Of late I go out for lunch less and less, trying to maximise my time at work and keep expenses to a minimum. Today, however, I was interrupted from my stupor by a lovely text message from my ducky, who asked about the possibility of a nice little tiffin together. I guess my Movable Feast will have to stay in Deepfreeze for another day. No big loss.
Stepping outside, I had to keep my cardigan on as it has been getting nippier by the day. It seems it's been a while since I last took a walk on the Arbat, a pedestrian mall popular with both Russian and foreign tourists; there've been some noticeable changes. For example there's now a casting agency (horrendously rendered as kastingovoe agenstvo in Russian) called Fashion Buro just around the corner. A far cry from the Politburo of the CCCP. (Too bad I really didn't have time to get a peek to find out if the place is all pukka. Like the White Rabbit, I had to hurry.) Charcoal pencil artists have gotten loads better; the bookstore of the Ukrainian Cultural Centre is now open (my verdict: "a complete waste of good space"); and Terranova, this teen fashion store, is offering clothes for no more than 299 rubles. Add to that Mexx, Esprit and the spiffing new building opened by TNK-BP as their headquarters and you've got a neighborhood that's gone downright upmarket.
Lolled about the front of the restaurant before my macushla came. We ate at Tridevyatoye tsarstvo near the restaurant Praga end of Arbat. The name, wittily rendered as 3/9 Tsartsvo, has its origins in the phrase "tridevyatoye tsarstvo, tridesyatoye gosudarstvo," (three-nine kingdom, three-ten government), which is usually taken as the spatial equivalent of the temporal "once upon a time". More apropos, it's the Russian equivalent to Star Wars Episode IV's "In a galaxy far, far away". In other words, a kingdom where many Russian folktales are set. In a linguistic forum online, Inessa found out that the numbers in the phrases actually meant that it took 27 days (=3x9, or one month in the lunar calendar) to reach the kingdom, and 30 (=3x10) to reach the government. Kings are easier to reach than presidents? So is that a reflexion of government in general, or just the Kremlin?
Apart from being packaged well, Tridevyatoye tsarstvo's food is also très bon marché. (Hmmm, first Sultanna Frantsuzova and then this? Is Moscow actually becoming more *affordable*? Gasp!) Between my muirnín and I, we spent only 400 rubles. That's actually a steal.
On the way back, I took a bit of time having a shufti with the souvenir stands that line the kilometre-long cobblestoned street. My first memories of Moscow are associated with this street. About a month ago, when my poppet was in Prague, I saw the Mikhail Kozakov film Pokrovskiye vorota (Pokrov Gates). The soundtrack was composed by the poet-songwriter Bulat Okudzhava, whose name first turned up in my Russian language textbook. It was only through this movie that I made the connexion with the bronze monument diagonal to the Georgian Cultural Center on the Arbat. Yes, right next to the mottled mascot of Mu-Mu. (The statue, made by sculptor Georgi Frangulian, shows the singer walking, hands in pocket, through an archway. "The statue represents Okudzhava as a free man, traversing a hard, cold period - the Soviet regime," Frangulian said on the occasion of its inauguration on 8 May 2002.)
Stepping outside, I had to keep my cardigan on as it has been getting nippier by the day. It seems it's been a while since I last took a walk on the Arbat, a pedestrian mall popular with both Russian and foreign tourists; there've been some noticeable changes. For example there's now a casting agency (horrendously rendered as kastingovoe agenstvo in Russian) called Fashion Buro just around the corner. A far cry from the Politburo of the CCCP. (Too bad I really didn't have time to get a peek to find out if the place is all pukka. Like the White Rabbit, I had to hurry.) Charcoal pencil artists have gotten loads better; the bookstore of the Ukrainian Cultural Centre is now open (my verdict: "a complete waste of good space"); and Terranova, this teen fashion store, is offering clothes for no more than 299 rubles. Add to that Mexx, Esprit and the spiffing new building opened by TNK-BP as their headquarters and you've got a neighborhood that's gone downright upmarket.
Lolled about the front of the restaurant before my macushla came. We ate at Tridevyatoye tsarstvo near the restaurant Praga end of Arbat. The name, wittily rendered as 3/9 Tsartsvo, has its origins in the phrase "tridevyatoye tsarstvo, tridesyatoye gosudarstvo," (three-nine kingdom, three-ten government), which is usually taken as the spatial equivalent of the temporal "once upon a time". More apropos, it's the Russian equivalent to Star Wars Episode IV's "In a galaxy far, far away". In other words, a kingdom where many Russian folktales are set. In a linguistic forum online, Inessa found out that the numbers in the phrases actually meant that it took 27 days (=3x9, or one month in the lunar calendar) to reach the kingdom, and 30 (=3x10) to reach the government. Kings are easier to reach than presidents? So is that a reflexion of government in general, or just the Kremlin?
Apart from being packaged well, Tridevyatoye tsarstvo's food is also très bon marché. (Hmmm, first Sultanna Frantsuzova and then this? Is Moscow actually becoming more *affordable*? Gasp!) Between my muirnín and I, we spent only 400 rubles. That's actually a steal.
***
On the way back, I took a bit of time having a shufti with the souvenir stands that line the kilometre-long cobblestoned street. My first memories of Moscow are associated with this street. About a month ago, when my poppet was in Prague, I saw the Mikhail Kozakov film Pokrovskiye vorota (Pokrov Gates). The soundtrack was composed by the poet-songwriter Bulat Okudzhava, whose name first turned up in my Russian language textbook. It was only through this movie that I made the connexion with the bronze monument diagonal to the Georgian Cultural Center on the Arbat. Yes, right next to the mottled mascot of Mu-Mu. (The statue, made by sculptor Georgi Frangulian, shows the singer walking, hands in pocket, through an archway. "The statue represents Okudzhava as a free man, traversing a hard, cold period - the Soviet regime," Frangulian said on the occasion of its inauguration on 8 May 2002.)
