Thanks to alert commenter Guy, I've been informed that Scraps of Moscow has been nomintated for "Best CIS Blog" in the 2nd annual European Weblog Awards sponsored by A Fistful of Euros. Objectively speaking, Registan and Neeka's Backlog are both much better blogs (and much more frequently updated than mine has been in the past month), so I can't really ask for your vote with a straight face, except to appeal to your sympathies - please go vote for Scraps so that it's not the last-place contestant in its category...
And congratulations to Nathan and Veronica - whichever one comes out on top, they are both a pleasure to read day in and day out.
Happily, this has provided me with some motivation to resume posting regularly (though of course it can't do much to provide me with more time to post regularly).
Visiting the Economist's website for the previous post, I noticed a strange headline:
CITIES GUIDE: Moscow
Letter from Talinn
Where the future is wired
This heading was strange for two reasons: 1) Tallinn has less to do with Moscow nowadays than it does to do with, for instance, Helsinki; and 2) the misspelling of the city's name shook my faith in the Economist's usually sterling copy.
Regardless of the odd header, the brief guide to the city looks useful for those planning a visit of a couple days or more.
We spent only about 5 hours in the Estonian capital, so even if I'd had the Economist's list of recommended spots to visit at my disposal during our trip, it's doubtful we would have managed to hit any of them. We spent our time wandering the streets of the old city, amazed at its beauty and at the exorbitant, tourist-trap-like prices for souvenir refrigerator magnets. I tried Lorina's patience by tarrying in the chilly weather to take lots of photos. The fact is that Tallinn's old town is prettier, in addition to being bigger, than Riga's. We spent January 2 through 6 in Riga, and the trip to Tallinn was a day-trip taken (in a zippy Hyundai Getz rented from local firm BalticLines) on Jan 4. The trip involved a four-hour drive each way over slushy, mostly unlit roads, so it was exhausting for the driver (me), although the snow-laden trees along the way were visually stunning and almost made the trip worthwhile all by themselves.
In general, after this trip, I highly recommend these two Baltic capitals as destinations for trips of a few days from Moscow or Western Europe. There are cheap flights to Riga from points west, apparently popular among boys intent on behaving badly, if one can judge from the town's thriving night-club scene and the numerous ads for "escorts" in the free English-language events magazines. We made the journey by train from Moscow and found the Latvian-operated Express to be quite comfortable and convenient. It was the first time in Riga for both me and Lorina, and I had been to Tallinn long ago in the 1980's (my most powerful memory of that trip is getting stuck - briefly but unpleasantly - in a crowded elevator in the Hotel Olympia) and only very briefly in 1996. Both towns are tourist-friendly, and reports of hostility toward Russian-speaking visitorsare greatly exaggerated.
All of the photos above are of Tallinn - I may have some items to post from Riga, but this will probably be it for tonight - I have to do quite a few things to get back into the swing of things in my DC life. One last bit of Christmas cheer (after all, Russian Orthodox Christmas was just two days ago) - the photo below was taken at a Lukoil gas station along the road on our way back to Riga from Tallinn.
As I winged my way home to DC, having spent winter break in blissful ignorance of world affairs, I read articles in the Economist and the International Herald Tribune discussing the unfolding US congressional corruption scandal. The Frankfurt airport's departure board had several typos - "Veroqa," "Mamburg," and "Tdinburgh," for example, but only one - "Cashington" - which appeared to be laden with meaning in light of current events.
At least three religions are represented in this photo from Christmas Day. The lot selling pine trees (a pagan tradition now associated with Christian holiday celebrations) near Gorkovskoe metro station in St. Petersburg is right across from the town's main mosque. The billboard in the background advertising a promotional new-year's cell phone rate adds the presence of a religion that one sees more and more here around the holiday season - commercialism.
A view of Moscow after midnight on December 31 from the site of our New Year's Eve eve outing (note the big "2006" in lights at lower right), the Red Bar. Highly recommended, if a bit pricey.
Per Russian tradition, the new year's celebration (in the form of new-year's-themed posts) continues...
There was a lot of talk in 2005 about migrant workers and the "problem" of immigration in Russia in general. Much of the talk was stirred up by politicians practicing thinly veiled racism.
Meanwhile, as Moscow prepared to greet 2006, and Muscovites rushed around buying their last presents and final items for the holiday table, or stumbled around already in a holiday stupor, holiday flags were being raised downtown by a couple of the non-Russians who keep the city functioning.
Tverskaya, near the Museum of Contemporary History, December 31, 3:02pm.
Pushkin Square, the corner of Tverskaya and Bolshaya Bronnaya, December 31, 2:52pm.
Poor Yuri Dolgoruky - no one asked him if he wanted to be dressed up as Santa Claus this year. Mayor Luzhkov said it was to be so, and it was so. Note that he's dressed as Santa, not in the traditional blue of Ded Moroz.
How could I resist a scene containing a barbershop sign, peeling paint, obscene graffiti, a sneering old woman (who, admittedly, entered the shot unexpectedly), and discarded ladies' boots? You'll have to take my word that I didn't position the boots - their previous owner must have wanted them to find a good home, and they were in fact no longer there when we walked by the same spot later on in the day (Dec 23).
More abandoned footwear - this time of the children's variety - near Turgenev Square, at 9am on the morning of December 26. I do realize that after my previous post singing the virtues of SPB as a city that's photogenic even without its inhabitants, I'm posting two pictures which prominently feature those inhabitants. What can I say, Russia is full of contradictions, and I'm just trying to follow suit.
Tightening up the draft rules to catch more young men of service age is an unconscionable thing for the MoD to be doing in the absence of a serious, systematic attempt to eliminate one of the main reasons young Russians dodge the draft. The risk of physical and psychological brutalization (not to mention the material humiliation of being shaken down by your fellow servicemen) is a cancer on the Russian armed forces.
