Patriarch's Ponds in the Summer (click to enlarge)After we finish watching the Phils debacle, Billie Jo and I ventured out on our my first tourist jaunt of the trip. We check out Patriarch's Ponds which is a small park in Moscow that served as the setting for the opening scene of the celebrated Russian novel "The Master and the Margarita" which was written by Mikhail Bulgakov.
Note the photo above as well as the Krylov Photo below were both taken on Billie Jo's first visit to the area in the late summer.
Ivan KrylovThe park features this statue of Ivan Krylov, author of many Russian fables. The are also a handful of additional well done sculptures detailing some of Krylov's stories.
Krylov Fable Sculpture I have no idea what fable this is referencing, but this sculpture is particularly interesting - the oval is an open ring that from this angle creates the illusion that the monkey is pointing at his own image in a mirror.
Within Moscow, the statues and sculptures are definitely significant - both in size and detail. Every building and park seems to feature some sort of Russian hero, tsar, king, artist, diplomat, tyrant, hipster or slacker.
Botanika
After the park we visit one of Billie Jo's favorite restaurants "Cafe Botanika". They feature small plates at reasonable prices. One of the dishes we have is Varenyky which is a basically Russian/Ukranian Pierogi. Billie Jo tells me not eat the Pelmeni - apparently over the summer they were filling them with some sort of bad horse meat and there was an anthrax scare. Horse meat, Anthrax??? not sure the two are connected, but I will stay away.
Branding
While in Moscow I am going to be tracking American professional sports brands. And on my second day in Moscow I spotted my first logo - And it happened to be from one of my favorite teams - The NBAs Boston Celtics. There was an adult man wearing a Celtics jacket near the School that Billie Jo and I will be attending - that's right I said School. More on that soon.
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