Last day in Moscow and  flight to Berlin

OK so after my marathon walk around Red Square, I was inspired to see Lenin's tomb the next day (Sunday). The idea of this sort of grossed out the girls. I thought it was great. In addition to seeing him embalmed, you got to see the graves of the premiers and other important revolutionaries. Stalin, Andropov, Chernenko, Brezhnev. John Reed, an American, from the movie Reds. (Alert - don't see it - it's horrible) We are not allowed to take photos of Lenin, but there are plenty on the web so have at it. The ironic thing is that Lenin expressly wanted to be buried and not embalmed. There is a movement out there to bury him. I got there forty minutes early and was pretty close to the front of the line. Any later and you were waiting at least an hour in line.

I walked back over to the Pushkin and checked out the exhibit on the Pergamon Temple of Zeus. As you know I went to Pergamum this summer and saw where the Temple of Zeus was, until, I was told, the Germans arranged with the Ottoman emperor to take it as a gift to the German people from the Ottoman people. So they crated it up and transferred it to Berlin. The exhibit here at the Pushkin gives a representation of what it must have looked like  as new without damage. (More later on the German point of view later when I report from the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin)

It was pretty cool really, depicting the Greek gods in a war against the Giants. The gods pretty much beat the heck out of em.

Tanya gave me a ride to Grisha's station, and Grisha picked me up in his car and took me to his home, where I met his wonderful wife Susanna and their daughter Mariam, who was having her 18th birthday party with all of her friends.

Now as some of you know I have an 18-year-old daughter as well, and I'm not sure she'd be game for having a friend of my cousin's husband who speaks no English over to her birthday party. But there I was, so how to make the best of it?

I am a socially ept (look it up) guy, so I brought flowers (pretty lame ones I admit) and chocolates (recycled from those the girls had given me) to dinner and pretended that they were for Mariam. All was going well. These were upper-class Russians (Grisha is a professor of Economics at Moscow University) and Mariam's friends spoke English pretty well actually, which goes to show the nature of the changes taking place in Russia in the last generation. I fit in perfectly, despite the fact that the clothes I was wearing (my one good set) had already been worn the day before, and that when I was passed a kind of Russian bread (kinda like naaan) I thought that that was my portion so I put the whole stack on my plate, when actually I think I was supposed to take one piece and pass it along. I asked about that but they were too polite to ask for it back so I was stuck having to try to eat a whole mess of Russian bread (I was trying to be polite). I did my best.

Meanwhile, Grisha kept filling up glasses of champagne for everyone and everyone around the table had to stand up and say something touching and poignant about the birthday girl, and then everyone drains their glass. Grisha then asked me to speak (I'm no fool - I was of course expecting this). So I expounded on how rotten it was that the Rusisans were keeping our spymaster under protection in the Moscow airport and their UN veto was allowing the Syrian government to oppress its people (actually I didn't really say that though it would've been funny) I mentioned how ever since I had known Mariam she had struck me as one of the most pleasant people I had ever met. Also 9and I was serious here, that Russia is a place of smiles! (It was true - everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves). Anyway, I did OK and got past the moment quickly, but I am going to incorporate the toasting/roasting of the birthday person by all present at our next family gathering (September 24,2013 - Summer's birthday) Ice cream was next with strawberries (think Captain Queeg - look it up) - thye must have kept filling my bowl four times. My politeness was reaching its limit, but they BEGGED me to eat.

Anyway, Mariam understandably asked Grisha and Susanna to take me away to see the lights of the city at night. I was in the back seat, and although it was wonderful, jet lag was kinda making me fall asleep. I was trying so hard nnot to, but it was really tough, They mercifully took me home and I crashed hard.

Next day I cleaned out the apartment and went off to the airport and Berlin. I am very impressed with the public transportation system in Moscow, and with the hospitality of the Russian people. It really was great.

Side note: I actually laundered some of my clothing in the sink and dried it out on some contraption they had. Then because Mr. Ted McGill wasn't on this trip I had to fold my own clothes after washing. (inside joke alert - never mind)

Oh yeah...the one problem was that I was going to mail the postcards from the airport in Moscow and ha ha they have no mailbox at the airport so all the money I spent on Russian stamps was a complete waste. I will mail them from Germany. (Actually, now in the future I know I mailed them from France - so you get double postage)

Sorry no pics on this post. My camera was out of commission for a bit. back on in Germany.

P.S. Thanks for all the comments. You guys are awesome. Especially my family.

Moscow!

Moscow Arrived July 18th. This post is on July 27. Sorry.

It was a harrowing journey for me to find the place I was staying in Moscow - a private apartment of a friend. Suffice it to say I got there, using all of my traveling wiles to get it done. And I got to meet my friend's uncle who speaks no English but he was totally cool and we used international sign language (unofficial). After a little Russian television, I fell asleep on the couch. Just like home! Actually it was pretty cool watching "The Fly" with Jeff Goldberg speaking Russian. I could just make out the English behind the dubs. 

I woke up early (Traveler Tip #4 - wake up early! Go-getters like me are getting the best spots in line while you leisurely comb your hair and put granola in your yogurt or whatever it is that keeps your keister from walking out the door. I was out the door at 530am and decided to walk up to Moscow University, which wasn't too far and I could see the tall spire so it was unlikely I'd get lost. Just then a bus pulls up. I had no idea where this bus was going, but what they heck...why not ask. In my best Russian accent I asked, "Do you go to the Metro?". He said "da' which is good enough for me. Luckily my subway card works on all the buses (another brilliant innovation by recently former communists!) so I didn't have to hassle with pesky foreign coins that deliberately don't have numbers on em. Anyway I got on and felt pretty smug. Strangeley, not many people were up and walking around the university in the summer on a Saturday at 7am. I walked to where the logical place would be for a bookstore like in the US where I could buy a sweatshirt that said "Moscow University" for lovely daughter #1 who is off to college. Things were going swell until I encountered an open door, which usually screams "enter me!" to a guy like me. But...just then there was a metal detector with two guards, who adroitly spotted my natty attire and large tour book and determined that I wasn't a real student. They said "No tourist," which didn't leave me a lot of wiggle room for negotiation in Russian. I left. Still, it was a fun walk and an interesting architectural building, dubbed wedding cake architecture by characteristically jocular Russians. (you can look that vocab word up, students). More on Russian jocularity later. I have pithy things to relate.

Moscow University in early morning gloom

Mrs. Schliemann

The famous diadem Schliemann found and let his wife wear

Next stop was the main event for me on this trip - the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, in which are held the treasure discovered by Schliemann at Troy and deposited in Berlin at their museums. Once the Soviets got to Berlin during World War 2 (big famous war - look it up students...I always have random extra credit questions about World War 2), they weren't in the mood to quibble about technical ownership of things and swiped the treasure, keeping it under wraps for 50 or 60 years (which is longer than I've been alive!!!)  But then some busybody lady at the Pushkin museum went off message and admitted to having it, and they couldn't put her in the gulag anymore because of perestroika (look it up) so the Russians sorta just said yeah we have it and we're not giving it back so don't bother asking. Which explains what takes me, a great and loyal American, to Moscow (unlike that other guy holed up in Moscow's airport...look it up) 

Now like any good father, I stop at the internet hot chocolate shop so I can facetime my kids and have a banana cocoa (It was very good). What do I see when I look out the window is the Cathedral of Christ the Savior?

View from the internet coffee shop

I showed the kids on Facetime. They were impressed...sort of. This is one of the most spectacular churches there were in the Soviet Union, but once again, Stalin was a jerk about churches and despite the pleas of the people, he had it blown to bits in the 30's. Then he put in a swimming pool/ice rink for a while. In 1990, the Russian people decided they wanted their church back. So they used many private donations and had it rebuilt. If you look carefully, you'll see that there are endless lines to get in the church because they just discovered some piece of St. Andrew's dead body, and are installing it into the church. Anyway, lines are a mile long and cops and military are all over the place directing traffic. Due to the hoohah about the relics, lines were miles long and I didn't end up seeing this, although it was on my list. It would've robbed me of too much time elsewhere. 

Ok so I got past the security to the Pushkin and it was a pretty good museum. Not really as good as the Hermitage, but not bad at all. Interestingly (I guess I should let you be the judge of that) the Pushkin used to be a museum that would offer kids the ability to see good copies of the masterpieces of the world so they could emulate them. Since they couldn't actually leave the Soviet Union on trips to see the museums of Europe, they recreated the masterpieces for them, including the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. Interesting theory. So there are tremendous amounts of plaster copies of the famous things from Greek and Italian antiquity in this museum, except of course the Schliemann Treasure. 

The Scliemann treasure was special to see. Somehow it makes seeing the excavations of Troy very real. When visiting Troy, parts of it can look like a BMX track. Seeing the treasure reinforces that something very big happened there. It was exciting in a geeky historian kind of way. Now since Schliemann was kind of a doof archaeologist, it's really hard for current archaeologists to figure out exactly when the Schliemann treasure dated to. In any case, the myth is strong and moving. 

Tanya, Anya, and Nadya

So after I closed down the Pushkin, I went back to the apartment. My friend Tasha had put me in touch with her cousins, Nadya, Anya and Tanya. We decided to hit the town and check out Red Square and the GUM department store (actually it's kind of a shopping center)

Kev cracking a funny in front of panorama. Random lady on left. 

Now Tanya (friend of Anya) was driving the car, but it turns out that Anya and Nadya had bought the car in secret, and don't yet know how to drive so they keep it at Tanya's. Anyway, all went well. Here's Red Square:

St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. Apparently the colors of the domes were the colors added in the 1700's

Girls in front of the Kremlin

I bought everyone a good Georgian dinner, wherein the foreign hosts try to order uniquely original food that they think you'll hate so they can show how unique it is. I always foil these nefarious plots by (and my kids know this) eating everything on my plate and expounding about how delicious it is. This mildly deflates the hosts as they wanted to reinforce the stereotypes about Americans as having diets consisting only of hamburgers and cokes. (Special serious traveler tip: When you're in a foreign place, eat their food and love it.) Don't make squeamish faces or eat miniscule bites off of the edge. Nothing says you respect their culture more than being open Just pretend you are a prisoner of war and haven't eaten in 3 weeks. That being said, Georgian food was actually awesome. Lots of stews and bready things that were tasty.

Lenin's Tomb

Convent on the lake

GUM department store. Not Cyrillic writing

 We checked out the GUM department store. This is why it is so nice to do a little preparation before you go to Russia or Greece or countries with different alphabets. If you could learn their alphabet (and let's face it...how hard is it. You learned your own alphabet when you were four). Anyway they use the Greek gamma for G and a Y for a U. Ns are H's and H's are I's. It's actually kind of fun to test yourself, and it's really helpful on the subway and for streetsigns. (Tip: Learn the alphabet before you go!!)

The girls drove me home. I never got to see Anya or Nadya again but Tanya drove me over to Grisha's house, where he had invited me to a special dinner. I was honored! It was his daughter Mariam's birthday, so I had some flowers and gave them to her. But that's for my next post

I realize I really need to finally post something!! For my loyal followers I apologize for the delay, and thank you for caring. There are plenty of frustrating excuses for not posting but ain't nobody got time to hear that. 

Mr. Keating

P.S. Postcard alert - I have been writing and mailing postcards to my students as I go, so check your mailboxes. KPK

Last Day in Leningrad (St. Petersburg)

Wow! Sorry it's taken so long to repost. It is hecka-hard (teen lingo alert) to find reliable internet access. Could be crummy computer. Not sure. Anyway, I guess I had just finished Day One when I spoke last. Day Two began early again with a plan to see St. Isaac's Cathedral - once a famous Russian Orthodox cathedral and now technically a museum, since Stalin pretty much closed all of the churches in Russia in the 30's. 

Leningrad (easier to type than St. Petersburg) is younger than Jamestown and was created by Peter the Great as a seaport and better link with the West. He used European architects and emulated the French style with beautiful palaces. Then he made it his capital and forced nobles and others to move there. So it's a very beautiful city with awesome architecture. 

Since yesterday had been taken up mostly (actually totally) with the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, I thought I would get out and see the rest of the city in the morning. One interesting way of doing that is by taking one of the ubiquitous (vocab word - look it up) red double-decker tours of the city. These buses run a regular route around a city, going by interesting sights as they tell you about them, either with a live guide or via headsets that give the same tour in different languages.

Anyway, I walked over to St. Isaac's Cathedral,

which is enormous inside and filled with incredible paintings and tapestries. I then out to see the Peter the Great statue, showing him trampling a snake (a common way of insulting enemies you've defeated in battle). In this case the snake was the Swedes (interesting side note - we don't really associate the Swedes with military power, but they actually were tough (like Vikings) in the 17th century, but Peter defeated them and took the territory now containing Leningrad). So I "dug that scene" (60's lingo alert) for a a few minutes and then decided to hop on to one of these buses.

Really long story short...Although I knew better, I had a mental lapse and was thinking in my head that my train leaving at 1330pm (1:30pm in 24-hour clock method) was leaving at 330pm. At 1233pm (American-style), I immediately stopped relaxing and started crying cursing  panicking springing into action in order to get my train to Moscow, where a friend would be waiting for me. 

The first thing was to get off the ?>?##@ dang bus, but it had (of course) just started going again towards its next stop, further away from my hotel. I had to figure out where I was really fast and get a cab that could drop by my hotel, wait while I grabbed my suitcase and then race me to the train station (it is suggested to be there an hour before departure). Since no stinking cabbie could be bothered to be where I wanted him to be, I had to resort to running the entire way, all the while looking for an elusive "Taxi". Oh sure...they're all over the place unless you need one. (Traveler tip #2: Learn how to read a real hard-copy map, so you know how to get home, and always carry one with you in places you are unfamiliar with). I would not have made it if I had wasted time trying to ask people how to get to my hotel. (trying-to-make-oneself-look-good-when-one-is-stupid-enough-to-almost-miss-a-train alert) But seriously, at least I felt I was smart enough to check before it was absolutely positively too late.

So I made it to the hotel (it's actually a hostel - more on that later), having not seen one cab. I had twenty-three minutes to spare. People at the hostel said I'd never make it. (Tip #3 - don't listen to nay-sayers). I ran with my suitcase and backpack around the corner to a real hotel with a concierge (oh yeah, but not before all the contents of my backpack spilled out on a main street as I was jaywalking across it) and asked the concierge if there is any way to be at the station by 130pm. The concierge told the other concierge to get the car and meet me in front immediately. It would cost 800 roubles. Ok I said. Thanks! Driver said, no, it's unrealistic with traffic. I said try. He said ok. He drove like a champ - I complimented his driving tipped him the extra 200 off of a 1000 rouble note. He was very happy.  I then ran into the station and boarded the train. I was the second to last passenger. Some moron was actually unluckier dumber than me.  Anyway I got on the train, got my seat and we were moving before I sat down.

At which point I started to sweat profusely for the next twenty minutes until the stewardess (that's actually what they call them!) came with the beverage cart. 

I had a pretty sweet ride on the express train to Moscow. It went at 200km (that's 120 miles per hour in real time). Service was great! I really don't get why, if Russia, Japan, France, and a bunch of other countries can have first class high-speed travel by train, why can't we? Makes no sense. The best part is not having to first go to some location an hour away to board your transportation. Same deal with subways. Subways in Europe are much more well-run than in NYC and everywhere else I've been in the US. Even the buses in Europe are top-notch, in terms of number of buses and how frequently they come. It's an injustice when something is better over on the other side of the pond.  

I'll post the Moscow blog tonight from Berlin! I'm catching up. Check your mailbox for postcards in about a week or so. Later!

Hey so I found a little time coincident with having an internet connection so I figured I'd blog it up a bit, now with pictures! First of all, these girls are my daughters in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul earlier this summer. I loved the pic so much I added it here. The confused one is graduating and the smiley one doesn't know I just traded her for a camel. Or maybe she does. Anyway here is a picture of me in San Francisco towering over the little people. Actually they're on a lower floor at the gate in San Francisco. 

My first stop was Paris and I thought I'd let you know that if you ever get to Paris, there is no need to go see the boring sights when you could just stay in the airport and play video games for free. If you average the price of the ticket over ten thousand games, it actually can seem like a smart financial decision!  OK to the meat of the purpose for the trip! Here is a very cool statue of Amenemhet III from the Middle Kingdom, a few hundred years before Achilles and Troy and the war. I hope you can get a look at the expression on his face. Very calm and serene, yet powerful. If you can understand something of the person you are looking at across the centuries because of the skill of the craftsman, you've got an advanced level of art. 

This is St. Petersburg (used to be called Leningrad) at 6am. No one up. Always light in the summer. This iower is the largest free-standing statue in the world.  I think.

OK! To the meat of the purpose for the trip! Here is a very cool statue of Amenemhet III from the Middle Kingdom, a few hundred years before Achilles and Troy and the war. I hope you can get a look at the expression on his face. Very calm and serene, yet powerful. If you can understand something of the person you are looking at across the centuries because of the skill of the craftsman, you've got something special, something that perhaps indicates a high level of sophistication in your society. This is why it's so interesting to see this stuff in person if you get the chance. 

Below is an image of "Statue of a Roman as a Hero," from the first century AD (just after Augustus). Interestingly, unlike the Greeks, if their subjects were ugly, a Roman sculptor would sculpt him in his ugliness. That allows us to believe that the statues actually resembled the very people they were depicting, which again, I think is really neat. In my house we make fun of the word neat, so I use it to jab my family here. But it is neat! 

 Here's another example - this is Roman from the 3rd century AD - "Portrait of a Roman." Just look at this character below. One of the  general. He looks like a pretty tough guy.

 

On the other hand, take a look at this guy below. Does he look tough and commanding? Or does he maybe look a little timid and scared. He probably was. Balbin took over as emperor after the previous guy was assassinated and Emperor Balbin only lasted three months in the job in before he was killed 238 AD. 

And the Romans didn't just sculpt the men either. Cornelia Salonina, who was first lady to Emperor Gallien around 250AD, is depicted below. I wonder if Michelle Obama's statue will be around in 1700 years. I hope so. That would hopefully mean the old US of A is still around and that cockroaches aren't ruling the earth.

This is something many people don't know - the Egytians have writing other than heiroglyphics. And here is a love letter written on a pot shard to prove it.

 The Hermitage is one of the few museums in the world that has a Da Vinci painting. Hopefully you are doing your summer reading and you'll learn about what an amazing guy Da Vinci was. Here is a painting of the Madonna and Child...

 ...and here is a picture of me photobombing the Da Vinci. This kind of thing can get you thrown out of the Agora Museum in Greece, if youwere to try to photobomb the Spartan shield there. Museum curators need to lighten up a bit. Anyway, I'm sure other tourists were snapping photos of me in front of it like I painted it. Who'll know the difference? Maybe you guys! As Junior Art Historians you will know that Da Vinci never wore glasses nor did he often wear neon orange.

 

 Ah...a Greek helmet from the fifth century BC - around the time of the War between the Athenians and the Spartans. See if you can tell me what war that was on the first day of class. Note the long nose protectors on the Greek helmets. Hmmm...can we make any generalizations? Can we think of any insults the Persians may have hurled against a Greek in such a helmet? History can be fun!

 

Ok so how do we tell Mr. Keating to stop this interminably boring blog post? Note the odd sign I saw while my taxi driver was hurtling through another intersection? What symbol in mathematics is similar to a member of the Cyrillic alphabet? What sounds would it make if it were used in a sentence like a letter??  Once you solve the puzzle, translate the answr into Russian and tell my cabbie!

 Travel tip of the day - take a picture of a map on your phone; then if you're lost you can find your way! Like that Amazing Grace song.

The outside of the Hermitage is pale green and gold. Very cool. Just as impressive on the inside too. As impressive as Versailles without all the annoying foreigners who don't speak English as well as I (note I not me). Wait...Russians aren't great at speaking English either. They would speak English better if we'd properly invaded them in 1917. Just kidding. I like foreigners a lot, especially when they're where they belong, like in their own countries, overcharging me for coffee. OK just kidding again. Really. I'll stop now.
 

Last thing...here's a picture of me after a day at the beach near Chernobyl. Actually it's a Scythian. Hopefully he looked better before he died. 

Back Soon! Keep reading. 

Hi Students and Friends!

Welcome! If you are one of my students from next year, congratulations for checking out the blog. I promise it won't be this boring in future posts! I look forward to meeting you. Feel free to send me an email at kkeating@smschool.us if there is a European suggestion you have for me. 

This is the first post of my famous museums tour of European capitals, with some other sites thrown in. The plan is to hit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin in Moscow (holding the famous and mysterious treasure of Troy), the PergamonMuseum in Berlin (containing the Temple of Zeus from Pergamon given to the Germans by the Ottomans), the Louvre in Paris, the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg (Patton's grave), the British Museum in London and then some museums in Ireland. I'll be mostly staying in inexpensive hostels, but I'll try to throw in a nice hotel somewhere. I will from now on throw in pictures of great antiquities from these museums. I will make a bearded cameo wearing a St. Mary's hat in a few of them to scare off the regular public from using my pictures in scholarly journals. 

I was going to write this from San Francisco, but ran into some connectivity issues there. Typical. And I only have thirty minutes here in Paris (enroute to St. Petersburg). As usual I took a bunch of books to read on the flight and watched three movies instead. Gotta tell ya - good stuff. One was a French movie (Les Profs) where they put all of their best teachers in a school and the students still got the lowest scores on their tests, so they decided to bring in the worst teachers in the country and put them all in the school and guess what - great results! Actually some pretty funny stuff. Then Olympus is Down and Les Miserables. Flight flew by (no pun intended). Bottom line on Air France - surprisingly good service and good airline food!

But I'll make up for not reading with my six-hour layover in Paris. Anyway, Au revoir for now (you can look that up - it's French). See ya on the flipside (as the cool dudes used to say in the 80's).

Mr. Keating