Matt's Trip to Moscow!

After several weeks of work (here is a picture of me tutoring a Jewish student in the Adayin Lo after-school program), it was time to take a day off! As a perennial sports fan, I jumped when I heard that the Israeli national soccer team was playing the Russian national team in Moscow. Here was a great chance to take a break, support Israel, and watch European soccer of the highest quality.

It was quite an adventure from the very beginning. Our British friend Keren and I took the overnight train down from St. Petersburg--it leaves at 11 pm and arrives around 7 am. The roundtrip cost was $100; not bad when you consider it's over 400 miles each way! On the way down, we couldn't sleep because we ended up with two stinky, snoring Russian men (Keren thought the stench was worse, but I couldn't even listen to my iPod, the snoring was so loud!). So we played cards the whole way down and only got about 2 hours worth of sleep.

What do you do when you arrive at 7 am in Moscow, and nothing is open? Walk around, of course! We went and took the mandatory pictures of St. Basil's, Red Square, etc. It was a cold and gray day, but you won't be able to tell that from the pictures, as I've retouched most of them to be less depressing :-) The Kremlin wasn't open the whole weekend; apparently Putin was having important meetings and couldn't be bothered by tourists. We did have an interesting experience outside the Kremlin walls, though, as anything and everything could be bought with the American dollar. On one side, Lenin and Trotsky impersonators took pictures with paying tourists. On the other, ice cream carts galore littered the square, despite the 50-degree weather. Most interestingly, there were two guys selling the opportunity to take your picture with your choice of wild animals--from hawks to owls to monkeys. These poor animals were obviously not the happiest beasts on the planet, tethered and caged and waiting for their next photo op. Clearly, the Cold War is over and Russians have embraced capitalism in a warm hug--but have they taken it too far? On a different note, the Moscow Metro completely lives up to its reputation: every station is different and beautiful, with incredible mosaics and the feel of a museum. It's a shame that you can't take pictures, but it's really fun to ride the train around the city.

We met up with two more British study-abroad students, Olga and Joe, in Moscow, and we all went to Chabad for Shabbat and the beginning of Sukkot. It was a fantastic Shabbat experience--we met all sorts of interesting people, including an Israeli in the Intelligence division (he had a lot to say about the recent war) and the chief Rabbi of Russia. The vodka was flowing, languages were being thrown around left and right, we were singing and dancing, and the kosher meat was excellent. I must say that Chabad has treated us well in Beijing, Shanghai, St. Pete, and now Moscow...I have nothing but complimentary things to say about their organization.

Finally, Saturday evening we went to see the match we had all been waiting for. There were Russian soldiers everywhere, and the Israeli fans were sequestered in a fortified ring of 20-something Russian police. For their part, the police and soldiers were all polite and there were no incidents that I saw, except for a few middle fingers that were extended as a "Welcome to Moscow" gesture by the opposing fans. The Israeli spectators--there were maybe 300 of them, almost all on private tour groups from Israel--were incredibly fun and gregarious before the game. But the Russian side scored in the first 5 minutes of the game, which took the wind out of our sales for the whole first half. In the second half, the Israelis came out strong and put tremendous pressure on the Russian defense, finally scoring in the 84th minute to force a draw. After waiting for almost an hour-and-a-half to see their team score, the Israeli section erupted, and you can see the video of our goal and celebration by clicking here.

We were then escorted out of the stadium and into the Metro by a small army of soldiers, and we went straight to the hostel to pick up our stuff, as our train left at 11 pm. I must tell you that I felt far less safe travelling on the streets of Moscow on a Saturday night than I did in the stadium. There were drunk, aggressive Russian men everywhere; we saw many of them being restrained by police, and even witnessed a fistfight that led to quite a bit of blood and crying girlfriends. This is a typical Saturday night in Moscow, I was assured by my companions.

On the train ride back, we were joined in our cabin by a friendly Russian couple who made up for their lack of English with good old Russian hospitality. In fact, our companions started the evening by asking, "So, are we sleeping or are we drinking?!?!" He then plied us with excellent Russian cognac--surprisingly, the cognac here is just as good as the vodka--and told us jokes in Russian, which Keren and Olga translated for me. It was another sleepless night, but a lot of fun! I've been recovering slowly from an intense, crazy weekend, and hopefully am back on my feet now :-)

You can see a selection of my Moscow photos--just 26, with captions that provide additional details about the trip--by clicking here.