Walking in a winter wonderland

OK, so, it snowed hard all last Sunday but people were out and about and the snow got packed down. This did not get cleaned up on the sidewalks and shared walkways/side streets before the next snow came. And the next. And the next. There is now a 2-3 inch layer of ice covered by dirty snow everywhere. Occasionally I see someone out scraping at it, but by and large it’s gonna stay right there the whole winter. If you wore a pair of ice skates and didn’t care what the blades looked like afterwards, you could skate all the way downtown from our area. Even in the high pedestrian traffic areas, snow is not removed from the sidewalks. Salt is not used here on the roads at all, but sand is. I’m probably going to end up falling on my ass at least once this winter.

I started the day at the post office where I mailed a package and a letter. Now I understand just about everything the clerks say to me. They pack the package for me and all I have to do is fill out the forms. And they are unfailingly helpful and polite. Three cheers for the Russian postal system.

After a quick hamburger at MacDonald’s, I caught the subway to meet Anna. We took a bus to an exhibit of Russian history. The exhibit is so extensive it has three sections spread through two different buildings. We spent 3 hours just on the section about the Romanov czars. It was extremely interesting and we both felt that it was somewhat embellished. When we asked, we found out that the exhibit is sponsored largely by the  Orthodox Church. It almost seemed as if some things were purposely not mentioned. As in our American history lessons, lots of unpleasant things are swept under the rug.

After 3 hours we just had to call it quits and decided we would go back next week to see the rest of the exhibit. The great thing is that it’s free. You can’t beat that. And by this time we were starved, so we headed back to that great Georgian restaurant near the pedestrian zone. We shared one of those dough boats filled with cheese and we each had stuffed grape leaves. Everything was luxurious. And we really had a great discussion about the exhibit. It was interesting to see how much our opinions are shaped by the cultures in which we grew up.

I headed home and stopped at the grocery store when in got out of the subway. So now I have milk for my cornflakes in the morning. Tomorrow’s plans are the Mexican restaurant and a basketball game. That should be fun.