Morning jogging

Last two mornings have been absolutely beautiful. So, before going to work I have been doing some jogging in the park near by my home. It gives such a great and energetic feeling for the whole day when you can start your day with some oxygen in your lungs ...and possibly something else too, thanks to the fresh moscow air ;-) However, I believe the quality of air is not so bad in my park. I don't of course know any official statistics but I think you can feel it if it's dramatically bad. I have also seen few other brave runners here now but there is still more people around with their beer bottles ... and yes, during the morning too. I guess the trend about healthy lifestyle has not reached Russia yet. Anyway, sun is shining and life can be sometimes pretty great =)  

First Russian lesson

So now it starts, I will start learning Russian language! Jippii :-) Well, I have already been studying some basic stuff on my own with a book I bought from Helsinki. I know the most crucial expressions but I hope soon I can say & understand lots more. I thought this is especially important now because I decided to stay in Moscow little bit longer than six months, which was the original plan.

I have met my teacher once before and she seemed to very nice woman. She is maybe little bit younger than me and has a university background. The challenging part here is that she doesn't speak any Finnish. I was little bit surprised when she took the Russian (and only Russian, no English at all) language book from her bag and introduced it as the one we will be using... Well, maybe it's ok. At this stage I trust her completely. I believe she knows what she is doing. She also has other foreign students, even though I am the only Finn at the moment. The best part of this language course is that my teacher will come twice a week to our office to meet me here. Perfect! I will save so much time when I don't have to travel around Moscow...

Desert at the Pushkin cafe

We still had some time left before girls would have to go the train station and catch the train to Helsinki. I can tell you there is no better way to spend it than go to Pushkin Cafe and have a nice dessert with a cappuccino. We tasted Pushkin Cafe's special selection and creme brule. They both were absolutely mind blowing experiences! How can I ever survive again in Helsinki without this cafe? Their rest rooms are also worth checking out, pretty shiny stuff and lots of gold... After coming home from the train station I got some exciting news from Finland. My little sister got a baby girl tonight! Wonderful! I am auntie now, so cool :-D

Sushi planet

I think we were all starving after being at the market and it was quite clear without mentioning that it was time for some sushi. We all just love it! So, we ended up going to Sushi planet , it's a Japanese restaurant close to Pushkinskaya metro station. It was first time there to me too and not bad at all!

Buying some jewellery

What could be a better way to spend sunday afternoon than going to do some shopping... so we went too Izmailovsky Park. Sometimes you can find very interesting things from there. This time my Finnish friends were particularly interested in jewellery. I also bought some little souvenirs to take back to Finland with me. My Russian friend totally surprised my by buying me a nice and soft scarf as a present. It's lovely! Balshoje spasiba :-)

Krisis zhanra

We could all successfully pass the face control and so the evening/night continued at Krisis. Rock'n roll all night long... jeah! This is my favourite bar: nice people, cosy atmosphere, good music and tasty inexpensive drinks :-)

Exhibition in a park

On our way to the next place we happened to see this photographic exhibition in a park close to Christiye Prudy metro station. First I thought it's some kind of promotion for Getty Images because I could recognise so many of the photos. I had seen them many times when trying to find some photos for work projects. The theme was life under the water. I must say the colours looked nice and bright during the nighttime... 

Some jazz...

We decided to visit Roadhouse because my Finnish friends happened to like jazz... well I guess my Russian friends like it too. However it was quite short visit because after our drinks we felt that we need more action!

uPirosmani

Besides the Russian kitchen, Georgian is very popular here too. One of the best Georgian restaurants around is probably uPirosmani (www.uPirosmani.ru) close to Sportivnaya metro station and opposite to famous Novodevichiy monastry. The name comes from famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmnishvili. This may not be the cheapest place but it's certainly worth checking out. You can find photos of their famous guests on the walls: Bill Clinton, Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford etc. Tight political situation between Georgia and Russia can be seen here too – it's impossible to find any Georgian wines from the menu. They can't be imported to Russia at the moment. However we were ever so lucky with the weather. The green terrace in a sunset was just the perfect place to have a dinner tonight. We got some music too... 

Street fashion

...and one more to go – this exhibition was about street fashion. I so love this inspiring atmosphere!

Exhibitions

We saw many interesting exhibitions here today, vow! Those exotic belts by the way are been made from real coins. I also bought few very nice photographic books about Russian soul and life during the Soviet times, I am sure it's great pleasure to carry them around for the rest of the day and night possibly too :-) Well, sometimes there is a price to pay if you really want something...

Gallery tour

My new guests are also working in a field of design, so they were interested in seeing some modern art today. So, I thought Vinzavod would be a good place to go. There were also quite many skateboarders today, they were participating the Moscow Skate Tour.

Here again...

Stanislavskogo2 was such a nice experience last time that I decided to take my new guests there too. Portions are not cheap but they are very big and they can easily be devided. That's good because then everybody will have a change to taste different things. My personal favorites here are pies with mushrooms and spread made from aubergine. Aah, so delicious!

Fresh girls from Finland

This morning I went to railway station to pick up some more guests from Finland. They were "fifth group" in this month but that's totally fine. I actually like being a tourist guide, it's lots of fun! We had a lunch together at GUM but then rest of the day (when I was working) they just spend by going to see Kremlin, doing a river cruise and just relaxing in Aleksander's park. I think there were few other tourists around too. It's very common to see tourist groups around the red square, especially now during the holiday season.

Morning swim

Sun was shining and the beginning of this day was very good because I had a morning swim at Chaika pool before going to work. Yes, life can be so wonderful sometimes :-D 

Some huge ads

Among some other huge things, you can find some extremely huge advertising spaces in Moscow. Here is one example next to the Moscow river. It must longer than 200 metres! Few years ago there was a huge and famous hotel Rossiya in this place. Now they are building something new and little bit more fancy here.