russia: moscow and tulips

Finally, a Wednesday with good weather. A lot of the time I'm convinced that if I have the afternoon off it guarantees the weather will be awful.

I hopped on the metro back to the neighborhood in which I lived last year, as it was tulip time, and I wanted to take every opportunity to see my favourite flower around the city.

One of the spots the city puts in tulips is in front of Moscow State University. The view was just as pretty as I remembered. 

Who are we kidding though, you could put tulips in front of a wall and I'd still love them. Favourite flower since first grade, when I was 7.

Back on the metro, to a house museum near school. Unfortunately when I got there I found a sign on the gate saying it was closed for renovation. I didn't see a date on the sign, so who knows how long the closure is for.

I'll try again next year to see a house in which Chekov lived for a while.

russia: moscow in may

May in Moscow is glorious. It has finally warmed up after a long winter, trees have leaves again, flowers are blooming, etc...

At the beginning of the month Bo was in town for a couple final days of his trip. One of those mornings we walked to the university campus, I wanted to see the most recent landscaping. I'd been seeing pictures of tulips on social media, and since they're my favourite flower I was even more keen.

The garden of flowers in front of the main university building was beautiful. We weren't the only ones who thought so, there were a couple tour buses of Chinese out taking photos too.

The next morning I made sure Bo got to the right train station to catch an express train to the airport, then I walked to school. I was up super early to do this, but the weather was lovely, so why not?

The second weekend of May I walked from my flat to Park Pobedy (Victory Park,) because I wanted to take a photo with the big victory arch. My walk took me past a couple landscaped areas with tulips, so I was in heaven. I wish tulips bloomed year round.

From the arch I continued walking, because I was on a tulip high and the weather was still amazing. I walked all the way to Kievskaya metro station, it wasn't a short walk.

My cousin Tyra arrived the next day, on an earlier flight than I expected. I was excited that she was able to get herself to my school by herself, it saved both of us a lot of time. We took her bags home, then went walking to the university campus, I wanted her to see the tulips too.

We also went to the end of the landscaped area, because it is an overlook, and you can see the entire city. As expected, there were plenty of people out there with us, but who could blame them? The weather was amazing, and the whole world felt beautiful.

A couple mornings later I woke up early and convinced Tyra to go for a walk, just because we could. We went in the direction of the university, and found that all the tulips had been ripped out and barriers were being put up. We didn't know why, I only found out a few days later when I tried again and realized it was being set up as a fan zone for the upcoming World Cup football tournament.

That was all the time I spent around the city in May. I wonder if it will be any different next year?