Week 4: For a day in Moscow - Bridge climbing and Vincent van Gogh

Long story short: In the same club in which I "met" Gerard Depardieu, I met a girl from Siberia too.  And some days later she asked me if I would travel to Moscow with her :)

I would have been a fool if i had reject that offer.

Two days later I found myself sitting in the train towards south. 
Considering how to use the trains toilet :D

But it should become the warmest and most beautiful day until now.

Travelling by train is much cheaper than in Austria.. but if you are looking for comfort - you'll be disappointed ;)
So we were travelling in the luxury compartment without any luxury ^^ 

Hofer'sche uncomfortable equation:

175x60cm & 30°C & 75dB noise & !tired != much sleep

Mirror Selfie

Every journey should start with a picture together

8 hours later we arrived at our destination and started our long day of walking, dancing and sightseeing.

Red Square in the morning

After a bad breakfast at Subways we walked to the Red Square. We found it nearly unvisited by other tourists :D 

It was a nice place to see how the sun rises. And for a nice Lindy Hop session too!

Panorama

The grave of Lenin

Cathedral

Actually the Red Square isn't red at all

Quote of the morning:

"We cannot dance here, the police is watching."  - Lena

Feeding ducks, dogs and pigeons

while watching swimming trash..

Lena and the beautiful Russian swan - a white plastic bag.

Eat that Pigeons!

Unfortunately there was much trash... but it was nice anyway.

Modern Art in Moscow

Before the entrance into the modern art district

это Бабушки - Omis

I think an elaborate strategy for parking slots doesn't exists in Russia. So the modern art district is also a big parking area ;)

 

On the marks of Van Gogh

We visited a nice edited Vincent van Gogh exhibition. They used only projections of the paintings above many canvases and played dramatic music appropriate to the paintings movements. 

Be part of the projections:

Lena

Lena & Olga

Me

I was aware that Van Gogh was a crazy psychopath. But have you known that he cut his ear and served it on a plate to a prostitute? Of course under drug influence ^^ But it think that incident was never clarified for sure.. 

Anyway the exhibition was kind of relaxing

Afterwards it was hard to look straight ahead because of the bright sunshine again^^

Finally sunlight again

Some more walking

Later we walked towards some parks of Moscow and searched for any bike or other funny stuff. But somehow any weird tourist was able to find and rent a bike except us :/
So we walked the whole day and made some nice pictures:

Tourists

The amazing feeling while sitting upon a bridge structure

Some of you may have seen already crazy Russian Teenagers test of courage - pictures. 

Well here are mine!

"Do you see that bridge? We should climb upon it!"

Backward view

Leftward view

Frontward view

Downward view

 Quote of the climbing session:

"MAMA, MAMA HUHUU :O" - a teenage girl climbing besides me

The incredible view, the awkward feeling in the stomach.. combined with the fear of falling down. 

Definitely one of the good moments I will never forget!

Driving home for work

Platzkart train

Platzkart is the common way how Russians travel over large distances - it is very cheap ;) 
And according to my uncomfortable equation I was able to sleep like a child. 

If you are tired enough all other factors are getting insignificant.

Every journey should end with a drink together. And so did ours.

Week 3: First police confrontation and a brief encounter with Obelix

Don't speak at night or the babushka nearby is going to report it to the authority! 

Ouh.. of course not officially. I meant a friend of hers who is accidentally a police officer..

"Our neighbour is an crazy old lady."

So as i opened the door after 5minutes insane doorbell ringing - I was confronted with the funny guy. An angry police officer who was not capable of the English language, nor the 10 finger system. It was already 10pm and I think he insulted me in some kind ^^ 
Seriously I had no fucking idea what he was talking about.

I wrote him a message using Google Translator - that I'm just a guest and don't know what to do.. 
He tried to write some stuff back.. swearing.. дурак.. kurwa...дурак.. Afterwards he made some photos of my passport and the rental contract - about one hour later he was gone. Finally silence again. I was confused :)
At the next day we were able to clarify it with the help of a Russian native speaker - without paying a bribe - yeah! 

So I'm not allowed to speak or laugh after 11pm anymore. Thanks god I'm changing the apartment ^^

Quote of the day:

Don't get into troubles with the Authority.

Some nice Russian-German translations ;)

Muschina = Mann

Hui = Penis

Kuritsa = Huhn

Some days before I met another funny guy in an awesome club:

Due precaution measures I left my phone at home ;) So those are not mine snapshots.. :/









Unfortunately he was not as friendly nor as funny then in his role as Obelix ^^ 
He muttered something in french and left us back. 
Obelix looked wasted.

I would have it preferred if he had insulted me for an hour.. or two.

Things I see at my way to work:

Typical brick buildings

Old vs new buildings

There is a spaceship in town. Thought they are only in the U.S ^^

Usually it's no problem to find parking slots in Russia

Nice cars everywhere 

Bright sunshine after work :)

How to open our mailbox

Week 1: Settling down in St. Petersburg

My first two weeks in St. Petersburg were cozy and nice. It's a little bit colder than in Austria.. but it's ok. For Russians, it's already spring ;)

Some words to the nightlife: usually, parties are starting at midnight and the party folks are staying until the morning hours - like 6am ;) everyone is in a good mood and the dance floor is always crowded. Of course almost by girls. In short: it's much better than in Austria^^

After my first working day I was invited into a bar by my colleagues.

Unfortunately, we "watched" how some French people got robbed. Altogether there have been ~10 people in the bar (4 French, my colleagues and I) - the police arrived after 2 hours of waiting.. why should they hurry? no reason to rush ^^

Some quotes from my colleagues and other Russians I met:

"That's what you can expect from Russia. And be careful with your stuff in public places"

"Are you crazy? Why are you in Russia? I mean.. I wouldn't go to Pakistan if I was not forced to!"

"Crazy Russians!" - A waitress wanted to cheat on me. Just 500 rubles to much (10€)

"Do it the Russian style man" - Work tomorrow, party tonight.

But I didn't expect something else, ... so whatever.

For real St. Pete is a great place to live and not as bad as some Europeans may think.

So I think I can have a good, expensive and very funny time here in mother Russia ;)

Some pics:

sweet new home street

@holzer, veri & wetzi - thx for the warm cap. very useful :)