This last Thursday was Victory Day (День Победы), one of the largest celebrations in Russia. Every year Russia celebrates the end of The Great Patriotic War on May 9 when Russian soliders raised a Soviet flag above the Reichstag in Berlin. I had heard this was a holiday worth seeing while I was here in Moscow, but I was completely blown away by what an incredible experience this ended up being. To give you some idea of just how big of a deal this is, the government spends over a million USD every year to pay for planes to spray chemicals into clouds that prevents it from raining. They literally manufacture nice weather for this event every year so that the sun always shines on Victory Day. Just in case you don't believe (I won't be offended, I didn't believe at first either) here's a short article: The Moscow News. I'm convinced this can't be good for peoples' health, but no one here seems too concerned.
I started off my morning by watching the hour long military parade from home (it's nearly impossible to get into Red Square to watch in person without actually being a veteran) and enjoying my breakfast. I won't go into too much detail about the parade itself, because I hope you know what a parade looks like, but it was impressive to say the least. Lots of fanfare and cool military tech rolling through, and flying over, the Kremlin.
After getting dressed I ran out the door to meet with a friend and go to Gorky Park and see what the festivities would be like there. The first thing that I was immediately struck by was the massive amounts of people on the streets. I live near the main building of the college's campus, as well as near the university metro station, so it's not surprising for there to be people around where I live, but the sidewalks were packed like I had never seen before. Even thought I'm aware of Moscow being a city of 15 million, I'm always amazed at the sheer number of bodies that can show up in one place here. After making my way upstream in the flow of bicyclists and other people enjoying the awesome/chemically enhanced weather, I met up with Nerea, hopped on a metro, and we made our way to the park.
As we were walking up to the main entrance of the park we actually started to see some of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War that this day was, in large part, meant to celebrate. I was surprised to see Russians coming up to these veterans, shaking their hands, thanking them, and often giving them flowers. I knew that Russians had a great deal of respect for those who fought against the Nazis, but I was not expecting them to break the ice of their normal, indifferent street mode in such large numbers to talk with the men and women (the Soviets allowed women to serve in some combat roles as well, and there were several older women who had chest fulls of medals) who had served. You could almost taste the gratitude, the sense of pride in their nation, floating through the air. This was especially evident when we reached the stairs up to the main gate, and saw an older man standing atop the foundation for a street light, waving a Soviet flag. This guy couldn't have been taller than 4'6", but the rows of medals on his chest were probably only six inches shorter than he was. A man and his young son asked to take a picture with him, and the old man helped pull the boy up as his father lifted himself up next to the veteran for their picture. You could just see on his face the sense of admiration towards this little old man, and that he was thrilled to be able to impart that on his son too.
Once we cleared the security checkpoint and made it into the park we could see that there was activity in every direction. Directly to the right of the entrance there was a group dancing and preforming acrobatics, a little further down the way was a group of people standing around a man with an accordion singing, and everywhere on the grass were big orange bean bags for people to lay out on. We strolled around the park some more and saw several more spontaneous choirs, a military band preforming, a man-made beach in the middle of the park, and ice cream stands every 10 feet or so.
After a break in the shade to enjoy some Granny Smith apples, we strolled back to the entrance to the park. We had already been there for about two hours, but we didn't really have any other plans until later when there was going to be fireworks near the university. I went back to my place, had some dinner, and then went to meet with Eddy, another American, to go watch the fireworks. We had planned on meeting up with other people once we got there, but there were so many people there that there was no hope of meeting up with anyone, and our cellphones weren't working anyway. It seemed that there were so many people there that you couldn't even get a cell signal out into the air.
Eddy hadn't eaten anything all day, so we went to a food cart near where the fireworks were going to be to get hotdogs. The line was long, and in classic Russian fashion, hardly functional. We were worried we might not be able to get to a good spot before the fireworks started, and we were worried for good reason, kinda.
The first firework went off right above our heads like a bomb. There had been no warning, and just about everyone around us ducked for cover. While we were rightly concerned about not getting food before the show started, but we couldn't have been in a better place. Standing in line for a hotdog turned out to be the best seat in the house. I've never been so close to fireworks before. Every time they fired off you could feel the blast hit you in the chest, and again when the fireworks exploded in the air, like drumming on your rib cage. Everywhere around us we could hear shouts of excitement, and people screaming "forward Russia!"
Once the show was over, the crowd cleared out, Eddy got his long sought after hotdog, and we were finally able to get enough cell service to call another friend, Mike, about meeting up for an after party. We went back to Ed's dorm, enjoyed some Johnny Walker, and listen to Yo-Yo Ma to get into the party mode, because we're a classy bunch. We ended up leaving after 1am, so we had to take a cab to the center, but we were able to meet up with Mike, and another friend, Kate, and made our way to a nearby bar called The Old School Pub.
The good vibes that had been going on all day carried over into the bar, and everyone was dancing away, and having a blast. We ended up staying there until after the sun had come up. We took a metro back to the main building, grabbed some breakfast, and then I made my way home.
Victory Day was probably one of the longest days I've had here in Russia, but it was equally as enjoyable. It was awesome to soak up the sun, see people smile, shake the hands of people who had fought in WWII, watch as fireworks exploded to life right above my head, and party the night away with friends until the sun came back up over Moscow.
In other news, I start exams next week, which I will undoubtably crush like last semester, we were unfortunately unable to go to Yaroslavl, and I've been trying to draw and write more to get that creativity going. I can't say I'm much of an artist, but I did draw up what I would like to get for my next tattoo, so that's pretty exciting for me.
Wish me luck on exams! I'll see you all before you know it!
I started off my morning by watching the hour long military parade from home (it's nearly impossible to get into Red Square to watch in person without actually being a veteran) and enjoying my breakfast. I won't go into too much detail about the parade itself, because I hope you know what a parade looks like, but it was impressive to say the least. Lots of fanfare and cool military tech rolling through, and flying over, the Kremlin.
After getting dressed I ran out the door to meet with a friend and go to Gorky Park and see what the festivities would be like there. The first thing that I was immediately struck by was the massive amounts of people on the streets. I live near the main building of the college's campus, as well as near the university metro station, so it's not surprising for there to be people around where I live, but the sidewalks were packed like I had never seen before. Even thought I'm aware of Moscow being a city of 15 million, I'm always amazed at the sheer number of bodies that can show up in one place here. After making my way upstream in the flow of bicyclists and other people enjoying the awesome/chemically enhanced weather, I met up with Nerea, hopped on a metro, and we made our way to the park.
As we were walking up to the main entrance of the park we actually started to see some of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War that this day was, in large part, meant to celebrate. I was surprised to see Russians coming up to these veterans, shaking their hands, thanking them, and often giving them flowers. I knew that Russians had a great deal of respect for those who fought against the Nazis, but I was not expecting them to break the ice of their normal, indifferent street mode in such large numbers to talk with the men and women (the Soviets allowed women to serve in some combat roles as well, and there were several older women who had chest fulls of medals) who had served. You could almost taste the gratitude, the sense of pride in their nation, floating through the air. This was especially evident when we reached the stairs up to the main gate, and saw an older man standing atop the foundation for a street light, waving a Soviet flag. This guy couldn't have been taller than 4'6", but the rows of medals on his chest were probably only six inches shorter than he was. A man and his young son asked to take a picture with him, and the old man helped pull the boy up as his father lifted himself up next to the veteran for their picture. You could just see on his face the sense of admiration towards this little old man, and that he was thrilled to be able to impart that on his son too.
Once we cleared the security checkpoint and made it into the park we could see that there was activity in every direction. Directly to the right of the entrance there was a group dancing and preforming acrobatics, a little further down the way was a group of people standing around a man with an accordion singing, and everywhere on the grass were big orange bean bags for people to lay out on. We strolled around the park some more and saw several more spontaneous choirs, a military band preforming, a man-made beach in the middle of the park, and ice cream stands every 10 feet or so.
After a break in the shade to enjoy some Granny Smith apples, we strolled back to the entrance to the park. We had already been there for about two hours, but we didn't really have any other plans until later when there was going to be fireworks near the university. I went back to my place, had some dinner, and then went to meet with Eddy, another American, to go watch the fireworks. We had planned on meeting up with other people once we got there, but there were so many people there that there was no hope of meeting up with anyone, and our cellphones weren't working anyway. It seemed that there were so many people there that you couldn't even get a cell signal out into the air.
Eddy hadn't eaten anything all day, so we went to a food cart near where the fireworks were going to be to get hotdogs. The line was long, and in classic Russian fashion, hardly functional. We were worried we might not be able to get to a good spot before the fireworks started, and we were worried for good reason, kinda.
The first firework went off right above our heads like a bomb. There had been no warning, and just about everyone around us ducked for cover. While we were rightly concerned about not getting food before the show started, but we couldn't have been in a better place. Standing in line for a hotdog turned out to be the best seat in the house. I've never been so close to fireworks before. Every time they fired off you could feel the blast hit you in the chest, and again when the fireworks exploded in the air, like drumming on your rib cage. Everywhere around us we could hear shouts of excitement, and people screaming "forward Russia!"
Once the show was over, the crowd cleared out, Eddy got his long sought after hotdog, and we were finally able to get enough cell service to call another friend, Mike, about meeting up for an after party. We went back to Ed's dorm, enjoyed some Johnny Walker, and listen to Yo-Yo Ma to get into the party mode, because we're a classy bunch. We ended up leaving after 1am, so we had to take a cab to the center, but we were able to meet up with Mike, and another friend, Kate, and made our way to a nearby bar called The Old School Pub.
The good vibes that had been going on all day carried over into the bar, and everyone was dancing away, and having a blast. We ended up staying there until after the sun had come up. We took a metro back to the main building, grabbed some breakfast, and then I made my way home.
Victory Day was probably one of the longest days I've had here in Russia, but it was equally as enjoyable. It was awesome to soak up the sun, see people smile, shake the hands of people who had fought in WWII, watch as fireworks exploded to life right above my head, and party the night away with friends until the sun came back up over Moscow.
In other news, I start exams next week, which I will undoubtably crush like last semester, we were unfortunately unable to go to Yaroslavl, and I've been trying to draw and write more to get that creativity going. I can't say I'm much of an artist, but I did draw up what I would like to get for my next tattoo, so that's pretty exciting for me.
Wish me luck on exams! I'll see you all before you know it!
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