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| Saint Basil's Cathedral |
Russia, home of onion domes and Czars, palaces
and Red Square, poets and dictators, contemporary art and traditional ballet,
the dour and the goofy, the ancient and the modern: it’s a study in change and
one of the places I’d go back to simply to see how much it has changed, again. Since
I’ve been three times in that number of years, I’m consolidating those trips
into the next few postings. Right now Moscow is a sad place, with the people
nervous and anxious, their welfare hanging on how the world sees them and how
they can interact with neighbors who supply them with food and something as
nebulous as that missing southwestern influence that seems to soften hard
edges. At least that’s how it appears to me, having been there before and
during the war with Ukraine.
Before you travel learn at least how to say, ‘Please’,
‘Thank you’, ‘Hello’, ‘Pardon me’, ‘Where is…’ and so forth. Most folks you’ll
interact with will have some English, particularly if they are less than 40
years old; as with all places you visit, people appreciate your efforts to be
polite. Russians may appear dour and unfriendly, but given a chance to
interact, most are helpful and have a good sense of humor. Currently, the
country is experiencing unrest so the people are not as out-going as in
previous years, but they still want travelers to like their home.
