Moscow's Mullets, Models and Materialism

Ok, I'm a writer. This is a word I've learned to use to describe myself. I'm also a traveler. This is a word I've used to describe myself. Although I have been a very good traveler over the past couple of weeks - I certainly have not been a very good writer. I think there is the pressure of having to write well. On my previous trips, I never worried about the writing process - I just told witty little anecdotes from the road about my adventures, and that was good. In addition, I meant to start a blog - both people I'm traveling with have blogs and they've been much better about keeping them updated. Excuse #3 - I usually travel alone, so I have a lot of time to be reflective and hide in an internet cafe for several hours every couple of days to keep in touch. However, I'm traveling with two great people and I certainly have not made it a priority to stop touring, traveling, exploring, etc. and hide myself in a cafe for awhile. Excuse #4 - internet access has not been quick or convenient thus far.



So I'm done with the excuses.


I had a different update with some photos of England, Germany and a couple of Moscow photos.

England was wonderful. It was so great being back in my little home - London was the first major destination I traveled to - it was also the first place I really learned what a strong and powerful woman I could be. I love London. I love how I feel in London.

I was also able to spend a few nights in Oxford and Ashford with some really great friends. I had not been to England in several years, and it was great how so many things just so natural, so comfortable after 2 and 1/2 years. But at the same tim, it was great how some things have grown up, changed, blossomed.

I found a cheap flight to Bremen, Germany and took a train to Hamburg. I love Germany, I always have. They people are friendly and fat. Hamburg was no exception. Hamburg is a lot like Amsterdam and other port cities, with some beuatiful areas and some really shaddy red-light district areas as well.

I met up with Ben and Amanda in Moscow about a week ago. Ben and i got suckered into this crap apartment and worked with this jerk people. Never, ever use Moscow Rick (recommended in Lonely Planet - don't do it. Just Don't.) Anyway, the weather in Moscow was perfect. Gorgeous blus skies with puffy, plastic clouds nearly all 5 days we were there. However, the rest of the city... I don't even know how to describe it - mullets, models and materialism seem to be the best adjectives at the moment. There is such a strange vibe about that city. I was afraid that that was the same vibe in all Russian cities, but it's not the case.

There is a weird 1980's - neon blinking lights - PACMAN script, leggings and mulets vomited all over the streets. I have no idea why. Amanda and I went on mullet patrol more than once. We have so many great shots of "I can't believe that's in style" sort of photos. So Moscow was a lot of people watching - which we really enjoyed. But it's unfortunate that communicating with other people wasn't even a possibility. It fascinated me over and over again that no one spoke English - everything was written in cyrillic. I am not arrogant and think that everyone on the planet needs to speak English, I was just really, really surprised, over and over again that Metro maps and menus were only written in cyrillic. I have traveled through India, Indonesia, Greece, Cambodia, etc. and I have never had a problem communicating with people. I'm good at the gestures, the sign language and the mucked up words and phrases and multiple languges in order to get by. But no one spoke anything close to English in Russia. So it took me almost 2 days to find where I could by a map (even when i pointed at someone else's map, the sales clerk just rolled her eyes at me and gave me the universal "I don't understand" twisting of the head.)

But what I think was even more fascinating about Moscow is the models and materialism that roamed the street. There was some kind of study that was released last week stating that Moscow is the most expensive city in the world. It was expensive, but I couldn't believe the greed everywhere. I have never seen so many nice cars, fancy shops, nd trendy cafes - all filled with "beautiful" plastic-looking people. There are so many model-types roaming th roads, I almost felt ugly for a couple of days. Almost. Then I really started looking. So many of those "beautiful women" were so done up and plasticy it was an eye sore. I wondered if it had much to do with this new found capitalism, and the people behaving like rebellous teenagers - most women dressed like hookers, and had mannerism similar to many drag queens I've known over the years. They didn't know how to be women. I wondered about the role models that these women had. It's obviously a very patriarchal society. Women need to use their bodies in order to attract a man. The difference between the under 30 and over 30 crowd was very obvious as well. most of the older women were... lets just say a fellow chunky sister.

Anyway, Moscow was not my favorite. I have lots to say about scary police, the AMAZING Red Square, the Kremlin, the circus I went to, and so so many theories and observations I picked up along the way, but I'm going to stop with this image and move on with the trip. This is a picture of me dancing in the field next to an old Russian church, which is next to a very soviet looking building. Oh how Moscow made me want to dance...