Expect the Unexpected

привет, my friend!

One of the joys of knowing a new place is finding unexpected things. Today was filled with surprises.

Suprise #1: As I was going to the subway, I realized there is a small subway entrance two blocks away from the hotel. This is much closer than the main entrance, which is on the other side of a huge boulevard and takes me 10 minutes to get there.

Surprise #2: I was going to visit a neighborhood called Arbat, famous for its quaint streets and art deco mansions. I left the subway through the wrong exit, but ended up at the footsteps of the Lenin Library, which is a beautiful building but was nowhere in my guidebook. In front of it, there is a huge statue of Dostoievsky.

Surprise #3: Across the street from the library, was the Kremlin, which I was not expecting to see today.

Surprise #4: according to Lonely Planet, the walking tour was supposed to last 4 hours. Fortunately, I was done in 2 hours, because my right foot hurts a lot. One of the sites of the tour was a mansion that now hosts the Canadian Embassy (eh!)

Surprise #5: one of the stops was the Tserterili Gallery, which shows many pieces from Georgian artist Zurab Tsertirili. Lonely Planet calls him prolific, and they are right. There are tons and tons of pieces, and they are all gorgeous. There are bronze sculptures, enamel paintings, drawings, oil paintings -- at one point, I thought some of the art did not belong to him, but I was wrong. I checked his website, and he is the author of the statue in front of the United Nations building in New York. My favorite piece was a courtyard that housed a huge bronze apple, with bites around it. It is possible to walk inside the apple, where the walls and ceiling have sculpted figures in each of the Kama Sutra poses. Here is a pic of the outside of the apple:

Surprise #6: my recently-discovered subway entrance is past the little 'bodega' where I usually buy bottled water. The good news is that I found a better and larger store across the street from the hotel.

Surprise #7: the hot dog stand near the hotel was closed and I needed a quick snack. I entered a little bakery shack near the hotel expecting they would only serve bread. Good news: I ended up having a small yet very tasty quiche.

Surprise #8: my plan was to come back to the hotel in time to watch the German Grand Prix of Formula 1. I'd thought it started at 5pm. However, I got to the hotel at 4:30pm, and the race had already started at 4pm. Well... I never said that every surprise was always a pleasant one.

Tomorrow is my 1st day in the office.

пока!