Last day

Tiny, tiny flowers

I have nothing left to see, but I scrolled around the map looking for anything. I visited Gorky Park, but only the northern most part. So I took the subway to near the south side and went in.

Actually, I find that I’m not in Gorky, not even near it yet. This is Neskuchny Garden, a pleasant wooded area with paths going every direction. It is wooded, so how is it a garden?

The paths are hard packed, and meandering. It doesn’t matter which way I go, I’m just exploring.

Quack!

I pass soccer field, tennis court, basketball court (in a cage), and a bunch of ping pong tables. At a playground, there’s a building, so I use the camera translator. It’s the chess club. I would not think a playground would be the quietest place to play chess, but I’m not that good either.

More ponds with ducks, this one had a duck and drake protecting the ducklings from an ogre trying to take their photo.

Peahen

I find a cage with a peahen inside. Don’t know what the point was.

Another war memorial, this had a fountain, but you can tell it hasn’t operated for years, not in the budget.

There is a bridge across the river, but I find it is just a pedestrian bridge. Geez, that’s a lot just for a few people to walk across.

It doesn’t matter where or when, I keep running into groups of kids on field trips. This must have been an easy day for the teacher, I can’t imagine they are really learning anything looking at fountains.

I see a bunch of balloons on a building, must be a party or wedding, nope, just some people doing tae bo, but no Billy Blanks.

I’m looking at a fountain for a bit, before realizing it is the same one I saw a few days back. It looks different without the stage and all the kids around it.

I meet a UK lady walking her dogs, so I ask her if there’s anywhere with Russian food. She tells me of a place, Grand Cafe Dr. Jhivago. Obviously, named for the famous movie.

It only has two $$ on google, so I decided to splurge, I don’t have to worry about keeping to a budget anymore.

I was seated on the sidewalk, I don’t know if I would be comfortable inside, it was still a bit fancy. The wind was ok, but it did pick up before I left.

Fortunately, the hostess and waitress both had English comprehension, and the menu was multilingual.

I had an appetizer of mushroom “dumplings,” really ravioli, with a wonderful sour cream. I could have just eaten a bowl of the sour cream.

Then I had a Siberian cod, covered in French fried onions and a cream sauce. It also had potato chips, made themselves. This feels like the kind of place where you don’t use your fingers to pick up food, but there is no other way to eat crispy thin wafers.

It had a side of grilled broccoli, almost an entire head, way bigger than I expected. It had a mustard seed and vinaigrette coating.

Everything was so good. I don’t know if it really was Russian or not, but I’ll pretend it was.

We are on the road next to the Kremlin. A large motorcade goes by, but can’t see into the cars, maybe Putin.

An expensive Maybach, a sub brand of Mercedes-Benz parks right next to the sidewalk, the hotel doorman places cones around it. That’s what being rich is like, you just park your car wherever you want. To hell with those poor people trying to get to work.

Total 2410₽, I paid in hundred ruble notes, which I suppose is the equivalent of a stack of $5’s. I’m so low class, I made a faux pas.

As I eat, it is getting colder and windier. As I leave I begin to feel drops. It could have remained nice out, I only need another 24 hours.

Tomorrow, I have to checkout by 11, but my flight isn’t until 9:20pm. I could roam around, but I’d have to lug my bags around, no fun. So I guess I’ll have a nice long day at the airport. Hurray!

I need it to not be raining while trying to get to the train platform. After that, pour down, it won’t bother me.

Long pedestrian bridge.

Gorky Park

I call this “Mom’s toil”

I was about to head back, when I noticed one more place marked  on my may nearby, Gorky Park.

Disclaimer: I originally was confusing two Robin Williams films, Moscow on the Hudson and the World According to Garp.  Neither of these has anything to do with Gorky Park, but it did lead me to come. Actually, I’ve never watched either movie.

Gorky Park is a decent sized park, plenty of trees and flower beds. The Russians sure do like their tulips.

There is a large square “pond” with water jets spraying in patterns. The ducks will come to you if they think you have food.

A dark tulip, almost goth.

Some local internet or cell phone company was putting on a concert, but the host kept droning on. Shut up and play music I’ve never heard.

They had another pond with paddle boat rentals.

I wandered around coming upon a playground. This playground had all kinds of equipment the safety police at home would never allow.

The swings were really tall, so the swingers could really get up there. Most were standard, two chain and a seat, but they also had some that were just knots at the end of ropes, much like a river swing.

They had a spinning rope carousel with disks you’d stand or sit on, I’ve seen similar on Survivor and Big Brother. These were all connected so that they would spin around. I guess the rule of the game is to make the others fall off by spinning fast.

There was a climbing pit, with ropes and slides and “boulders” to help you climb up or go down. It was shredded rubber lined, but a fall from the top would certainly hurt. It looked a bit steep, but I watched a toddler climb all the way up.

The bottom was filled with gravel, which the littlest ones decided it was better for throwing down the slide.

I love watching the kids as they can have equal amounts of joy and terror, at the same time. Plus some of the moms were kind of hot.