Random Pictures of Parks

It has been PARK MANIA here in Moscow for me the this last month. I feel the call of mother earth and want to return to her natury goodness, so I have been visiting all the famous and close parks. Here are some of the ones I have been to.

This park is called Patriarch Ponds. It is famous because one of the scenes from Bulgakav's novel "Master and Margarita" takes place here. If you haven't read it, then you should. It is quite entertaining.

It so happened that the reason we went to Patriarch Ponds was because I wanted to feed some old bread to some ducks. Unfortuantly I learned that you can't feed the ducks here and that there in fact only one "ponds." There used to be two but the other was filled in and now has a building sitting on top of it.

In the quest to find ducks to feed on this particular day, Todd and I ventured to sokolniki park. At first we were put off by the fact that we had to pay to enter (60 Rubles!) but were delighted when we saw the form of transport depicted below. How unbelievable creepy is that train! All I can say is, "Yes, please!" The park is really quite nice. It has enough trees and open space to make you believe you have left the city. We plan on going back.

This park is called Pioneer Park. It was probably used for the young pioneers who endeavored to be like Lenin. Nowadays it is just a park. This park is neither famous or very nice but it is close to my house (25 minute walk away). I asked one of my Russian co-workers if she knew of a park within walking distance and this is what she recommended. It is a nice place to sit amoung the trees.This is Kuskovo park. A rich family used to live here and they collected porcelain and if you come before 6pm you can be the lucky guest of the porcelin museum! Lucky, indeed! Too bad for me, I arrived too late to see it. So one of my students and I walked around the pond.

And look! Ducks! And not just ducks but baby ducks! But alas, I had no bread on this day. :(

One of the most famous parksin Moscow is Park Pobedy. It was constructed to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany.

And like any good park in Russia, it has lots of fountains!

Tula

In June Todd and I took an excursion that our company organized to the town of Tula, south of Moscow. It is famous because this is where Tolstoy lived. He owned property a bit outside of town where he lived his ascetic lifestyle.

It was a great trip. Good weather, good company, and eventually, after we got the bus running again, a comfortable ride!

Our bus. We had a nice 3o minute break on a random street in Tula.

The first stop of our trip was Yasnaya Polyana, aka, Tolstoy's estate. Todd wanted to listen to what our tour guide was saying at this point but I made him pose for a picture, look how well he fakes a smile!

Here is Tolstoy's house. Since Tolstoy was an aristocrate he was obligated to provide money or troops whenever the Tsar went to war. Well once, when he didn't have either, he sold the house he was born in and it was disassembled and carried away brick by brick. The house in this picture was one of the wings off to either side of the main house. He lived here for most of his married life.

Tolstoy also maintained a farm and they have continued to keep it up. I was trying to get close to those geese but I was afraid they would chase me!

Tolstoy owned a huge piece of land. It is quite beautiful.

Next stop: Tula Kremlin. Here is the view of it from across the street of the main entrance. Even Peter the Great had visited this Kremlin!

A view of the walls inside the Kremlin. I think that tower was used as a place to torture people.


And a video. Listen to the quiet comments of our favorite four-eyed friend!