When smoke gets in your eyes

We cough and splutter and wear our surgical masks in the streets. There is no air, no wind and no sign of rain in sight, to relieve our city torment. The sun is blocked out by the smog but the heat gets through. Many expats here in Moscow have left to go back to their respective countries. We cannot go out, we keep all the windows shut, we go stir crazy.

People are leaving like lemmings from a sinking ship. We are leaving soon and we count the seconds till we go. Moscow 2010, mega city of polluted hell.

I know this is not a climate change or political blog but I have to shout at the top of my voice. When will politicians the world over act and stop climate change what are they waiting for? The weather is changing accross the world, summers and winters are giving us floods, heat and cold that we have never seen before.The love affair with oil must end now. Sorry to be political but it scares me to death.

See:  UN climate talks are stuck in the mud

.....Update  11/08/2010: Yesterday and today the smog has lifted a bit. Maybe this is due to Captain Putin flying over the smoke and commanding it to leave or the mass sacking of public officials? The real problem is due to authorities not having enough money, old equipement and due to very bad planning.....oh and climate change causing hotter summers.

A summer afternoon in Moscow

I leave the comfort of my air conditioned living room to take junior for a walk in a local park in Moscow. I open the front door and the heat hits us, as if opening an oven door. The smell of acrid burning fills our noses. The heat and smell is relentless, unforgiving and still refuses to leave us. We make our way to the park. I see the same people in the streets. I pass a car with black windows, that allow you see through and I see the same man, I saw last week on the same walk, although this time he is with a different woman. He is receiving his afternoon blow job. It must be a weekly tradition for him to have this relief in the same street every week. Muscovite's fly by in their black air con boxes on wheels, tinted windows, mobiles glued to an ear, in their hurry to the next deal. They drive the usual gas guzzling suspects, such as BMW's, Mercedes and Rovers.

As we arrive at the park, I spot a small fire on the banks of the lake or "pond" as the Russians call it. The grass on the bank is yellow and dry. A group of Russian teens sit on the bank by the fire, indifferent to the fire and smoke that burns next to them. I leave junior in his pushchair, grab an empty wine bottle form a trash can and go down to the lake to fill it with water to dowse the fire. After 6 bottles, the fire is out, the teens continue to chat and frolic and I, the invisible foreign hero, continues on his hot way. Before I go, I ask them in English why they did nothing? They smirk and ignore me. Teens, perhaps they are no different in Moscow as they are in Milan, Manchester or Madrid? Responsibility evades them, life goes on. Was I the same? No.

I put junior on a swing and pushed him back and forth, forgetting how hard I am pushing him, still tense and annoyed, I see the same nannies and mothers at the play ground. After forty minutes, I have had enough and we head home past the drunks on benches, to the sanctuary of our cool oasis that is home.

Review of Suzdal and hotel Sloboda

This weekend, we were finally successful in our efforts to drive to Suzdal, (see other post). The road trip from Moscow took 4 hours, covering just over 220 kilometers. The road was covered in smoke from the forest fires that still burn outside Moscow. We stayed in a hotel called Sloboda, I know it sounds like a hotel for slobs but its not bad by Russian standards but has some faults that I will mention below. If you have moved to Moscow or are staying in Moscow for a week or so, I can recommend visiting Suzdal. The hotel Sloboda is a 10 minute walk from Suzdal.

I know I must be the worst guest any hotel could have, since I love to complain if things are not right. I strongly believe, that if you travel a long way and pay good money,  if something is not right then you should and must complain and I did when we left the hotel, the girl on reception looked annoyed and said nothing by way of an apology.

The hotel is off the main road on the left before you reach Suzdal. Its a group of buildings and log cabins that are situated in the gardens of the hotel. We paid 3,400 rubles for one night. The room was, as they call it "standard" and parking was extra. The standard room had no air-con and was situated in the roof of the hotel, so you can imagine the heat. Non "standard" rooms have air con and a mini bar. Parking in the hotel is 500 rubles if you want to park inside or 100 rubles if you want to park in the road, along side the hotel.

Parking should be free in my opinion, since you are staying in the hotel and all rooms should have air-con as standard. If you have small children, if you are disabled or if you have lots of luggage, you will not be happy since the hotel has no lift. There is also no ramp for pushchairs (strollers) to go into the hotel. The pool is more of a kids paddling pool than an actual pool, The staff are rude but the rooms are big and the beds are comfortable. The hotels caters for weddings and we were woken up two times, once at midnight then again at one in the morning by fireworks, probably to celebrate the weddings. These fireworks sounded as if they had be launched from inside the hotel and our room shook each time. Astonishing as it sounds, after my critical opinion, I would recommend this hotel if you go in winter and stay in one of their charming log cabins, despite the bad attention to detail, the hotel is nice and worth a visit if only for a night to allow you to look around Suzdal.

However, the saving grace of our weekend, was the visit to the Kremlin. This is a short walk from the hotel and is a white walled building with a large museum packed with old stuff and there is a restaurant situated in the grounds of the Kremlin. The restaurant is called Puchkarskaya Sloboda. Its very nice inside with high wooden chairs and tables and an old polished original wood floor. The restaurant has a vaulted ceiling like a wine cellar and the restaurant has many fine samovars on display. The meal for two, without any alcohol, cost us 1,600 rubles and included a starter each and a simple main course. The waiters were quick and helpful and the service was fast. The food was good, rather than "excellent" but worth having, although in my opinion rather expensive for what it was.

Suzdal, is worth a visit, if only for the restaurant and the Kremlin. The town has a tourist market where every stall sells the same old tourist stuff. The town has a river running through it and the town is not bad as Russian towns go, although the pavements have many large holes in them, which will test the wheels on your pushchair, if you have a young child or children. Only spend a day there, as a day will be enough! You can also see visit a wooden village and other churches in and around Suzdal.  

Note: Be warned that the women that sell tickets and that check tickets at the museums and tourist places, are generally rather miserable, they check your ticket as if you were entering a foreign country with a suspect passport and a bag of cocaine up your bottom.

All said and done, It was very good to get out of Moscow and if you live in Moscow you will need to get out as often as you can, even if it means spending hours in the traffic to reach your Moscow escape. As I said before, Moscow is not Russia.

Photos:

An Interesting house in Suzdal
A small church near Suzdal that requires a long walk to get to 
Wooden house for rent at the hotel Sloboda 

© All Rights Reserved.