maceochi

Leaving Moscow

2008-07-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

Today I leave Moscow, in probably the most unexpected fashion ever. After two weeks couch surfin g with the lovely, curses-like-a-sailor Masha, following my failed attempt to leave Russia with S7 on June 15th and a week of getting on fellow Irishmen's nerves on Sukharevskaya, I have decided to hitch-hike with Masha to Riga, from where I have a flight booked to Dublin. She is in the shower as I write, and soon we will go to the MKAD and hitch a lift to the other side (about 40 km), from where we can get on to the main road west, via Volokolamsk, Rzhev and Velikie Luki to the border at Sebezh, from where the road to Riga continues via Rezekne and Jegavpils. Masha at once proposed that we hitch there together, as she has a year-long Schengen visa, and is a professional hitcher (which we discussed with the Swiss girl and a Mexican until 5 am today over vodka). So I expect few problems, apart from the size of my suitcase and my fatigue. All in all the 950 km should take us 14 hours, according to the expert.

Leaving Moscow has been a milder version of leaving Nizhny. I don't feel as attached to here as I did to NN, but I will definitely miss the metro. Today I heard the last, for a long time, Уважвемые пассажиры, при выходе из поезда, не забиваете свои вещи. But depending on how tonight's hitch-hiking goes, I could be back in the winter by Ryanair to Riga and thumb to Moscow... This country has been home for a year. I will be back.

Reiseplan: nach Russland über Suwalki und Riga...

2007-08-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

Still no invitation from Nizhniy Novgorod, but until it comes, I am going to go ahead and plan my journey. Originally the plan was Ryanair to Berlin, and then either Lufthansa, AirBerlin, Aeroflot or Transaero to Moscow. The DUB - SXF leg still stands, but now I am seriously considering going overland from Berlin. Having a housemate from Suwałki, the last stop in Poland for trains to Lithuania, helped persuade me. A hot meal and a bed for the night, courtesy of his parents, would be nice after 23h of travelling (including an 8-hour stop in Warsaw). Before planning, I had a hazy idea that I needed to get as far as Riga, to avoid going through Belarus and having to obtain a transit visa.

After Suwałki, I will get the daily train to Sestokai, in Lithuania, which also, depending on who you believe (PKP or Lithuanian Railways), continues on to Kaunas and Vilnius. That's where my trains run out, temporarily. There are two trains from Vilnius to Riga (one on its way from Simferopol, the other from Truskavets in the Ukraine), but only on odd dates (for the Simferopol train), or every 4 days (the Truskavets one). I appear to be arriving in Lithuania on the one day there is no train. So I can either get a bus for 5h from Vilnius to Riga, or a combination of local trains from Kaunas, or hitch-hike. My resolve to hitch was weakened a little when I happened upon this site, which was humorous apart from the sobering reminder that the Balts are deadlier drivers than the Irish. I think I will try and hitch, none the less, if the train connections aren't 'too hot', as balticsww.com would say. Then, Riga - Moscow will be the easy part.

me to think of a cowshed on wheels). As for Altogether the cost doesn't seem that bad: less than €20 for the Regional Express from Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder, then 60 zł. for Słubice - Suwałki (roughly €15, for a 23-hour, 800-km journey). Riga - Moscow is 18 lats (€27) in the cheapest class (общий, or 'common'), which leaves Suwałki - Riga, for which nowhere on the Internet gives prices, but I doubt the slow trains will be that dear in either Lithuania or Latvia. It still is a good saving on the €120 Aeroflot fare.

If you're planning this route yourself, here are the websites I find most helpful:
http://rozklad.pkp.pl - Website of the national Polish railway company. It has an English, French and German option, and can give prices for all trains within Poland.

Bahn.de - Die Bahn, the German railway company. Good for planning train journeys all over Europe, and can give prices for the faster trains.

LDZ.lv - Latvian national railway's site. Available in Russian and English as well as Latvian. It is a bit awkward to navigate, but has lots of solid information on times and prices.

When searching for connections on the PKP or Die Bahn sites, remember that slower trains are cheaper. The search forms of both give an option to exclude the faster types of train.

www.litrail.lt and www.poezda.net where moderately helpful, as was www.waytorussia.net, despite its being 2 years out of date.

The rulers of Russia and their hair

2007-05-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

I know this was made public on QI the other night, but I think it is worth writing about.

The reason Vladimir Putin is bald is - wait for it - tradition. Since Alexander III, the rulers of the Russian Empire/USSR/RF have been alternately hairy and bald. Let's recap:
Alexander III: bald
Nicholas II: hairy
Lenin: bald
Stalin: hairy, and a moustache to boot
Malenkov: hairy
Kruschev: bald
Brezhnev: hairy
Andropov: bald (partly)
Chernenko: hairy
Gorbachev: bald (with that odd scar, too)
Yeltsin: hairy
Putin: bald

Ta-da. The sequence, for some odd reason, starts at Alexander III, and the pattern did not exist before him. Maybe the invention of photography had something to do with it?

I wonder, can we deduce similar patterns for other countries? Give me a few minutes...

2007-05-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday

2007-04-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

After my unconvential Good Friday liturgy (a Bach Mass in St Nicholas' Cathedral), I managed to get out of bed for Dawn Mass at 6 by the sea in Ballyloughane, with my brother (A.), grandmother and dog. I will miss it next year when in Russia. The old priest who surprises me every year by just being there, the man who sings and doesn't need a microphone, and of course, walking down by the clifftop path, seeing the moon shine on the bay before Mass starts, and seeing it rise as it ends. There must have been 10 faces there I recognised but could not put names to - I grew up with all of them, so I should be able to.

Les Liaisons dangereuses

2007-04-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

I have to say that so far, the book is much better than the film, which, to my shame, I watched first. I think that it is also much better in French than in English, as only in French can one have the flow of words and the word order that makes it of the 18th century. I am a little baffled as to why Cécile writes to Sophie Carnay using tu, but la Marquise de Merteuil and le Vicomte de Valmont use vous. I gather that both pairs have been friends for equally long a time. Perhaps if one met soneone after coming out, they never let go of the politeness which conditioned their meeting.

One, less trivial, points of interest about the book is the frequent use of the words le public, public and publique, which, if we believe Habermas, made their debut in the 18th century. Le public is mentioned in the preface, and the adjective and noun are scattered throughout the letters. Of course there should be no surprise: the book is a reflection of its times. Thus we have la Marquise de Merteuil reading some of La Nouvelle Héloise before going to bed; the trips to the opera; the anglophile love of whist (I am open to correction on this one - my thinking is that, influenced by Voltaire, Frenchmen took up an English card game, among other facets of that culture).

Summer in Berlin?

2007-04-06T16:47:00.001-07:00

I am still unsure of whether to spend a summer in Berlin this year. When I write 'still unsure', one must bear in mind that the idea only crossed my mind a few days ago. If I do manage to secure a job before I go, then yes, I will. If only I knew how reliable giving private English tuition was. I did apply for a few internships today, just for the craic. If they get back to me, it would be great, but it would also mean giving up the lovely room in Talbot Street just after agreeing to take it... Or I could go in June with no work set up, and to hell with Dublin for the summer, which resembles an Indian bazaar the hotter it gets.

A word on internships: what is their problem? I thought the whole point was to give green students experience, yet the one I applied for today needed office experience! I think that is asking a little too much. Needless to say, my cover note skimmed over that and emphasised my 'research' skills gained in my academic 'career'. However, they do pay €300 per week, so they do have the right to be stringent.