Heat Wave

Bye bye winter...

 Attended Maslenitsa yesterday. It was a beautiful 2 degrees C, so I brought out my spring coat. The warm temperature and the slight bit of rain we had melted half of the snow bank instantly.  Puddle jumping was no longer an option, you just had to take a breath and jump in. By the time I reached the metro, my feet were soaked. Luckily they had a chance to warm and dry before jumping yet again, into the stream that once was the sidewalk. It was hard to enjoy the festival at Gorky Park with soaking wet shoes and dropping temperatures.

However, it was fun to carry orange balloons around pointing to all the people wearing fox heads. Also, many Russians do celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but it appears to be some sort of green themed Ren Fair. So many kilts and medieval gowns, plus elven ears and capes. Lots of tiny, tiny, tiny green top hats.

I ate some blini and drank some traditional honey beer, tasted a little like mead. We then wandered around the various games, stilts walkers, donkeys and ponies. We watched as a traditional Russian music group played Rammstein, but the only words they knew was “Du Hast.” So I really do not know what exactly I have.  But you can get a feel for what it sounded like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECfmyddwto8

We wandered above the most best ice rink I have ever seen. Too bad it was closed. They had turned the park pathways into an ice rink, so certain coffee shops and restaurants could only be accessed from the ice rink. You could just skate down the avenue. I wanted to go skating.

I eventually got too frozen to enjoy festivities anymore, so we waded our way past a giant Lenin statue to a Mexican restaurant. The food was pretty expensive. Chicken posole was $15 for a bowl of chicken and cabbage in tomato broth. But I was cold and hungry, so I ordered vegetarian nachos (cheapest, most Carmen-friendly thing on the menu), but they were out of vegetarian nachos. So I ordered and split beef nachos with Oliver. I really do not understand what they were out of. There were chips, cheese, beef, onions, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, and jalapenos (yes, I know I am going to die after eating it).  So why they couldn’t make a veggy nacho? I have no idea. I then washed it down with a $10 beer that tasted like celery. I will stick to making my own Mexican food at home, thank you (however I only seem to make Indian or bibimbap these days).

Moscow Spring

I then went home. My feet had just begun to dry out when I exited the metro to find all the paths to my apartment flooded with ankle-deep ice water. I had no choice but to wade my way home. I was really happy to ring my socks out and warm my feet in a hot water bath.

Today it is snowing, again. I am running low on food, but do not want to go to the store. Wonder how long I can make two pieces of cheese, two eggs, a banana, and two boxes of chocolates last?