Winter

Hey there,

if you have been following this blog for a while you might know that the last two years i managed to escape winter - one i spent in the KSA and the other one near Hong Kong. Both places have a climate that i prefer to winter with all the freezing and so on. I prefer summer, actually, being able to run around in a t-shirt during day and night and so on.

This year it has already been quite cold in Vienna, around new year and in the end of January. But well, to have the real winter feeling i did something else: i went to Russia! So here i am right now, blogging to you from a classic block building in Ekaterinburg. I took a direct flight to Moscow. Got onto the aeroexpress into the city and went down into the metro to meet up with a Russian friend. Oooh so many things to write about, so many impressions. In short, it is a really interesting country for me.
A bit longer: well, a lot of things would be as you expect them. The metro is really impressive, with the glorious stations. The first i got into already looked nice. I drove to another where i touched the statues of a dog for good luck. I got out of the metro and saw the Bolshoi theatre, walked on around the Kremlin (passing quite some Russians who ate ice-cream outside, bought at макдональдс). It was sunny and according to my friends it was about -15 degree C. Nice weather. We walked around the Kremlin and when we got up close to Red Square we ... went into a pubilc toilet there. Nothing much to tell but for the soldier at the entrance of the toilet who warmed himself up, leaning against a radiator. Unfortunately we could not go into Red Square on that day because some politics going on and it was locked by police. But i saw it from afar. We went on to eat some Russian food, driving around in the Lada car of a friend there, passing the Duma and some more places that so far i had only known from movies and TV. I have to say once again that it is all simply cool to see and interesting to experience. I drove through a lot more parts of Moscow that afternoon, passing at least four of the five(?) highway rings of Moscow, getting out of the car for making a picture in front of Lomonossov university (not too long because the two Spanish friends with me where freezing like hell) and our Russian friends insisted we buy some alcohol as welcome drinks to Russia together with some food to accompany it. Funnily enough the first supermarket we passed was a BILLA - yes, the Austrian supermarket chain...

Anyways, i spent a night in the airport and took a flight in the early morning to Ekaterinburg. -15 to -20 degC in daytime and a lot more snow. And so much fun. I"m attending a course at the university here and a lot more things. I have done sports indoor and outdoor(!) - Russia will organise olympic games in 2014 i think - i have tasted some vodka, yes, i did a city ralley, saw a castle made out of ice in the style of Chinese palaces, Lenin statues, i was at a live concert of a young Russian rock band, i attended a Hawaii party(!) and so on...

Now i have to go, i just cooked "Kaiserschmarrn" for my friends here for the international evening, yummy! More will follow, including pictures,

Cheers
CGA
-yippiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!