Americans are fat, eat hamburgers, and don’t know geography, said our Russian train guide, Lada, summing up an unflattering stereotype. Parroting the official propaganda, she also mentioned the American invasion of Ukraine. Although Lada was on the conservative side of the Russian political spectrum, her remarks and our other guides provided an alarming view of Russia under the reign of Vladimir Putin.
My husband, Geoff, and I had just stumbled off a 12-day ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Beijing. Before boarding, we had traveled through northern China for two weeks. That was the first leg of a three-month around-the-world celebration of our early retirement. After Russia, we planned to visit Turkey, but in the next 10 days, we would experience life in Moscow and then St. Petersburg.
Moscow vibrates with stylish young people. At an outdoor jazz concert in Gorky Park, the crowd and atmosphere wouldn’t have been out of place in Central Park. The crowd was fashionably dressed. One woman had blue hair. Music featured American jazz singers with the crowd singing along in English. The Russian specialty of salty, fried herring was worthy of a taste, but in the end we resorted to the universally available french fries. One guide told us that Muscovites are happy with their cell phones and Internet but are living under “a free dictatorship.”