Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Peasants Are Revolting

Yesterday was a holiday. The kids had school, but The Spouse did not have to go to work. So after an early morning coffee with a girlfriend, I met him in Red Square.

I'm sorry, but that does sound exotic, doesn't it? I met him in Red Square. I'm gonna miss getting to say things like this after we've left Moscow.

We decided to go here:
This is the Moscow State Historical Museum on Red Square. You can read about it here. And here. The official website is here, but it is only in Russian. Not much help to the tourist. Screw you, tourist! Learn Russian like the rest of us!

This is the ticket to the museum, front and back:


Russia can be like that. Often doors into museums and churches are so NOT marked as to seem inappropriate to walk through. This one was an exception, however. Anyone--even the Russian-language-challenged tourist--can easily see where to enter. And the nice lady taking tickets will very helpfully explain that you need to go up the stairs and keep turning left to follow the exhibit in a logical order.

"Go up, up, up. Then left, left, left," she told us.

"She sure was nice," I said to The Spouse as we went first to the coat check. He agreed.

"Too bad she didn't speak a word of English," I pointed out.

Russia isn't always user-friendly. I sometimes wonder what my mother-in-law, for example, would do if someone dropped her into Russia, and she decided to go visit the Moscow State Historical Museum on Red Square by herself. She probably would see the exhibit all backwards or something.

In fact, we did go through the top floor of the museum the wrong way. We regressed from just before the Revolution to the War of 1812 or so.

We realized this as we were standing in front of a display case.

"Oh. Hey. The peasants are revolting," I said.

Without missing a beat, The Spouse replied, "Yeah, and you don't smell so good yourself."

6 comments:

valentina said...

Oh you have to admire that deft Surbey wit! xov

TRex said...

We went to the Treasury Fund with some friends years ago and I had to give my knife to the guard whowith raised eyebrow put it in a little wooden box. He gave it back to me when I came out telling me it a dangerous knife, so I tried to give him 200 rubles but he wouldn't take it cuz his boss was watching.
I'm sorry if this is not relevant, I'll go now.

The Expatresse said...

You make me laugh.

Tina in CT said...

That building is so beautiful at the end of the Square. I did not get there when I visited but it's on my "to do" list for this coming Dec.

Isn't it funny how Russians tear every receipt. Wonder why they do that.

Glad that you and your husband had a date to do something together without kids.

My granddaughters and daughter did not have school as they are in a Russian school.

MoscowMom said...

Hiya-- pretty picture! I love that building, still haven't made it inside. I keep meaning to go there with the kids. In a way, isn't it the 'non-user-friendliness' that makes this place interesting? Or, perhaps, knowing this place will NEVER be user-friendly as in the USA, I try to put a positive spin on the difficulty?

Anonymous said...

I like Mr. Beetgoeson