I have just come back from Moscow. My dear Moscow. Yes, I have loved this city already for many years. I know for sure, if you fall in love once with its strange beauty, it's forever...you can't escape.
This time she was nice to me, she seemed clean and organized. I was surprised, I haven't been there for a while and it has changed already. Well, there are still many people rushing, never smiling, never speak the language you need. The scorching wind brought from the forests dangerous for the health smog and filled the city with it, giving hard times to those who have asthma and other respiratory diseases, but the greatest disaster of the summer 2010 was obviously the heat, preventing you from walking, sleeping, working and thinking. I wanted to return the winter, where I could cover myself with a bit of snow. When I was a child, a normal hot summer was around +30 and people were already complaining:"Too hot!" Nowadays, +30 is cool, nice weather and people are praying for it.
My journey was 25 hours long on the train Odessa-Moscow. No air conditioner, all the windows locked, but hot tea and coffee for the best summer prices are always available. It wasn't a joke, it was "going to Russia mission". The female staff of the train shocked me with their "almost panties" shorts, male part, was simply without shirts.
Taking shower in my own sweat. (It was just like this), reading biography of Kate Moss to distract my mind a bit...I was on my way to the city I have loved for so long, my Moscow! I was ready to suffer as long as I get there!
I took some cash with me, but I didn't know I would spend it all, I completely forgot - Moscow loves ripping off! I haven't bought anything special for myself, but Matryoshkas, Faberge eggs pendants and those old-style posters of "Motherland is calling!" for friends and family. Other money went on a huge amount of water that I was pouring inside me and outside me too.
Smoking is another issue over there. People are puffing everywhere, including trains, restaurants, and streets. I quit smoking, but every time I go to Moscow I smoke. It's like something that goes along with the city and its stress. I can compare Moscow to a long thin cigarette that is poisoning you slowly with its charm and wealth. Eventually it will kill you, so it's better to stop again, before you get back to your normal life.
I was walking on the streets, taking pictures of the old buildings, where Lenin was reading his famous speeches and thinking:"My god! How much history is behind these walls!" I was summer-prepared: sunscreen 30, thermal water, cotton clothes, havaianas and a hay hat. Surely, it seemed that I would probably be passing my time near the river or something, but the long streets of traffic and a cool wind of metro were my top ten that time.
I realized: Moscow is beautiful. Every time I see her, she looks like a pretty girl, who is becoming a mature, magnificent woman. Her streets have this spirit of history mixed with freedom. When I was on the bridge that is linked to the church of Christ the Savior I felt amazingly happy and truly free of any kind of responsibilities. It was a feeling that it's hard to describe. It was a inner voice of my soul. It was something that I miss in the other cities. When people used to ask me what I want to have back from Russia I didn't have the answer. But at least now I know. I want to have back that feeling of freedom on a bridge, looking away to the Kremlin.
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