I’m back in Wisconsin, arriving on Monday afternoon.  I flew back from Moscow on Sunday afternoon.  It was a great trip, but after nearly a month, it is good to be back in the USA., where I understand what people are saying, and can read what is written.

    When I arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg, I headed for the subway to get to the hostel I planned to stay in.  Walking through the subway, a couple of young boys in front of me were horseplaying with each other.  I told them that horseplay leads to accidents.  They looked at me and said something in Russian, I said sorry, I only speak English.   One of the boys says, “what the f#@k”, and smiled.   I asked if that was the only English he knew, he just repeated it, and smiled.  I broke off the conversation, not wanting to encourage him.  Apparently he sees too many American movies.

   Saturday I spent the day shopping at the souvenir shops.  After many hours of looking, I finally found a chess set that I liked.  Actually I found some right away that I liked, but could not afford.  They have some very beautiful chess sets made out of paper mache and lacquer painted.  They cost about $2,000.  Matryoshka Dolls are the most popular item, I must have seen a million of them.

   Sunday morning I packed up, checked out and headed for the airport.   Russia is such a big country, it is difficult to see it in three weeks.  I enjoyed the two weeks traveling the Trans-Siberian Railroad across the country.  What I missed was being able to get to the rural areas of Russia.  The Russian people I did meet were friendly and helpful.  Interestingly enough, I had a stereotype idea that they would all be playing chess.  I only saw one chess game, a French couple playing at a hostel.  The other stereotype was that they drink a lot, which it seems they do.  It was common to see Russians walking around the streets with a bottle of beer in their hand, even women.  But I did not see a lot of drunkenness, even on the train, where a lot of vodka was consumed.  I added seven beer bottles to my beer bottle collection, two from Moscow, one from on the train, one from Irkutsk, one form Lake Baikal, one from Vladivostok, and one from St. Petersburg.

   I also expected they ate a lot of potatoes, which they do.  They eat them fried, boiled, mashed, pancaked, everyway imaginable.  At one of the train stops, I even bought a bag of cut-up and boiled potatoes for a snack with oil and parsley sprinkled on them.

   The weather was similar to that in the northern USA.  I arrived in summer in early August, and left in early autumn in September.

   I was surprised at how few other Americans I met while traveling through Russia.  I expect this may be because of the difficulty and expense in obtaining a Russian visa for Americans.  Russia also seems to have a lot of building going on, not to be in a recession.

   While all parts of the trip were fun and interesting, the best part for me was St. Petersburg and spending two days at the Hermitage.

   Da Svidaniya

   Jim