Back From Moscow

I returned a couple of hours ago from Moscow where I was on what the Russian dictionaries define as a business trip. My boss was away attending to something of importance. So there was no face to face encounter this time. Thus, I got some free time, which I devoted to what I had long wanted to do - to go to Red Square. It's just a stone's throw from where I work. I decided to attend the place. It's dear to me for no end of personal reasons, though it's a place much belauded by the previous communist regime, and the communist party with which I have my own scores...

First, I discovered that the old approach to Red Square has been changed beyond recognition, and not to my liking. The spacious square is now cramped and pressurized by a row of restaurants and money-making establishments at the approaches... I don't like this. That OLD place must look like it used to be. Making money on holy things is unholiness.

Close to Red Square, I encountered a group of foreigners. They spoke a queer language. I stopped and listened. They were Americans. As a (retired) interpreter, I understood it in no time. I stopped in their midst just FOR LISTENING TO THEM because it was one of the few episodes in the last 26 years in which I could listen to LIVING English. No, I didn't understand much (same as it was with Charlie). Some of them were Chinese or Korean. Some Jewish (I've got a sniff for them). They LOOKED totally different from the normal Russians. Their countenances were convenient, their faces bespoke good food, their MANNER OF SPEECH was absolutely un-Russian, a mixture of self-assurance and good manners (with a "go-to-hell-boy-I-don't-care-for-what-is-happening-to-you" attitude).

They went. One remained. I fell to talking with him. - Hey fellow! Looks like you're from the States, aren't you? - We sure are. So what? - Oh, nothing special. I'm just curious. I'm Russian, actually. What are you going to do here? - Lots of things. But sight-seeing mostly. - How long are you going to stay here? - Two weeks.- Are you from one state of different one?- We're from all over the States. - Have a good time and enjoy yourself! - Thank you! - Incidentally, is it difficult to understand me? - Not at all! You speak beautiful English. - Ah, those are remnants of my professional past. Good bye! - Bye!

And I went away to Red Square. Go any site in the Net devoted to it. It will supply more and better information than I. The Red Square... The very center of Moscow. The heart of Russia. I haven't been there for a long time. One of the times was just before my leaving for Africa 34 years ago... A few hours after that, I was in mid-air on the way to Khartoum... I wrote a story about that. Don't know if you have an English copy of it. But that is one of my best stories.

Saint Basil's Cathedral is IMPOSSIBLE to describe. It's absolutely gorgeous. As I stood before it, I once again delighted the ingenuity of its designers. The structure is IMPRESSIVE without being HUGE. Indisputably, this is a masterpiece of culture in general and architecture in particular. See it on the Net. I turned and went back, passing Lenin's mausoleum. Stood for a while a few meters from where Stalin and other Russian leaders once used to stand, gesturing to the exultant crowd. Then I went to where I invariably go when I visit the Moscow foreign languages second-hand bookshop. I stayed there for quite some time. To me, being in a bookshop (especially with a department with dictionaries and foreign language books) is like being in a drug den for a drug addict... I must make a SUPER effort to force me out of the place... Another apt comparison is .... a drunkard in a wine cellar... Exactly so!

Finally I left (and left a good amount of money at the shop, buying only a fraction of what I longed for...) And went to the bus site. Took one, and in some two hours was back in my hometown. The trip was not easy. I was hungry (and had no food. I needed a pee (the driver didn't stop the bus for a toilet pause - the more trips he will make, the more money he'll get), and there was no leg room in the bus. I didn't like it very much but had to lump it...

So it goes... Now I am at home, and very tired... But work still stands undone.