CRF: Russia

"CRF" is not a crime show you've never heard of, it stands for "Cutting Room Floor." Below are some of our favorite pics that never made the blog. We figured we'd reminisce a little while we're home for a visit. (Back in Europe August 16th).
Udelnaya Fair in Saint Petersburg is one of the most photogenic places we've ever been. Everything there, inanimate and animate, was intriguing. At the time, we were bummed that picture taking was unwelcome - something we understood through the hints thrown at us by vendors with varying levels of adamancy. Even still, we managed to click more than we could use in our post about the market.
Most of our time in Russia was bleak (weather wise) and the majority of our memories are snow covered. At the market, some vendors packed snow into the shape of a table and threw their inventory right on top. Every now and then, you'd see a doll's head or antenna poking through some freshly fallen snow. None of it seemed to deter people from coming to sell, buy, swap and mingle. I suppose, it's silly to think that they wouldn't just be used to this sort of thing.
To get out to Udelnaya we took the metro, which was an experience in and of itself. Open since 1955, the Saint Petersburg underground is the 13th busiest in the world. More impressive than the volume is the depth. We boarded this escalator to go down to the train and kept going and going...and going... and going. Video screens provided some eye candy for your journey, along with the optical illusion of watching people move diagonally in the opposite direction. The stations in the city are particularly deep (the deepest is 105 meters below ground) because, during the Cold War, they were made to double as bomb shelters. That, combined with the Stalinist architecture and sheer size of the stations make the metro sort of mind blowing.
Above ground, it continued to snow. Our time in Russia was limited to Saint Petersburg, due to our Russian language class and, yet, we still don't feel like we have a real grasp on the city. The icy sidewalks, which women traversed in stilettos with remarkable skill, made it difficult to move around and cyrillic alphabet kept our noses in the books. It would be nice to revisit it defrosted.
Yes, we went to Russia in January knowing full well that it would be Russian in January. So, we really can't complain about the extreme cold or white landscape. We were there for the Russian Orthodox Christmas., which wasn't celebrated all that much but did keep the Christmas markets open a little longer. After some cozyness with our families at home, we arrived just in time for it - and since carols and hot alcohol (wine and beer) are perfect cures for the doldrums, we were happy for the holiday extension.
As soon as the day passed, the breakdown began. People pulled their struggling vehicles into the area which had been closed to traffic for weeks and loaded their trunks. The sheds were stripped of their wrapping paper and, just like that, the city resumed its regularly scheduled programming.
Once it was all cleared away, the all-year street vendors looked a little lonesome. Fewer people walked up to their crowded little windows for fruit or a pastry or a beer. They just shuffled by toward the nearest subway station - the holidays all packed up and put back in the attic until next year.
And then there were the pigeons.

Fish N Chips

We have now had two bags of chips in one week, probably the most potato chips either of us have eaten since last year's Super Bowl. Something about studying just makes you crave junk food. Also, something about crab potato chips just make you need to buy them. They hit your tongue with a tangy vinegar taste, which leads nicely into a sweet imitation crab meat flavor. I liked them more than the Red Caviar Lay's or the Forest Mushroom Lay's we had in Latvia.

There was a "Baked Potato with all the Fixings" flavored chip for a brief moment when I was a kid. Sour cream, chives, cheddar and bacon were all included. I was amazed how all those flavors could be packed in there invisibly. Then, Pringles came out with a pizza flavor, which I found truly impressive. However, I feel that I never knew the art of potato chip flavoring until I came to Europe.

Other noteworthy Lay's varieties here include Shashlik (shish kabob), Red Onion, Dill and Bacon.

Crowded Little Windows

St. Petersburg doesn't have a lot of bodega-type stores, and the ones that it does have are generally tiny and crowded. It's often difficult to get the shopkeeper to understand what it is that you are asking for - looking through their little windows, they can't tell what you are pointing at.
Everything is pressed up against the glass so that passers by can see exactly what is for sale.
This store was impressive because of the number of bottles. In general, Russians don't seem to crave variety in the same way that Americans do - there aren't as many brands of similar products as there are in U.S. stores. Two categories that have proven to be the exceptions: beer and vodka.

Snow Shovelers in High Places

It's been snowing a lot here in St. Petersburg, and we've had a terrible time getting around. Unlike in New York, where buildings are responsible for keeping their stretch of sidewalk clear and free of snow, nobody seems to be in charge of removing snow from walkways. Rebecca and I have both fallen, as has basically everyone in our class. The streets are so treacherous that, eventually, everyone goes down.

Something that the city's inhabitant refuse to stand for is a snowy roof. Everywhere we go, people are shoveling snow down onto the streets.
There are two reasons. Firstly, the buildings are relatively old and the roofs leak. When the snow melts, it might end up on someone's floor. Our teacher has a lot of problems with this - she tells us about sleeping with bowls on the bed to catch dripping water and ruined ceilings. The second reason? It's better to get the snow down in a controlled way, instead of having it slip off and crush some unsuspecting pedestrian below.
The shovelers often work in teams, with two or three people up above and one person below who warns people and shouts up when a car is approaching. They usually rope off the sidewalk, too, so that nobody wanders into the fall zone. The snow makes an unusual "WHUMP - WHUMP" sound as it hits the pavement.
This is the courtyard behind our apartment - the snow hasn't been removed, just piled up high in the garden plots around the trees and against the buildings. During the last snowfall we watched people shoveling the snow that was being pushed off the edge of the buildings. Any more snow and they won't be able to get their cars in.

Why Don't They Have This in America?

Or if they do, how have I never seen one? This is a restaurant check-book that includes a working calculator. This way, you can calculate gratuity, splitting, currency exchange rates, etc. Yes, you can use your cell phone but I neither have a cell phone right now nor do I like to take out a phone at the table of a restaurant. Besides, this is way cuter.

Russian Food: Things Wrapped in Dough

Merlin made this observation, quite astutely, after I had compiled photos of the three traditional Russian dishes we have tasted or encountered. Yes, they are all some variation of something wrapped in dough, but the somethings and the doughs definitely make each dish its own thing.
These are pelmeni, which means "ear shaped bread." They are basically Russian dumplings, made popular first by Siberians who would make large batches to keep frozen outside for months in the winter. Mine had mushroom and onion and Merlin's had the same combination, but with the addition of meat. While mine were shaped like crescent moons, Merlin's were pinched together like tri-cornered hats. It seemed like a pretty brilliant way to tell the dumplings apart. We've also had some Georgian pelmeni, which looked (and acted) like Chinese soup dumplings and we've seen some others that were folded into tiny rings like tortellini. The dough was almost paper thin, making them less starchy than wontons and more delicate than pierogi.
Not to be confused with pirozhki - which is the Russian dish above. Cafes and bakeries have large rectangles of these that they slice up into servings. It's sort of the savory pie equivalent of a sheet cake. The most popular varieties seem to be spinach, mushroom, ham and cheese, meat, potato and salmon. This was a potato-mushroom slice. It tasted exactly like a stuffed kettle-boiled bagel. The dough was sweet and chewy, toothsome yet undeniably silken. Then, of course, it surrounded mushroom-onion-potato mash, so it's really hard to go wrong. Pleasantly surprising was the fact that it was warm, handed to us in a plastic bag right from the bakery counter.
All the blini I've ever seen have looked like miniature pancakes, about the size of a hockey puck but thinner. However, all the ones we've seen advertised here -and the ham and cheese one Merlin ordered- have looked indistinguishable from crepes. What sets these apart is the fact that they are most often made from wheat, as opposed to just white flour. Other than that, it's like any crepe or pancake we've seen in every country. There's a reason this concoction is so popular. 1) it's easy 2) it's quick to cook and 3) it's super versatile. The dough doesn't really affect the filling, the filling doesn't really affect the dough. It can be sauced, dry, cheesy, sweet, savory. The only thing wrong with blini is the fact that they, unlike pirozkhi or even pelmeni, necessitate utensils. My feeling is, if I'm going to eat something wrapped in dough, it should be hand held.
In Saint Petersburg, if something is not wrapped in dough, it is wrapped in seaweed. Sushi is everywhere. Every block has a sushi restaurant, every casual or 'fast food' place has sushi on the menu. It's like walking around New York City and counting the pizza places. It's like hot dogs in Berlin. Posters, like this one, are plastered outside of almost every establishment showing off their colorful creations. As you can see, cheese factors highly into the art of Russian sushi. Look closely and you'll see a roll filled entirely with cream cheese and then topped with more cream cheese and roe. Nigiri doesn't escape the dairy wand either, as a majority of the pieces have melted cheese on top. Past the posters, through the windows of the sushi restaurants, you see tables of happy diners sipping clear liquid which, of course, is not sake.

A Strange Football Season

I have not been able to stop watching football while in Europe. You'd think that the time difference and the lack of television coverage would have kept me from it, but I've actually watched quite a bit (sadly?). The playoffs started this weekend, and the only game that is on at a reasonable time is the Kansas City - Baltimore tilt. It began here at nine o'clock, eight hours later than it's real, one o'clock kickoff. We bought some Russian junk food and a tiny bottle of $3 vodka (85 rubles). The potato chips may be Lays, but they're "red caviar" flavored. The vodka is "Putinka" brand, which we are suspicious about. The alcohol is vile. The potato chips are amazingly good - they have a sort of creamy, fishy taste that might be off-putting to some.

I watch football on my computer, illegally streamed from a Swedish cable television station. These are the Swedes who come on for commentary during commercial breaks. They are, above all else, very earnest seeming. I have no idea what they are talking about, but they do seem to have a fairly good grasp of the football terminology - it sounds like "touchdown smorgasborgenblad halfback morgenmalganmeatball Joe Flacco," or something like that.

It's amazing to see the sunlight of middle-America flash on my computer screen, beamed to the dark, Russian night via Sweden.

Russian Sign Language

This is our most frequent view of St. Petersburg - our classroom's marker board. When we leave class, we go home and study. When we go out to dinner or drinks, we break out our flashcards (which are cut up squares of paper - index cards do not exist in Russia). However, being able to walk around and read the signs, albeit slowly, makes us fel like it's all worth it. Here are a few signs spotted on the streets of St. Petersburg, to give you an idea of the language we're up against.

Some signs look simple to pronounce. While there are a handful of characters in the Cyrillic alphabet that look like Roman letters, they don't correspondent with the same sounds. This word actually reads 'Res-toe-ron,' which means - you guessed it- Restaurant. My new dream is to open a Russian restaurant in NYC and name it Pectopah. I'd give a 10% discount to anyone who gets the joke.

Other signs look completely indecipherable, like this one, but wind up sounding and meaning something completely familiar. It's really exciting to look at a sign, sound it out and begin to hear familiar words emerge. The second line here reads: Een-for-mats-eon-ye Stend. Information Stand!
This sign seemed to work the same way at first: ma-ga-zeen. Magazine! Unfortunately, магазин actually means 'shop' and the word for magazine is pronounced journal (журнал). Awesome.

Iconic branding always aids in a quick translation.

Yes, that is how you spell Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie using Cyrillic. These names don't actually exist in the Russian language, so these are basically phonetic approximations.

Don't be fooled, most Russian words sound absolutely nothing like English. So, while I can probably read the above sentences aloud, I wouldn't be able to tell you what most of it meant. We've been having fun coming up with hints to remember the fifty or so words we've learned so far. For example, the word for 'parents' is родителей (pronounced roditaly). One of our classmates is from Italy, so we remember the word for parents by thinking "What did Manola do when she wanted to communicate with her parents? She wrote Italy. Roditaly!"

The Golden Arches are a language all their own.

Note from the blogger: Americans need an invitation from the Russian Consulate in order to apply for an entry visa. To obtain ours, we decided to sign up for a two week Russian language class. We figured the ability to read Cyrillic while driving around Belarus and Ukraine will be extremely helpful anyway.

Udelnaya Fair

Udelnaya fair isn't about rides or the midway - it's about "antiques." It's the largest flea-market type place that I've ever been to, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. We took a long subway ride out there, not knowing exactly what to expect.

There were countless rows of stalls which gave way to snowy, tree-dotted expanses, which led to more stalls and more merchants. Some goods were displayed carefully in little, open shops. Others were strewn about on snow tables or hung up on tree branches.
Calling it an antique market is a little misleading - one could find anything from vases and painting to rolls of stripped electrical wiring and used faucet gaskets. There were people selling food, like the man above, and people selling soviet era rifles (complete with ammunition). Stacks of pornography sat next to leather bound books and box upon box upon box of bootleg DVDs surrounded the odd iconographic image.

There were clothes, too. In fact, cloth made up the better part of the market. Wedding dresses, kids snowsuits, racks of fur...

We were told many times not to take photographs - some people said it respectfully, some yelled at us and shouted to other people around them, pointing at us. A few people covered up their wares with blankets or pulled down the gates in front of their shops. This place has a reputation for selling stolen, illegal and counterfeit goods, so I can understand their concern. It was big enough, though, that we were able to get a lot of pictures just by continuing to move.

On the other side of the room - hockey skates, of course.

I tried to get a better picture of the wedding dresses hanging on the side of this shed, but one woman was quite adamant that I move along, away from her space. The dresses were incredible. A few looked ancient, with many layers of yellowing lace.
Some people didn't mind us taking their picture. This man actually smiled and waved. I saw a lot of people carrying nordic skis around, so he may have been making a lot of sales today.
I'm not exactly sure why people would come here to buy food, but it seemed as though crackers and biscuits were the most popular items on the edible goods tables.
We didn't see anyone else who looked like a tourist - it's pretty far away from the center of the city, and the cold might be a deterrent for some. It was fascinating, though, and I really recommend taking the trip. It's open on the weekends from ten 'til five, but I'm not sure about the week days. To get there, take the blue subway line to the "Udel'naya" stop, leave the station and turn right. Cross the train tracks and head for the group of modern kiosks, which mark the entrance to the market. Keep walking through the kiosks, and then just walk and walk and walk.

Merry (Russian Orthodox) Christmas!

Today is Russian Orthodox Christmas (they go by the Julian calendar which is 13 days behind the internationally used calendar. So, technically it's December 25th today). It seems like any other day here, really. Our teacher, Irena, laughed a bit when we wished her a Merry Christmas this morning and said that "only really religious people do special things" when I asked if she was having a special dinner tonight. Well, I thought, there must be a lot of really religious people then, because we've been seeing signs of Christmas festivity everywhere!
This little Christmas tree is in our hostel room (the Estonian finger puppet on top is mine). Lights and trees are all over the city and Christmas carols have been playing in loop at the local cafe. So, it's been a little hard to believe how small of a deal the holiday is today.
I mean, check out this Christmas market! Doesn't seem too religiously observant to me. The performer's voice boomed so loudly that we didn't linger too long, just long enough to grab two cups of hot wine. Hot beer was also available, but we didn't try it.
When buildings that look like this are your backdrop, you really have to take the whimsy up a notch at your festivals.
Now imagine being surrounded by all this eye candy, hearing a man's voice singing children's songs booming in the distance and then running into these photo op actors. I felt like I was the only human in a cartoon and was half expecting Roger Rabbit to pop out from behind a tree or Paula Abdul to start dancing with a cat.
I mistook this man handing out flyers for Santa Claus (so did this kid), when he was really just Grandfather Frost. You see, all of this Yuletide-type festivity is actually attached to New Year's Day - which is why today, Christmas Day, just isn't a big deal. Russians weren't allowed to be religious during the Soviet era, so they kept Christmas traditions alive by shifting them to New Year's. Since 1992, Christmas has been reinstated, but New Year's Day still remains the bigger deal holiday.

New Year's, Christmas, whatever gives me the chance to enjoy a few more glasses of hot wine in a plastic cup is holiday enough for me.