Another lax day was on the books for today (thank God!). First stop: Tsaritsyno, an estate and palace that was meant to be Catherine the Great's Moscow home. However, upon its completion, Catherine rejected the entire palace. Rumor has it that when first entering the palace, she was too fat to make it through the door comfortably. Because of this, she tore one of her elaborate and expensive dresses. As a result, she fired the architect and never stepped foot inside the palace again. Stories like these are why I love Russian history!
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| Tsaritsyno Grounds |
The estate was absolutely beautiful, of course. We went on a clear, sunny day, which helped to enhance the natural grandeur of the grounds. Passing by loads of ice cream stands, we came to a huge fountain that shot water straight up into the air. It was then I remembered Professor Olga's lecture about how the tzars loved fountains, because it made them seem like they were conquering the laws of nature. Water shooting upward defied gravity. The mist generated by the fountain provided a nice relief from the hot weather we were experiencing. While we didn't go inside the palace (apparently, few people do), we leisurely walked around it, taking a break from the stressful, but rewarding past couple of weeks. It was nice to relax and enjoy the decorative bridges, streams, overhangs, and pavilions along the walking path.
Around lunch time, our group split up into people going back to MSU and people going to the public market. Wanting to experience a non-touristy marketplace for myself, I chose to go with the latter group. Only Alona and Katrina came with me, but it was nice in that we were all efficient travelers, discovering our common Type A personalities. Alona explained to me that the public market was like Walmart for Russians in that middle-class shoppers are wary of going there at risk of buying low-quality products. For cheap college students, however, low-quality products = bargain. The market took two metro transfers and a bus to get to, but we finally arrived. The shops seemed to stretch for miles and in between the shops were rows with even more shops. Very few people spoke English, but luckily Alona was there to translate. Items were extremely cheap. Shirts were three dollars. Sunglasses were five. Shorts, pants, purses, wallets, toys, food, t-shirts, and umbrellas each had their own little shops. The crowd was a bit chaotic and it was easy to get separated from our little group. One stand had large crowds of women sorting through purses and shoving money at the storeowner. It must have been a happy hour of some kind. Also, a lady we bought bananas from thought we were Polish. That's a first.
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| Scene from Moscow Circus |
At 7:00 we went to the circus. I learned that I become a little kid again when it comes to circuses. I gasped every time the acrobats nearly fell from the balloon, cracked up when the clown made faces at us after we didn't clap in the way he wanted us to, and became wide-eyed when the dogs lined up on top of one another in a conga line. Russian circuses tend to use more animals than American ones, and from the looks of it, animal rights are not as much of a concern in this country as they are back home. One of the shows featured a bear that could stand on its hind legs. Unfortunately, the bear was muzzled and looked very unhappy when it had to run around the center stage. A large part of the second act was focused on lions. The lion tamer carried a stick, which the lions were probably trained to fear. They roared at the tamer whenever the end of the stick came too close. The lions also took a few swipes at the tamer when he egged them on. The lions appeared very angry, but lacked the means to do anything about it. Although I'm not a vegetarian or an animal-rights activist by any means, I felt guilty about applauding some of the acts, as it seemed quite horrible what the circus was doing to the animals. Before the show, you could take pictures with several of the animals for the astronomically high price of 500 rubles.
On a lighter note, the acrobats were very good. They had won several awards for their performances and you could tell that they definitely deserved them. One guy did a triple flip in the air and managed to hang onto his partner without falling onto the abysmal safety net. The circus was a positive experience overall. I always wanted to see a Russian circus (I have odd dreams) and my wish finally came true!
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