Red Dawn in Moscow and St Petersburg

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Natasha suggests the FAQ Cafe for a drink, and with its eclectic music, funky rooms, free wireless, artsy clientele and supermodel servers, it quickly becomes my ideal hangout. It’s always fun to be around when a fellow traveler decides to bust their budget, and Richard is buying round after round of tequilas and mojitos. But this is Moscow, reportedly the most expensive city on the planet (even costlier than Tokyo!). Richard’s bill comes to 120 pounds! Russia is deceptively expensive. Beers might cost $3 at the bar, but cocktails were nearly $10! Anyway, we drink until dawn, walk a few blocks back to Red Square, the only people around save for the odd guard. Ed reminds me that police in Russian cities are notorious for ripping off tourists. You have to carry your passport at all times, and drunk backpackers are routinely stopped and, if their confusing hotel registration is not in order, relieved of whatever is in their wallets. Corruption continues to plague Russia, although President Putin is making concerted efforts to tame it. A disturbing story in the Moscow Times reports that a local journalist, investigating some corporate merger, was found his hands tied and a bag over his head. He’s the 12th Russian journalist to be murdered in the last five years - this is a country where asking the wrong questions can get you killed. Communism, despite its heady ideals, left a legacy of corruption and greasy kickbacks. Of course, when in Rome…thus $10 each to a local “guide” allowed us to skip the 3-hour queue to see the stuffed corpse of Lenin inside his mausoleum. Old Lenin has become a political headache, as tourists continue to line up to see a dead man that the present government would much rather bury. Entering the mausoleum is a somber affair. Metal detectors get rid of cameras. Bags must be checked. Armed guards with stone faces are everywhere. We line-up (lining up is as Russian as caviar), descend into the dark marble interior. Lenin is resting in a glass case, his preserved face literally glowing in the light. He doesn’t look a day over 30, his mustache coiffed, his nails trimmed. His ears look very small, like shrunken daisies. Stalin used to lie alongside Lenin, until Brezhnev reevaluated Stalin’s contribution to Soviet history and buried him outside the walls of the Kremlin instead. It’s just a matter of time before Lenin joins him. In the meantime, small, defanged communist demonstrations will continue to march on Red Square, and Lenin will continue to glow in peace.

The Kremlin was built by the Venetians and housed the royal family until Peter 1 moved them all to St Petersburg. Today, the vast complex includes government agencies, Putin’s enormous private residence, and several restored 14th century churches. We lined up for a ticket, lined up to get searched, lined up to get in, lined up to enter the churches, lined up to use the bathroom. The painted church walls depicted saints and rulers, and inside old cement caskets lay the remains of Russian’s royal past. The royal family came to an abrupt end when they were executed following the October Revolution in 1918. Even the Anastasia mystery proved to be unfounded when DNA tests confirmed that American immigrant Anna Anderson was very much not princess Anastasia (despite the Disney movie, which came out around the same time). Of course, you can’t visit Moscow and miss the Kremlin, and despite the queues, it was well worth checking out. All these churches build up a thirst, so off to a beer garden, and then St Albert’s street market. I had spent the previous night at FAQ, and got talking with a young Russian guy named Stefan and his buddies, and off we went to revisit an incredible outdoor exhibition I had stumbled upon earlier in the day. A photographer named Yann Arthus Bertrand has flown around the world, taking pictures of life and landscape from helicopters. The images are extraordinary, check out his website - www.yannarthusbertrand.org - to see what I’m talking about. Anyway, we got lost trying to find a rave, and so I forsook Moscow’s famous nightlife for its famous circus. Tickets were only $8, and it was immediately obvious why Cirque du Soleil hunts their stars in Russia. The acrobatics and trampolining were jaw dropping, not to mention the gorgeous contortionist - she was worth the price of admission alone! The animal shows - chimps, dogs and tigers - were not so much unfashionable as just plain tired. The days of elephants, bears and monkeys in the big top are finally numbered. Nikolai, Stefan’s buddy, was born into the circus. He had already traveled to 33 countries, but has moved on to become a graphic designer. So if you really want to travel and are prepared to hang 50ft from the ceiling by a chain and no nets, apply to the Moscow state circus. As a bonus, you might get to meet the contortionist!

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