So I went to Moscow. On business, no less. This was for the same conference that got me to Germany two years ago (and Baltimore 6 years ago, but that's hardly exciting). That sounds like a boondoggle, but I really do care about making our satellite operations more cost effective, so it isn't like I skip out on sessions to play tourist. This time out, the schedule was so full that there was pretty minimal time to sightsee at all, so it's a good thing that I'd been to Moscow previously. The hotel was right by Red Square, so I did manage to walk around the area some, but the square was closed some of the time for National Day celebrations which require a ticket that I had no energy to obtain, even had I known how to. We did get a tour to Energia (the Russian state rocket and space company) which has a cool private museum. The highlight of that was seeing Yuri Gagarin's space capsule, though I should also put in a good word for Moniya-1, the first communications satellite. We also got to go to Mission Control for the International Space Station.
The one real touristy thing I did was go to the circus one night. That was part of the conference social program, the rest of which consisted of parties two nights and a banquest one night. I didn't care much for the clown and was only mildly amused by the dog act, but I did enjoy the rest of the circus. I was particularly impressed by one group of athletes, who did various vaults, including one where the vaulter landed on a lawn chair balanced by a guy on stilts who was on top of a pyramid of other acrobats himself. I also liked the magicians a lot, though I figured out how all their tricks worked. I had somewhat mixed feelings about the tiger act. It was impressive, but the tigers did not seem at all happy.
By the way, I should mention that I did some things cleverly with respect to the travel and others less brilliantly. Flying in and out of Domodedovo Airport was a good move, as it's nicely modern and efficient (and connected to the city center by express train). Flying via London on BMI, however, was a bit of a mistake as they give only 500 frequent flyer miles for the leg from London to Moscow. My return was via Vienna, and spending the weekend there was a very good move.
I'd been to Vienna before but that was way back in 1980. It's somewhat more on the tourist circuit now, which is both good and bad. The bad part is the increase in prices. The good part is that things seem to stay open longer hours, at least in touristy areas. I stayed a bit out of the center, since it's cheaper to and not too inconvenient as long as you are near a U-bahn station. I bought a 72 hour transit pass and found getting around easy enough, though the signage could be improved. (Perhaps I was spoiled by Moscow, where the Metro has excellent signs, as long as you can read Cyrillic. People who can't read Cyrillic, however, have a very hard time there.) Incidentally, it appears to be impossible to buy tickets for local transit in Vienna other than via machines. A few stations have information booths, but those seem to be open only during the working week.
You can, however, buy a train ticket to Bratislava from a human being at Sudbahnhof (the South train station). I'd wanted to take the hydrofoil to Bratislava and the train back, but hadn't realized that tickets would sell out and the only way I could do the hydrofoil at all was to take the late boat back on Saturday night. That meant I ended up with about 10 hours in Bratislva, which is about 7 or 8 hours more than you need to see the city. While it is the capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava was never much more than a backwater, a place where minor Hapsburgs built elaborate palaces so they could forget that they were in the provinces, while the big shots were in Vienna and Budapest. Oh, sure, Maria Theresa came by now and then, and a string of famous musicians were dispatched from bigger cities (notably Liszt, Beethoven, and Anton Rubinstein, whose connection is even more tenuous since he was Russian). That means there are lots of historical plaques, sort of along the lines of all of the towns in Virginia where Washington slept. (I always figured that our first president took a lot of naps.)
In terms of actual tourist attractions, there's a castle, several churches (of which the one I found most interesting was the especially ornate one attached to the convent of the Poor Clares), the old town hall (which has a small museum), and the Primate's Palace, which I might have liked better had I not been annoyed at being charged the full 40 koruna only to learn that half the site, including the famous hall of mirrors, was closed to the public due to a wedding. (The annoyance lessens when you realize that's less than 2 bucks, though slightly more than the price of a Slovak beer.) You can take a little pseudo-train tour around the old city and admire the architecture and marvel at how much mileage they can string out of not much having ever happened there. They do have a few amusing tidbits about local statues, including one of a man peeping out of a manhole, who is said to enjoy looking up women's skirts. Another statue, of a Napoleonic soldier, is peering over a park bench and is said to enjoy listening to lover's conversations.
And, if you're a good traveller, you can figure out that the lack of serious sights makes a good excuse for just hanging out and you can then settle into a round of cafes and park benches. (Perhaps not the one with the Napoleonic soldier, though.) The latter offered up a folk music and dance festival of some sort, while exploring the former revealed the single most essential attraction of Bratislava. Namely, Cokolodovna, a cafe which specializes in hot chocolate and claims to have over 60 varieties. On my first visit, I tried the Indian, which had rum, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and whipped cream. That may have improved the quality of the music I heard from the park benches. I returned in the evening and tried the Japanese, which just had ginger and whipped cream. The chunks of ginger didn't really work for me, but it was worth trying.
Back in Vienna, I spent Sunday meandering around the botanical gardens outside the Belvedere Palace, as well as just generally meandering around the city center. Had it rained, I'd have gone to a museum or two, but there didn't seem much point in being inside in nice weather. All in all, it was a nice little break after a pretty intense work week at the conference.
I got home late Monday afternoon and am just barely caught up at work. (I still have to finish some of my post travel paperwork, as well as my trip report from the conference.) I have more catching up to do at home. I did get out today and make a round of used bookstores, getting rid of another 40 books. If I can get through balancing my checkbook and paying bills tonight, I'll figure I'm where I need to be on household stuff. Vacuuming can (and, alas, almost always does) wait.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel