3-4-07

2-4-07

I’m going to try to write this entry as fast as possible, but there’s a lot of ground to cover and I don’t want to miss anything. So this might seem a little disjointed.

The reason I’m writing this as fast as possible is because I really want to escape the apartment. When I got home last night, I noticed the apartment smelled kind of weird—like wet plaster. Marina came into the foyer and explained that the pipes in the wall above the toilet room had burst/leaked and water had leaked into the apartment by means of seeping through the ceiling. It had puddled in (Wait—MS Word says puddled isn’t a word? Whatever) the toilet room, the bathroom, the area in the kitchen next to these rooms, and a little bit in the foyer. She had cleaned it up and called an inspector to come the next (this) morning. She was pretty pissed, as this has happened before, and she just had remodeling done in September to fix some previous damage.

Well, today while she was making breakfast, it started again. I think it might have stopped by now, but it was dripping pretty steadily for a good long while. It was like having a rain cloud in the bathroom, that’s how constant the water was. Marina just came in and told me that if tonight they turn the water off to fix it, she’s going to have me stay at a friend’s place for the night. They have a little dog. Okay, terrifying. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t much fancy a sleepover.

So anyway, yesterday. My original plan was to go to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery with Hillary and Becky. But when I told Marina about this, she pointed out that because the weather’s so crappy, the cemetery is going to be one big mud pit. So plan scratched. Instead, I decided I’d just go to the Russian Museum, which I still haven’t been to. I don’t know why, but every day I decide I’m going to go there, something else comes up. Well, yesterday was no exception, and in grand fashion.

While on the Metro, I noticed a sticker saying something along the lines of, “Not going to the elections? Come to us! Rally for those who disagree! Ploshad Vosstaniya, 12pm!” There’s a hammer and sickle on it, and I figure it’s probably related to the 90th anniversary of the February Revolution. So then I get out of the Metro on Nevsky, and parked all along the canal are just trucks and trucks full of police officers in full-on riot gear. This seems odd to me, as the rally is taking place down at Ploshad Vosstaniya (Uprising Square), which is a good 15 minute walk away from Gostiny Dvor.

Because Hillary’s just gotten out of the shower, I decide to go meet up with Becky at a Kofe Haus to wait for her, and then all of us will go to the Russian Museum together. Becky’s texted me to say she’s in a Kofe Haus down closer to Ploshad Vosstaniya, so I start walking that direction. It’s not long before I realize that, just past Anchikov Bridge, Nevsky Prospekt is actually packed with people, marching in my direction. I cross the bridge and get out my camera.

I started taking picture as they were coming towards me, and then as they swallowed me up, I just started walking along with them and taking pictures. It was funny, they were chanting things, but it would take me a while to figure out, in Russian, just what they were saying. My brain would try and convert it into English. Example: They were chanting “Eta nash gorod!” which means, “This is our city!” My brain converted it into, “Let them march forward!” Anyway.

So at one point there’s a small group of police trying to block the street, but the crowd just avoids them by using the passages under the street. When we get to Gostiny Dvor, we realize that, down where I had gotten out of the Metro earlier, there’s a line of police stretching across the entire street, blocking it. So the crowd just gathers around the steps of the bell tower, and people with megaphones start making speeches. I take this time to walk down to check out the line of police. It’s three people thick, all decked out in riot gear, arms linked Red Rover-style.

So then I go back to where the rally has reestablished itself and take a few more pictures. There are police around, but for the most part they’re just sitting there. I don’t know what cued it, but a handful of police just kind of charged into the crowd, swinging at some guy. I’m willing to bet they were acting out of line, as no other officers followed them, and the ended up kind of surrounded by the crowd. It was crazy, they were pushing a guy, and this other guy came up and tried to pull them off, but then he got pushed away. So the guy that tried to help is just standing next to me, he’s been pushed back into the crowd. One of the cops looks up and sees him, comes over to him, smiling and laughing, and then pulls his hat down over his face and hits him.

But they were forced back out of the crowd pretty quickly. The crowd was furious, chanting “Fascists! Fascists!” So things calmed down for a bit, then some guy with a megaphone that everyone was really excited to see started making a speech, but the police came up to take him down. When they were up on the stairs, people who had the long wooden sticks that the flags had been on started trying to hit the cops. A lot of the people waving these sticks were babushkas. So most of the cops really took it in stride, smiling when they realized that there was a woman half their size down there tapping them on the helmet with a stick.

There was more pushing and scuffling with the police. It really seemed like it was just a couple of them who couldn’t control themselves, for the most part the police seemed really chill about it. Then obviously the order came that the street needed to be opened up for traffic, so the police linked arms and shoved everyone out of the street. The only problem with this is that on the sides of the street there are these stupid little decorative chain things (Also probably to stop people from parking on the sidewalk). I was just pissed because when I got pushed into that, the back of my jeans got muddy.

So then the police just lined the streets for like the next hour to make sure nothing happened. I just stood around, waiting for Becky, and listened to a couple of hilarious old women just chew out some of the cops. The cops were taking it all in stride, for the most part.

I met up with Becky outside Gostiny Dvor, and then we met up with Hillary, and then went to Papa John’s. Oh my God, probably the best pizza I’ve ever had. And cheese sticks. And nice, big drinks. Unfortunately, the idea of “free refills” has not carried over into Russia. Anyone who’s been with me in a, say, Outback Steakhouse, knows that I abuse free refills to death. It’s been hard to drink my Diet Coke in moderation. Hannah joined us for dinner as well.

We then met up with Lael, and walked from Papa John’s by Cherneshevskaya down to Nevsky, which is actually a pretty long walk. We then met up with Kate and went to a bar called Fidel’s with pictures of Fidel Castro everywhere and free pretzel sticks and hung out the rest of the night. Then I came back here and called the States.

It’s only 10am, but I really am going to go to Kofe Haus soon. To post this, to post some pictures of the rally, and to have a nice, big apple juice. I’m betting it’ll feel really good on my throat.