What will also be ridiculous is the Eurovision Song Festival finals that we’re going to see this Saturday. That is our raison d’etre for coming to Moscow. Plus one must see the Red Square and the Kremlin at one point. If you’re a European you will know what Eurovision is.
It’s basically a song competition between all the European countries, where each country first has a national competition to select the song that will represent them at the finals. And then through a very complex judging system, a victor is selected during the final show, which is always hosted by the country of the previous year’s winner. Thus last year Russia won … and now … Moscow!
It’s really Euro trash at its best. It’s basically what the Oscars are for the Americans. For one night, all of Europe sits in front of their televisions, hosts parties, drinks too much and roots for their own country. No matter how tacky the song or the outfits! ABBA, with Waterloo, rose to world stardom by winning at Eurovision. And Celine Dion won … for Switzerland! Don’t ask me how that happened. But mostly, the winners are forgotten a few months after the finals. But that’s not the point. Partaking in this Euro Trash experience is what it’s all about.
The event was held at the indoor Olympic Stadium and was very well organized. It actually went by much faster than any one of us anticipated. You should see how quickly they changed the sets in between songs. And the stage was impressive, with massive video projection screens.
I think the best part s to see Europe stand together as one. Even though the countries compete fiercely with each other, and everyone bitches about the Eastern Europeans and how they stick together when it comes to voting … at the end though, the crowd is full of different European flags waving in unison, side-by-side. That diversity is what makes Europe so special. And the song that won? Don’t get me going on this. It was a 23-year-old Norwegian with a violin. It’s not that he was bad … but he was pure, too wholesome and a Harry Potter look-alike! Eurovision needs an anthem that is trashy and pop-aliciously fun. I was rooting for Moldovia, Ukraine and Turkey.
Now let’s get back to Moscow!
Firstly, Moscow is a very green and clean city. Full of manicured little parks, the park board obviously obsessed with tulips for you see them planted everywhere. As you land, you will notice that Moscow is surrounded by beautiful forests. And the streets, walkways, metro stations are very clean.
The architecture in the centre of town is impressive. Old Russian renaissance buildings beautifully renovated, large avenues and stunning churches. You will see gold-plated onion domes of the iconoclastic Russian Orthodox churches sprinkled all over the centre. And the interiors are just as ornate as the exteriors. Gild, beautiful artifacts and inspiring artwork which is very different than what you would find in catholic churches. And the people seem to be deeply religious. The churches were full of praying citizens, bowing deeply to the ornate relics and kissing various artifacts. The Russians are surprisingly devout citizens. Moscow a magnanimous city. And contrary to what you hear, a safe city.
I later found out that a lot of the old beautiful buildings that you see in the centre are not restored buildings, but completely re-built following the original design. As you can imagine, that has the heritage preservers up in arms. Nonetheless, they do look stunning.
You always read that Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I’m not sure if it’s actually expensive, or the fact that it’s a cash society, and given that you go through your cash very fast for you’re continuously using it, is what makes it seem expensive. In any case, your home-away-from-home will be the bankomat .. the bank machine.
Coming from Singapore we immediately realized how light it still is at 20.00. Living on the equator, where it’s dark by 19.30 all year round, being able to see the long days in spring time was lovely. The weather was variable which made the evening sky very dramatic. Big, heavy, saturated clouds with the soft evening sunlight penetrating through the cracks in the sky and illuminating the tops of church steeples was … well, dramatic. It was cold though.
I have to make a comment on the Russian women … for they are something to observe. They’re beautiful in a different way. They’re striking, perhaps also due to the way they dress. Loud clothes, I could say nearly overly stylish … and I have never seen so many outrageously high stiletto heels on the streets. How do they walk? I think they take first place from the Italian ladies … donne Italiane, you need to come to Moscow to learn how to wear your high heels.
And what differentiates the Russian women from the men? This is coming from the mouth of a Muscovite: the women here work all day, are very hard-woring. And the men, I asked? The men drink all day, he responded!
The biggest downside to Moscow is that no one really speaks any other language other than Russian. You get the impression that the society is still very insular, focused on itself. Not totally ready to accept foreign tourists and people from the ‘outside’.
There is no signage in English, no one speaks or understands English, and they use the cyrillic alphabet thus it’s always adventurous moving around. Of course I’m being ethnocentric here and implying that English is the international language. Yet any country that I’ve been to that is trying to internationalize itself, will try and make it somewhat easier for foreigners to manoeuvre around. You will see what I mean when you try to click on the restaurant links below. The whole website is in cyrillic, so as a tourist you will never be able to find the given place, if you don’t speak and read Russian.
