Category Archives: Russia

History of Russia and Moscow

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A Swiss in Petersburg – enjoying the hospitality at the datscha

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The gate opens, and I am in a small paradise

On weekends, I am now a regular guest at the small and cosy datscha of Larissa, tucked away in the forest. The garden is taken care of by mum. There are hydrangea and lillies, and there are herbs, salad, red currant, black currant, strawberries, cucumbers and more.  A great Karma to own this paradise, and this is also the name of the cat.

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This village is also a skiing resort

Larissa loves skiing, and many of her friends are alpine skiers (горнолыжники). Skiing here, where I can see no mountains? I can hardly believe this. But Larissa’s favorite photo shows her as an excellent carver. It must have been possible to acquire these skills here somewhere. And, true, there is a valley nearby with ski lifts that are open until May. Alexander has founded the golden valley  and managed it for many years. Now his daughter has taken over.

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Cosy evenings with excellent Russian food 

Larissa and her mum make sure that I can enjoy all the specialties that Russian cooking offers, be it сырники (hot cheese), пироги (pies with blueberries or mushrooms), marinated  mushrooms, вареники (dumplings with blueberries) and more. I particularly liked the blueberry dumplings, and on my plate there was one without blueberries… “this will bring you luck”, Larissa says. This empty вареника is called  пустышка (it is “empty” or пустая). Later I hear that sometimes there was not enough filling for all the dumplings, and this is why the Russians invented the empty dumplings that bring luck –  a nice idea!

One evening, Larissa prepared a lovely шашлик (Schaschlik) barbecued in the garden, while it was pouring with rain. With this Schaschlik, we shared a tasty, dense Zinfandel from California (The Prisoner 2011) that reminded me of dried plums. A Russian-American marriage that I enjoyed much.

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Стихи or poems, a Russian tradition

One evening, Larissa and her mum surprise me with Russian poems. I am just always surprised, how many poems Russians can cite by heart, without having to stop and think. I already admired my Russian teacher and friend Anna that had grown up in former Leningrad, when she shared poems with friends at her parties. And here the same, Larissa and her mum do not stop… this is a short example – it is more a fun poem, but there were many, many longer poems starting with Puschkin and ending with modern poetists.

чижик пыжик
где ты был
на фонтанке вод(к)у пил
выпил рюмку, выпил две
закружилось в голове.
Fluffy siskin (in German: Zeisig)
where have you been.
At the Fontanka you drank water (or wodka),
you drank one glass, you drank two,
everything now turns in your head.
(This siskin is actually a tiny statue that brings luck to those that throw a coin at it).
Yes, thank you, Larissa and Tamara, for your hospitality, and I hope that I can soon give back this hospitality in Switzerland.
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A Swiss in Petersburg: To Peterhof or Петергов

The meteor flies under dark clouds

Just in front of the Ермитаж or Ermitage the meteor boats leave to take tourists to Peterhof within half an hour. I find a seat next to a young mum with her about 7 year old son who says that he is hungry. The mum unpacks apples and bananas for him. Very reasonable. He takes his mobile phone and makes a picture of a helicopter. “What do you need this helicopter for”, she asks in a friendly tone, “it will look like a small bee on your photo”, and she supports him to use the zoom to make it look like a small bird at least. “Oh, look at that black cloud, and we have no umbrella,” she sighs. Yes THAT cloud north of Piteri is very black. And as we arrive at Peterhof, it rains heavily and there is a strong wind. The tourists fight their way from the peer to the park and join the visitors there that have already bought a plastic coat or an umbrella at one of the kiosks.

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A longlong queue or очередь to the castle (museum)

As it is pouring with rain, I immediately head to the castle to be inside. I wanted to see the castle’s luxury this time; eleven years ago, I happened to visit Peterhof with Ernst on the санитарный день or sanitary day. This is a Russian institution. Once per month, each museum is closed for cleaning (as I understand this with my Swiss background) and this one day is different for each museum. Well, the museum sells tickets until two pm, now it is shortly before one pm, and the length of the queue is at least one hour. Be the castle open or not, visiting it needs more planning or the courage of Elena who just goes in and says that she has missed her group or has to buy a ticket for the group she is to guide through the museum. Here is about half the queue…

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Strolling through the wonderful нижний парк or lower park

No, the museum is nothing for me. There are also caves to visit, but they sell 800 tickets per day and the queue is about that long… Hence I decide to just stroll through this wonderful park that Peter the Great has conceived and, in some parts, even engineered himself.  The great fountain with the golden statues, Adam and Eva, the fish pond, the fun fountains jumping up unexpectedly for the joy of children and the sore of their parents, the little Montbijou Palace at the sea shore which somehow reminds me of Sanssouci in Potsdam… and so forth – this is one of the most beautiful parks I know, and I just miss Ernst, as he has enjoyed this gem so much with me eleven years ago. In the small restaurant Бель Вю or Belle Vue I eat an уху or fishsoup. and around five pm I head for the peer to take he meteor back to Piteri.

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Back to Piter on the windy sea and Newa

At the peer I join a long queue of tourists who are freezing under the cold wind. The meteor only approaches the peer quickly, fighting against the waves, to load the passengers all at once and then head off back to the Ermitage on a bumpy journey. I walk back along busy Newsky Prospekt (where I get some Nespresso capsulas for Elena’s coffee machine) and then along Griboedova to the house that is my home for four weeks. Elena and I chat until midnight – the white nights make us forget the time.

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A Swiss in Petersburg: Long fishing weekend or рыбалка

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Towards Finland

Larissa plans a long fishing weekend with friends at Puumala in Finland, where the glaciers have left a large number of  lakes and 1001 islands. Wednesday night we fight our way through the rush hour at Petersburg to spend the night in the Datscha and then drive north to Finland.

Heavy preparation at the Datscha

Larissa’s mum prepares a mushroom piroga and a blueberry piroga. A friend comes over and helps to load a boat engine and all parts of an inflatable boat. Larissa prepares material for the camping: Pots, flash lights, knives that cut well, a large board to prepare the fish we will catch and much more.

Going north to Finland, the country of vowels

The next day, we drive north, first on bumpy Russian roads (сonstruction work (ремонт) is slowing us down). At the border to Finland, we pass quickly. My passport with the multiple Visum to Russia is okay, and so are Larissa’s documents, including the license for the boat. “Look, how clean everything is here”, Larissa says. Yes, the roads are excellent. I no longer understand anything around me – so many vowels, often two packed together. Larissa speaks the language and I learn that “thank you” is “kiitos” in Finnish.

Shopping for the weekend

There are large supermarket areas. Euro is the money here. We buy vegetables, fruit (also cherries, called Kirsi like in Swiss German). There is a great wine shop with wines from around the world at good prices (actually better and lesser wines all have about the same prices – I buy a Gewürztraminer from Hugel). The bottles that we will take back to Russia are sealed into a bag to get the tax refunded.

Getting ready for the fishing or рыбалка

We find our small hut no 1 at the Puumala camping site. Max joins us, and after a meal, Max and Larissa start to unpack their imflatable boats. They first inflate the body, then put the floor in (it has been transported in pieces), then the rows, the engine and some add-ons like a meter for the depth of the water or a navigator, and Max also installs lamps, because he wants to fish in the night. After more than two hours of hard work the boats are in the water. Larissa and Max park them beneath our hut. A short midnight dinner with Katja and her dog Roxie that have now arrived, and while we go to sleep, Max leaves to do fishing.  Mischa and Kolja arrive and settle in the neighboring hut number 2.

Two nights and two days fishing

At 3PM on the first fishing day, our meter has spotted a lot of fish around stones and in the reeds (камыши), but not one of them trusted the many metal fish that the friends laid out to catch them. No шука (pike, Hecht), no окунь (perch, Barsch), no судак (pike perch, Zander). The friends try again in the evening – Mischa and Kolja bring back three fish around midnight and call us later to share their fish soup with them (уха or ucha).

I enjoyed the boat strolls on the lake and into the bays, under a deep blue sky and in the warm sun. The lake is very quiet, almost no boats on it.

On the second day, the lady boat catches one fish, and the two boy boats bring back something like six fish. They smoke the fish at the fireplace and make me try the tender result. Excellent. The friends leave for their second evening fishing, come back around midnight, as the sun has set now (but it is still not dark). They have not killed the fish they caught, as they thought, they had already caught enough. We share our dinner with some wodka and some wine.

Already over

On Sunday morning the friends pack their inflatable boats and all the fishing instruments (again a long procedure) and drive back home to Petersburg. Larissa and I first do some shopping in Lidl and Prisma (large super markets) and then get some more fsh at Disa, a large super market juat built for the Russians. They come here even in buses. At the Datscha, Blini are waiting for us that Tamara has prepared. We eat them with salmon and kaviar from the Disa shop and with strawberry marmalade from the cellar.

Thank you, Larissa, this was a great weekend.

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A Swiss in Petersburg: Spending a great Sunday in the Datscha

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Arriving at the datscha at sunset (and at midnight)

We leave Petersburg after the opera performance of the Flying Dutchman, at 10:30 PM. The sky is still bright and the sun shines. First we drive north on the large road to Finland, then we turn towards Ladozhskoje Ozero. The streets are now narrower, then bumpy, and at midnight Larissa’s mother welcomes us in the Datscha nicely tucked away close to the forest. The sun is slowly setting and we share some strawberries from the forest nearby (земляника) and from the garden (глубника).

Into the woods looking for berries and mushrooms

On Sunday I join the Russian tradition to stroll through the woods and look for berries and mushrooms. Larissa explains the difference between “look for” (искать) and collect (собирать) mushrooms (грибы). While I find just two red mushrooms (красный гриб), Larissa and her mum find about 10 red mushrooms, 10 chanterelles (лисичка) and 2 сыроежка (Russula in English or Täubling in German). We had to look for the mushrooms, we could not just harvest or collect them.

On the way we also eat and collect strawberries and blueberries. The fluffy dog Raily loves blueberries and chews them away from the bushes.

Our menus: Beljaschi or Ъеляши and a risotto

For lunch Larissa’s mother prepares Beljaschi. This is beef and lamb meet packed into little sacks made from white paste, and they taste great. Larissa prepares a fresh limonade with lemon and ginger. The Wodka is spiced with juniper berries – I will have to remember this.

In the evening we have a risotto spiced with the mushrooms we found today. A white wine from Tuscany accompanied the meal (La Pioggia). A salad caprese is the entry and strawberries from the forest are our dessert.

I learn that in Russia the mushrooms are first cooked in boiling water. This is what I watch Larissa’s mum do and this is what Elena confirms, when I was back in town. Only the сыроежка is not cooked in water, and this is where the name comes from (eat them raw).

The village is also a skiing resort

The village is a skiing resort; Larissa says that here you ski on hills rather than mountains. But the hill looks nice, there are several ski lifts and several ski resorts here.  The lifts start at 9 AM, when it is still dark  in winter; the sun  rises around 10 AM. Well, we are quite far north here.

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A Swiss in Petersburg: Looking for a hidden bookshop

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Златоуст – Slatoust: A governmental institute for the Russian language

Every day I take lessons with Tatjana. She works me through Russian grammar: Gerundium, participle, difficulties of Russian verbs etc.

Today I decided to buy more grammar books, some of them Tatjana has written herself. I take the metro to Gorskaja, and I stroll down Kammennoostroveskij prospekt to find the address 24/24. It is easy to locate the house 24.

Through the подъезд (passage) I enter a messy courtyard surrounded by several buildings, some under reconstruction. There is only one office with a business sign to the right. I go in and ask the direction to Slatoust. “We do not know,” a lady tells me angrily, not looking at me.

What now? There is another door to a building wrapped up in blue metal. Obviously a serious ремонт (reconstruction) going on here. Eventually I notice a very small piece of paper in a plastic bag hanging on the blue metal wall, with Slatoust on it. I follow the arrow, find a hidden door and behind it there is an office with book shelves. Here it is. Why did the neighbor just across in the same courtyard not know?

Slatoust has a wonderful selection of books that support learning Russian. With a heavy plastic bag I leave this friendly place to return to the Graschdanskaja and continue with my studies.

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A Swiss speaking Russian in Petersburg – Швейцарка говорящая по-русски в Питере

Дом Расколника or the House of Raskolnikow

As I leave the house that is my home for 4 weeks, I see a large group of tourists around the small monument of Dostojewsky at the edge of Graschdanskaja Uliza. Raskolnikow, one of the heroes of Dostojewsky, lived under the roof in “my” house, and a guide explains the story standing in front of a plate with the number “4”. As she waits for the next group, I ask her in Russian, what this is about. She is confused, aswers in English, hands out a flyer to me that shows all the posts that tourist groups are looking for today and turns to the next group. There seems to be a special Dostojewsky day,  but neither his birthday nor his day of death. I also heard that the code to enter “my” house had been published in tourists’ guidebooks and the house switched to an electronic contact system later.

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Они все читают карты, я зто делать не умею – they all read maps, I cannot do that

Now at Sennaja Ploschtschadj, I am looking for the metro line that would take me to Ploschtschadj Alexandrogo Newskogo. I intend to visit the convent that Peter the Great built for this hero of the 13th century who conquered Karelia for the Republic of Novgorod (which in the 15th century became part of Russia).  I hear a voice say in Russian that they all read maps here and that she cannot do that. It is the woman selling ice cream. I answer that reading maps is not so difficult She opens her eyes wide: Do you speak Russian? Oh, I am sorry… where are you from?…

Вы Русская? Вы проваславная? Ну, входите! – Are you Russian? Are you Orthodox? Well, enter!

At the gate to the Newskij Monastyr or Convent, tourists now have to pay an entrance fee. I approach the cashier and ask: Сколько стоит (how much does it cost)? He looks at me and asks, whether I am Russian. No,  I answer, я просто  Швейцарка говорящая по-русски (I am just a Swiss speaking Russian). He asks me: Вы праваславная (are you orthodox)? No, I am not, I answer to him. He looks at me… and says: Ну, входите (well, enter). So I enter this convent without paying, as the Russians do, and, in the church, I light a candle, before visiting the cemetaries.

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Tam – вам – фото or there –  you – foto

My next stop is the Kusnetschij Rynok, a nice fruit, vegetable, meat and fish market. Between cherries and abricots, there is a young chap selling his fruit. He approaches me in some sort of pigeon Russian: “There – you – foto”. I do not understand him. He repeats his words. “You can speak normally”, I respond in Russian.  Now he explains clearly that he wants to take a foto of me with his cherries… and for the foto, I also buy some cherries from him.

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Дом Быта – Dom Beat

To round off the afternoon, I try the Dom Beat. The waitor serves a tasty Cappuccino with cinnamon. I look for Anna that I had met in the plane. She has her free day and is not there. The charming manager already knows and Anna. We arrange to meet next week.

Летучий Голландец or the Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner

Larrissa has acquired tickets for the Flying Dutchman in the Michailovskij Teatr. A great setting for this tragic opera. The actors sing in German, and I follow the Russian subtitles to better understand the German words. Young artists, a young stage director and a young conductor have set up this opera with a lot of creativity, placing it into our times with rolling suit cases and mobile phones. The singers were excellent, especially the flying Dutchman and Senta, his angel who saved him.

Why do they call the Flying Dutchman “летучий”and not “летающий”? Tatjana explains to me that it is a characteristic of the Dutchman that he flies – he permanently flies (letutschij) and he does not just happen to fly right now (letajuschij). Well, Russian has a lot of nuances, and I know, I still have to learn a lot.

На дачу or to the Datscha

After the opera, Larissa takes me to her Datscha north of Petersburg. Another Russian experience ahead of me.

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A Swiss in Petersburg: Дождемся or do we wait to get anything?

A loft in the south of Petersburg

Рарк в небе or a park in the sky, this is what этажи лофтрроект (etaji loftprojekt) promises. There are also galleries and an exhibition of Dutch artists. Larissa and her friend Marina want to meet there and take me with them.

Dutch art in the dark

In the loft we find the exhibition “Shadow Boxing”. It turns out be not “shadow” boxing, but boxing in the dark. We get small flash lights and dive into a totally dark room. We set out with our flash lights to uncover what might be there. We find large pictures, one showing Adam (he is black and strong) and Eva (she is white and fragile). what might this mean? The white race dying out? The pictures look threatening and are hard to decipher. There are also sculptures, one of them a wooden roof and a dead body hanging over it, with his brush still in his hands. Hm… Larissa and Marina mumble about Dutch humor and that Petersburg has a special relationship with the Netherlands. Right, since Peter the Great.


Дождемся

Now we are hungry. There is a terrasse with tables made from cable reels. We order some drinks, spaghetti, salad and okroschka. We wait for half an hour, then we receive our drinks. We wait for another hour, and then receive spaghetti… there is no okroschka left. in Russian дождемся means to wait until the very end and then get something. Well, I waited and did not get anything. This is less than “дождемся”. Larissa and Marina shared their Spaghetti with me, how kind.

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The park in the sky – парк в небе

But, where is the park in the sky? We see people on the roof of this loft building.  We find a cashier, who makes us pay and sign a document. We find a balcony, and from there plain iron ladders dauntingly poiniting to the roof, here on the fourth or fifth floor, with the streets below us. This is why we had to sign! We carefully climb up those ladders, and find an extension of the restaurant on the roof (the food travels in a lift). Young people around us, stretching on matrasses. Cables on this roof – good that I am small enough to fit underneath. We are by far the oldest guests, particularly me, the baby boomer – being frowned at by the younger folks around us. The view of Petersburg is spectactular, sure – but… this experience seems very Russian to me.

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Thank you, Larissa and Marina, for this very Russian experience.

Later I read that the Lonely Planet recommends the Loft Project Etagi as “one of the city’s coolest galleries”. Oh yes, it is surely cool and unconventional. And it does not come without adrenalin.

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A Swiss in Petersburg: Getting Settled

Дом быта or Dom Beat, a trendy bar

In the plane Anna joins me, young and fresh, on her way back from the US. We chat all the way, we both leave aside our Spanish lessons, she points me to the Dom Beat, which, as I later find out, is one of the main picks by Lonely Planet. A charming introduction to Piteri.

A great welcome at the Airport

I love finding a good friend meeting me at the airport. Larissa took me to town in her car.  Carefully telling me, in Petersburg, I should not just cross the street as I do in Basel. There is no law giving precedence to pedestrians. Oh yes, I will be in a bigger city now.

Living in a nice private apartment

Elena has just renovated her apartment and I will share it with her. It is in a small and quiet street close to the city center. She welcomes me with steamed vegetables.

White nights

My host looks after apartments and one of them is close to the blue mosque overlooking the Neva with all the gems of the city, the Ermitage in the forefront. At 9pm, and we decide to have dinner and we enjoy the view to the Neva on the first floor of  a nice restaurant, leaving the. place around 11 pm, and it is still bright.