Prose

Narrative writings: essays, reviews, polemics, short stories, etc

Moscow #3. A Tsar Park and Stalin Towers.
My last day in Moscow had come; the train to Kiev was already booked (thanks to Ann!) and I had opted to see some more things in this amazing city. My original plan was to visit some cities of the golden ring, north east from Moscow, such as Suzdal and Vladimir, but I decided to ...
Moscow #2. Great Art Collections.
The next day I visited the Pushkin museum, where I saw another vast collection of European Art. Especially the Dutch floor caught my attention, and in front of Rembrandt's Old Lady I just had to spend several minutes. This canvas is just so great!

After the visit of this remarkable collection, I met with ...
Moscow. Puh-ha!
I arrived savely in Moscow. And met many nice Russians.



The first night I stayed in a hostel, for a change. Ann had given me the adress, and it was - for Moscovian measures - very cheap (650 rubles). I took a good shower and had some coffee, before walking around in ...
Working days until Moscow.
The next couple of days are not so interesting for the reader, I guess. I just wrote and wrote. In the morning at the kitchen table, in the afternoon in a cafe, and the last day in a huge bookstore. That is a nice story though. Max helped me to buy a train ticket to ...
St Petersburg #3. Hermitage.
I was in to some culture, and the next day I found some time to realize an old dream of mine: Visiting the Hermitage museum. It is located in seven huge buildings, and its collection is just huge. I concentrated on impressionist paintings, with the side-effect that I didn't feel like an absolute novice in ...
St Petersburg #2. Rock hard.
The next day I rolled in the snow. Why and how remains a little secret here. It caused me to be too late for the Hermitage, and I spent the afternoon writing in a cafe: business as usual. In the evening I met Marikka, the blond one, who took me to a concert of Igor, ...
St. Petersburg #1.
So I arrived in Saint Petersburg in the morning, in a huge train station, and I called Katja, the girl whom I had contacted on the couchsurfing network. It was quite easy to find my way around the city, since there are only four subway lines, neatly intertwined around four large ploshads (squares). So I ...
A 27 Hour Trainride.
In the morning, Alyona brought me to the station with the tram, where a woman sold the tickets on board. The train was already there, but I had to wait to get in. My passport was doublechecked and I entered a clean new waggon (you might be less lucky if you try to take a ...
Murmansk. Alyosha.
I waited my five days in three different places, with three totally different kinds of people, who were all so kind. The last two nights I stayed at Evelyn's, a member of couchsurfing and a German who teaches Russian in Norwegian (!). So I enjoyed a conversation about linguistics, history, politics, which nourished my mind ...