Culture, Craziness and Corruption
If Russia was a fraternity, we were initiated last night. It was a night we won't soon forget.
The evening started off innocently enough -- we went to see the opera Madama Butterfly at the famous Mariinsky Theater with a large group of friends. The theater and the production were fabulous, easily living up to the hype, although Matt wished that the three acts could have performed in less time than the 3 hours and 45 minutes that it took last night. It was the first time we had been there; we are now going to try to find ways to go as many times as possible for the theater closes mid-winter for rennovations. To see the Kirov ballet perform in its home theater would be spectacular and certainly a highlight of our year here.
After the opera, on our way to a well-known local bar, we went in search of blinis or some other late-night snack, since many of us had not had a real dinner beforehand. Matt and I had agreed to stay out past midnight, when the metro shuts down, so we were not in any rush, especially once we had learned that our tour of YESOD scheduled for the next morning had been postponed. We stopped for pizza on Nevsky and, after a quick nosh, went on our way to the bar. The bar we chose was Dacha, which is supposed to be a kitschy Soviet-era relic of a bar. Turns out it's more of a tiny, run-down Russian hole-in-the-wall. Quite literally, there was a hole in the wall. After a few rounds of vodka shots, we were dancing like lunatics to retro 80s tunes.
Eventually, the six of us decided to leave and hail cabs back home. We got as far as one of the city's main drawbridges to realize that it was open, meaning we were stuck on that side of the city and wouldn't be able to get home to our island. We had heard stories of the bridges opening in the middle of the night to allow for the boat traffic to get through, but since we rarely stay out past midnight (thanks to the metro), we aren't familiar with the bridge schedule! It's a rite of passage to get stuck with the bridges up. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait outside in the cold for more than 20 minutes before the bridge went down and we were able to safely walk across and hail another cab home.
However, those 20 minutes were some of the most memorable of my life. This story has been removed from our blog at the request of our supervisors. It is deemed to be inappropriate. If you want to know what happened, please email either of us and we'll happy share the story with you via email.
The most important thing is that we got home safely...with some great Russian stories to share!
The evening started off innocently enough -- we went to see the opera Madama Butterfly at the famous Mariinsky Theater with a large group of friends. The theater and the production were fabulous, easily living up to the hype, although Matt wished that the three acts could have performed in less time than the 3 hours and 45 minutes that it took last night. It was the first time we had been there; we are now going to try to find ways to go as many times as possible for the theater closes mid-winter for rennovations. To see the Kirov ballet perform in its home theater would be spectacular and certainly a highlight of our year here.After the opera, on our way to a well-known local bar, we went in search of blinis or some other late-night snack, since many of us had not had a real dinner beforehand. Matt and I had agreed to stay out past midnight, when the metro shuts down, so we were not in any rush, especially once we had learned that our tour of YESOD scheduled for the next morning had been postponed. We stopped for pizza on Nevsky and, after a quick nosh, went on our way to the bar. The bar we chose was Dacha, which is supposed to be a kitschy Soviet-era relic of a bar. Turns out it's more of a tiny, run-down Russian hole-in-the-wall. Quite literally, there was a hole in the wall. After a few rounds of vodka shots, we were dancing like lunatics to retro 80s tunes.
Eventually, the six of us decided to leave and hail cabs back home. We got as far as one of the city's main drawbridges to realize that it was open, meaning we were stuck on that side of the city and wouldn't be able to get home to our island. We had heard stories of the bridges opening in the middle of the night to allow for the boat traffic to get through, but since we rarely stay out past midnight (thanks to the metro), we aren't familiar with the bridge schedule! It's a rite of passage to get stuck with the bridges up. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait outside in the cold for more than 20 minutes before the bridge went down and we were able to safely walk across and hail another cab home.
However, those 20 minutes were some of the most memorable of my life. This story has been removed from our blog at the request of our supervisors. It is deemed to be inappropriate. If you want to know what happened, please email either of us and we'll happy share the story with you via email.
The most important thing is that we got home safely...with some great Russian stories to share!
posted by Alyson Fieldman at 1:59 PM
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