Give Me Concrete

October 14th 2019

or: People in apartment blocks want Açaí-Bowls, too

We have arrived in our apartment in an old soviet bread factory somewhere outside the second ring road of Moscow. Where the streets of Saint Petersburg were lined with magnificent houses in various pastel colours, the concrete cube is the dominating architectural pattern in Moscow. But what would any trip to Russia be without some brutalist architecture?
On our way to the metro lies a narrow, 20-story apartment complex that seems to stretch to infinity and somehow fascinates us all. The lower floors house a shopping centre, above that we estimate between 1000 and 2000 apartments. Incredibly huge, anyways.
By comparison, the centre of Moscow looks like a different world: Between Kremlin walls, cathedrals and monuments, an autumn fair is being held, a small troupe performing classic folk songs in the midst of it — the audience joins in enthusiastically.
On the opposite side of the square is the GUM, which apparently is a famous / prestigious shopping centre. Through the large revolving doors you enter a world in which someone cranked the saturation to 200% — loud classical music is reverberating through the tall corridors, everything looks sickly colourful somehow, uniformed people are selling disgustingly sweet retro lemonade, and luxury brands invade your field of view from all sides.
Romy feels like on a psychedelic trip, and she's not that wrong: This shopping experience feels more like a scene from Requiem for a Dream than it has any right to.
We start the next day at the Danilovskiy market, a circular, tent-like building in which you can get Israeli starters, Greek lunch and French dessert with Arab coffee in a single circumvolution — and check off the daily groceries with a quick detour to the centre.
I get a mango milk at a Vietcong-styled Vietnamese place and a side of waffle with fruit. With a smoothie bowl, we are given two bags of expired coconut flakes for free. Neat.
With today's windy, rainy weather, we decide to give Russian art museums a second chance: A very wet stroll through Gorky Park leads us to the Garage MCA — contrary to its name a rather large and very modern museum for contemporary art.
The current exhibition — 'The Coming World' — is just the right parts edgy, bright, loud, interactive and weird, always impressive, surprisingly political and on-the-beat on ecology and futurism. An unexpected favourite on my list of art museums, check it out if you can.

Russia Review

Saint Petersburg is architectonically very pretty and has a slight advantage on Moscow with regards to restaurants, cafes and the like. Standing on the curb of the Nevsky Prospect you can almost feel your life expectancy dropping with every breath, but everything has its price, right?
Moscow, on the other hand, is a metropolis all the way through but retains its own character. Even at some highway interchange just outside the second ring road with wind blowing the cold rain in your face, Moscow feels like being somewhere. And that's kind of what this is all about after all.
Especially when crossing into Russia from Finland, one does notice that the Russian attitude is a bit rougher, generally speaking — or at least that the variance in the friendliness of the people we meet increases significantly. But still: It's just normal people living here — people waiting at the train station with flowers, young punky people, and people who pay with their card at the bakery to set an end to our communication troubles with the lady at the counter.
And yes, there are people who like to beat up LGBTQ people in their spare time or those who annex peninsulas or mess with elections, too. But I didn't see anyone of those and I am sure they get enough coverage outside of this blog as well. Therefore, I'll keep the traditional look at the dark side rather short: Putin bad, corruption bad, freedom good.
And that's it already: Going Somewhere — Northern Edition. See you next time!