Last trip to Moscow

I just came back from Moscow. My one-year multi-visa to Russia expires on 24th of August, and this was the last chance to use it. I have used it a lot, and hope I don’t need another one.  At least that’s what it feels like right now.

This time, it was almost impossible to find a hotel room in Moscow, because of the Track&Field World Championship going on. One evening we went to the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium  to watch.

The stadium was built for the 1980 Olympic Games, which were boycotted by most Western countries due to the Soviet invasion in Afghansitan. 

This was my first time ever on a major track&field event. It was fun and well worth the 2200 Rubles for the ticket. The atmosphere was amazing when Isinbayeva won the pole-vault gold medal in front of a home-crowd of 50.000 people.

We had some interesting but tiresome meetings; BigOil (that’s us) on one side of the table, HugeOil on the other. Words were flying back and forth, in English and Russian, with simultaneous translation. Everything needs to be said twice; first in English, then in Russian, or vice versa.

There were three translators in action, sharing the task. It’s probably an exhausting job, being a bilingual echo of the conversation. Most of the time, they do a great job. Occasionally, the translators mess up the science terminology a bit.

The main topic was science, but in practice it becomes a delicate soup spiced with business strategy, politics and the Law of the Sea Treaty.  

It was sunny and warm, and in the evenings it was time to enjoy Moscow, with good Russian food and drinks. I usually eat fish in Murmansk and meat in Moscow. This time I made an exception, eating pike from the Russian rivers. I haven’t tasted this since I was a kid. It was better than my memories of childhood pike-cakes.

The Russian beers are always good, much better than the boring beers that you get all over the world, Heineken, Bud and stuff like that. The Russians don’t seem to agree. They prefer the imports.

Russia is a proud country, huge in size, and with remarkable historic sights. Stunning palaces and churches of the Tsar era, giant monuments and buildings of the communist era, and events of great merits and sacrifices in war. Neither Napoleon nor Hitler made it to Moscow.

Napoleon was stopped in the battle of Borodino, depicted in literature by Tolstoy (War and Peace) and in music by Tchaikovsky (1812 overture).  Hitler got as far as to IKEA.  By the Leningradskoye highway, there’s a impressive memorial where the German nazi-army was forced to retreat.

However, when it comes to consumer goods, everything made in Russia is considered inferior; They prefer German cars, American electronics, Italian fashion, and Dutch beers, even though the Russian ones are twice as good and half as expensive. 

It’s kind of strange, but there are things about Russia that are not easy to understand

(Picture taken at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. Track&field, like downhill skiing, is best to watch in TV, and you have to watch the big screens to see what's going on.  But it was fun to be at the venue.)

A very special city

Last week we were on vacation. We traveled through DDR, or what used to be DDR during the cold war. Now, of course, it’s part of the re-united Germany. We spent most of the time in Berlin. It’s an awesome city, with a very special atmosphere.  

Berlin has been at the heart of European history for almost a century.  Berlin was the capital of the nazi regime before and during the 2^nd World War. The Berlin wall was an important border in the divided Europe during the cold war.  The fall of the Berlin wall marked the collapse of the communist block and the end of the cold war.

Today Berlin is the capital of the re-united Germany, which is the economic engine of the European Union.

There are plenty of interesting sights. The Reichstag building and the Brandenburger Tor, which was just inside the Soviet sector, and a few meters from the wall, where John F Kennedy gave his famous speech (“Ich bin ein Berliner”). 

The DDR museum gives an impression of everyday life in East Germany.

Checkpoint Charlie, manned by the US Army, was the site for many dramatic events, in real life, and in spy thrillers, such as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” by LeCarre.

Today there is a big McDonald’s restaurant at Checkpoint Charlie, and for 2 Euros, you can get your picture taken with men in military uniforms at the checkpoint.  Capitalism vs. Communism 2-0.

I remember 1990 when the wall was taken down. Gorbachov was still the leader of the Soviet Union, and I was still a physics student in the university. Late August (or early September), I sat in a small apartment in Leningrad (presently St Petersburg) together with some Russian students. They had made borscht (the Russian soup) for us. We were drinking beer and smoking White Sea Channel  (Soviet cigarettes, terrible stuff) while watching Roger Waters on TV, performing The Wall live in Berlin. It was amazing.

Now I’m sitting in the airport waiting for the Aeroflot flight SU2175 to Moscow.  Here I go again. Business trip this time.     

(Picture taken last week at the Parisien Platz, by the Brandenburg Gate. During the Cold War, the Parisien Platz was was in The Soviet sector, and part of the so-called Death Zone. After the fall of the wall, the area has been re-built and taken over by the Americans; US Embassy to the left and Starbucks to the right.)