparently slept on the floor when he got home because the room was spinning!). I finished the tournament 5th so I won a small prize and some bragging rights. Better still 53,000 roubles (around $1100 was raised for Canadian charities).

Other than a quick trip to the Christmas Market at the German Embassy Saturday morning with some of the ladies from the Embassy, I spent the bulk of the weekend blasting carols and getting my apartment decorated (very early) for Christmas. I am hosting our Section’s Xmas party on December 1 and with Chantale coming next weekend wanted to make sure I had it all ready. All in all, it was a pretty relaxing week.

My New Gingerbread House

Remembering in Moscow

November 7 – November 13, 2016

Weeks that follow a short week always seem longer and this one started off slowly. The early part of the week was “rescued” by a two-day first aid course that included CPR and how to use an AED. I am not sure that I will be able to save you if you drop in front of me but I will try!

Friday was Remembrance Day and though we didn’t have the day off, there was a very moving ceremony at the Embassy that pretty much all Canadian and local Russian staff attended. The Ambassador outdid himself with his speech where he told everyone about the uncle of one of the Canadian staff that had been on one of the ships delivering essential supplies to the Soviet Union in the Arctic convoys of World War II.

A German U-Boat disabled his ship so he and a few other crewmen were left on-board to get the ship safely to port. They made it but he was paralyzed for three years. He received medals from the Canadian, British and Russian governments. Stephan was planning to let his cousins know that their father had been so honoured.

Remembrance Day at the Embassy

The Mucky Mucks!

Buddies!

After some pics and some light refreshments it was back to work for the civvies while the military folks headed off to my neighbours’ for pizza, beer and reminiscing. I joined them for a couple quick beer (1 liter beers that is!) when my work was done. We played a few games of cards before heading back to Canada Club at the Embassy. Playing catch up seems to always have the same result especially when you toss a couple glasses of wine on top of beer; I got a bit blasted and went home to sleep it off!

Saturday morning Cat was taking us on a Metro run. I have invited 14 people over for a Euchre Night and I had promised food! My menu was ambitious: escargot stuffed mushrooms, pork sate with peanut sauce, meatballs with soy-lime dressing, veggies and homemade hummus, mango pomegranate guacamole, fresh shrimp wraps with peanut sauce, honey garlic chicken wings … You get the picture.

We finally arrived home laden with food and (slightly hung-over) I started to go through the list. Luckily it is winter so I used the cold temperatures and the chairs on my balcony as a second fridge as dish after dish was finished. Cat and Eva came by between 4 and 5 and to help me get things done more or less on time.

My first guests arrived right on time at 7 and though I wasn’t quite ready I pointed them at the snacks and poured them some drinks. Before the rest of the guests arrived I had changed out of my cooking clothes while Cat mopped the kitchen floor!

The evening was fun with lots of food (and leftovers for the week!), cards and laughter but I stuck to Diet Coke after my excesses of the previous night! Actually, many of my guests were very restrained in their alcohol consumption for the same reason. I am hoping for regular card nights now that it is winter.

Sunday, I was up early (courtesy of the Diet Coke) and cleaned, did dishes and two loads of laundry before heading to the Art and Artisan Fair hosted by the American Women’s Organization at the Ritz-Carlton. A check of the Metro app told me the Red Line wasn’t running so Kerry and I walked there and back instead.

The fair had a plethora of Russian crafts, many of which I wanted and some of which I bought as presents so I can’t talk about that here!