Will Around the World

Kremlin

• Moscow reminds me of an Asian metropolis. At night the city shines with flashing neon lights. There is a haphazard use of space—you can see casinos less than a mile away from the Kremlin. The underground passage, with a nonstop stream of people filing past myriad shops that sell food, electronics, intimate apparel and everything in between, is the heart of the city. Like Singapore, there is a gamut of ethnicities in this capital city, but everyone is unmistakably Russian.
• Moscow is the third most expensive city in the world, yet policemen earn an absurdly low salary of $100 per month. It is widely known that Moscow police officers are eager to fine people for the slightest offense. Yet the locals that I spoke to do not resent the police; in fact they sympathize with them. After all, they are only trying to feed their families. The most aggressive policemen operate near Red Square. They stop anyone who doesn't look like a local, and if they find something wrong with their passport (Russians are required to carry their passport at all times) they demand a fine. I was stopped once in a park near the Moscow River, but since my papers were in order, the policeman had no choice but to let me go. Americans may object to this kind of police action, calling it an infringement of civil liberties, but surprisingly many Russians think America takes the rule of law too far, especially when it comes to litigation.
• Like Riga, most dining is done on the run, especially at the ubiquitous Middle Eastern, bliny and toast stands.
• There are two objects that Muscovites on the street are likely to be holding: ice cream and beer. People enjoy ice cream even on a rainy and mild day. Beer is cheaper than Coca Cola. There is no minimum age for buying or consuming beer, so you often find women and children taking swigs from a bottle in public.
• Muscovites talk openly about relationships and sexuality. I was asked by one girl if I had a girlfriend. In the states, such a question would be sign of the girl's interest, but in this case I think it was an honest question. Several people asked me if I "liked Russian girls." (My stock answer was "I don't discriminate.") One young man I met wanted to show me some Japanese animation on his computer, to which a female friend matter-of-factly asked, "Is this porno?"

  
  Kids of all ages playing near Novodevichiy Convent

• I saw many groups of young men wearing military fatigues. I thought they were active soldiers, but I later learned that they are students in military academies. Military service is compulsory for males 18 years of age and older.
• I thought I would find a city divided between a few haves and a mass of have-nots. While I was amazed by luxury cars that flood the streets, and while I did see a few beggars and hints of a migrant population, Moscow seems to have a large middle class. People from all parts of Russia want to live in Moscow, and somehow new homes and jobs keep sprouting up to accommodate them.

Moscow dazzled me. Nothing prepared me for the manic feeling you get when you ride the Metro, walk on Tverskaya street and drive through the city at night. It's impossible to mention Warsaw, Vilnius or Riga in the same breath as Moscow. They say that New York is the city that never sleeps, but whoever coined that phrase likely never visited Moscow.

# posted by billklee @ 23:57