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Friday, November 25, 2005
Wednesday
Apologies if this entry is bit slurry I am a few vodkas down the road.
A lie in today after the installation dramas of the last few days, the deep sleep that only central heating can really induce. Before my trip I was overly anxious about the cold, as my experience of winter in Tokyo has given me a fear of being cold inside. Outside is fine, but shivering in your room is too much and I spent much of my time in Tokyo huddled on a heated carpet but here at M'ars, in fact almost everywhere I go in Moscow is heated to within an inch of it's life.
I spent a while surfing the TV - endless dubbed, American and British films with very few but long ad breaks - Cillit Bang lives in Russia too!
Vanda and Gail left for England at 7am and kindly left me their breakfast supplies which meant I ate a decent breakfast and had to face the metro alone in order to meet Sean (from the EU), which without Brown owl was a daunting prospect. It was actually ok and I arrived early so tried to call home on a public phone. The phone card I'd been given had no money left so I tried to buy a new one and ended up spending £6 on a mobile phone top up card, useless to me.
Although I haven't missed getting calls on my mobile at all, in fact it's been a blessing, I've really missed being able to call home when I want to or just send a text. I haven’t been able to check my emails for a few days which is something I never do and I will probably have about 400 spams to greet me when I eventually do check my inbox.
Sean took me to a great cellar, Estonian cafe / restaurant that shows films and animations. He filled me in on Moscow highs and lows and some recommendations on what to do with the last part of my stay. On his advice I decided to walk across the city back to M'ars.
After being in groups and in the hectic gallery, walking across the river and approaching St Basils and the Kremlin from the opposite direction with none of the crowds felt incredibly peaceful. I made a short visit to St Basils, paying much more than the locals for my ticket – tourists have to pay more – and climbed the very steep steps to the top the elderly woman in front of me crawled up the steps on her hands and knees, and when we got to the top she prayed and wailed to the huge icon. All this was watched by a sullen teenage attendant wrapped up in enormous blanket.
Across red square, down Tverskaya Ul to find Eliseevski the traditional supermarket Sean recommended, complete with wooden shelves and huge chandeliers. Magnificent, and a huge relief to pick things up and pay for them, rather than point at stuff and for all the effort to be met by a nyet.
Elveesi Deli
Casino Lights
Back in time to meet some of the other artists from the show to go to an opening at the Gellmann Gallery. The show was something about Darwinism and consisted of huge paintings of monkeys wearing military uniforms. There were 3 monkeys there dressed up in tiny uniforms which was strange enough - seems a long time since the pg chimps left TV screens - then one of the monkey handlers gave one of the monkeys wine and it was so drunk it kept falling off the table it was sat on. I was told again that I looked like I could be Russian and was I sure that my family wasn’t Russian way down the line - as far as I know they are Scots, Irish and Cornish. Maybe it's all in the furry collar of my jacket.
Antonio and his wife met us and we all walked to this place they recommended to get something to eat – turns out it was the same place I'd been for lunch. Us 4 artists went ahead, 2 Swiss, 1 Canadian, 1 British and all we managed to order was 4 vodkas, and 4 salads. The Swiss girls both speak 4 languages, and switch between French and English all the time, it's very impressive, I'm not sure my head could keep them all going at once without intense confusion.
Just before we left a Russian guy came over and presented me with a vodka with a cranberry chaser, then our lack of Russian was too frustrating for him so left as quick as he appeared. The extra drink just made the metro go very smoothly.
posted by Jeanie Friday, November 25, 2005
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