May 27th, 2008 at 10:30AM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
I have never seen a bigger vodka selection than a vodka isle in any supermarket in Russia. There must, literally, be hundreds of vodkas to choose from. The selection ranges from bottles with generic titles, costing as little ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
moscow posts
Bolshoi in Russia: How to get women to drink more vodka
May 27th, 2008 at 10:30AM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
I have never seen a bigger vodka selection than a vodka isle in any supermarket in Russia. There must, literally, be hundreds of vodkas to choose from. The selection ranges from bottles with generic titles, costing as little ...Bolshoi in Russia: Driving like it is the last time ever. It could just be.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:00PM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
A few things to know before driving a car in Russia: avoid it if you can. The traffic is terrible. I suppose anytime you have a country where half the people own fast, luxury cars and the other half owns piece-of-junk Ladas, ...Bolshoi in Russia: No hot water for three weeks...makes you stronger
May 25th, 2008 at 5:00PM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
One of the joys of life in Moscow in the summer is that they turn off hot water for up to three weeks for maintenance. The energy company does this every year. They switch off hot water in different areas of the city as they ...Bolshoi in Russia: Stray dogs in Moscow's metro
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:00AM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
Just as I was wondering why there are so many stray dogs everywhere in Moscow (including the subway), this Wall Street Journal article came to my rescue. Moscow estimates the population of stray dogs at about ...Bolshoi in Russia: Moscow truly is a ridiculously expensive city
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:00PM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
Moscow has been ranked the world's most expensive city for two years now. Still, it's one thing to see the ranking in the newspaper and another thing to actually be here and pay the prices. In an average bar or restaurant, ...Bolshoi in Russia: American celebrities aka hookers in Moscow?
May 20th, 2008 at 5:00PM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
This sincerely made me laugh today.
At breakfast, I am sipping my morning coffee at a coffee shop, reading The Moscow Times. There it is in the classified section: an ad for an exclusive escort service featuring Jessica ...Bolshoi in Russia: Is this the world's ugliest statue or what?
May 20th, 2008 at 11:30AM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
Moscow is an incredibly vibrant city. New buildings are popping up everywhere (and one can only hope they will soon cover a lot of the other buildings I've seen). Russian architecture is a mixed bag. There are some real gems, ...Bolshoi in Russia: Moscow museum night is free (hence popular with hipsters)
May 19th, 2008 at 5:30PM:
Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
Moscow held their 11th annual Night of Museums (or Long Night of Museums) on Saturday, May 17. I haven't seen as many people in one place since visiting China. I shouldn't be surprised. It was, after all, a free event. The ...Photo of the Day (05/19/08)
May 19th, 2008 at 4:30PM:
Since I am in Russia this week, I am using a photo I took yesterday on the secret ground of Kolomenskoe, in outer Moscow. Rumors that Peter the Great was born here led to its nickname "the Russian Bethlehem."
The Church of the Ascension overlooking the river Moscow is quite stunning and the park is great. What I loved the best, however, was the view. From here, Moscow looks like a peaceful ...Bolshoi in Russia: Find me in da club (if I can get past the bouncers)
May 18th, 2008 at 5:30PM: Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
I don't think you can ever be ready for clubbing in Moscow. I certainly wasn't. Granted, I am not really the clubbing type. I arrived in Russia last night and was told that we have VIP tickets to Opera, one of Moscow's hottest ...Off to Russia. Wish me luck
May 16th, 2008 at 5:00PM: Tomorrow, I leave for Russia. I have never been before and I am psyched. However, I can't believe I chose this particular week to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Of course, I picked the dates before knowing that some 50,000 English fans are expected to descend on Moscow to watch the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea on May 21. Why the match between two British teams ...Champions League final in Moscow: The British are coming! The British are coming!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:00AM: It's an all England battle for the Champions League title this year. Know what that means? English soccer hooligans, arguably the world's worst sports fans, will be descending en masse on Moscow on May 21. Some estimates put the total number of English fans at 40,000. While it's not fair to say all English fans are hooligans, that's still a big enough number to have me on the first train to ...Planning your European nightlife
Apr 21st, 2008 at 1:00PM: Despite the low dollar, some of us still have European summer adventures on the horizon. And just because the economy is in a rut, doesn't mean we shouldn't focus on fabulous things to do across the Atlantic. This weekend, the New York Times put together a set of 10 articles on things to do after midnight in various European cities. I tend to like the New York Times Travel section, but I really ...Russian army selling towns
Mar 13th, 2008 at 11:00AM: If you are presently on the market for a town, you might want to buy a ticket to Moscow right about now. The Russian army is auctioning off property ranging from mansions to barracks, and even whole towns, to raise cash to build modern housing for its officers, writes The Guardian. Izvestia, the Russian daily, said that more than 20 army properties near Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad and ...Cities packed with billionaires
Mar 10th, 2008 at 3:40PM: It has happened. Moscow has beat New York as the city most packed with billionaires, according to this Forbes research. Whereas New York has only 71, Moscow is now home to 74 billionaires (and probably also 740,000 starving people, but that is beside the point.)
Moscow - 74
New York - 71
London - 36
Istanbul - 34
Hong Kong - 30
Los Angeles - 24
...Straight out of 007: Bodyguards to die for
Jan 31st, 2008 at 10:00AM: From the land of the world's craziest game show (a real-life version of the video game Grand Theft Auto), I bring you another Russia delight: a corp of sexy female bodyguards-for-hire. Run out of Moscow, the bodyguard agency provides sultry female bodyguards--many trained by the Soviet-era spy service, the KGB--to "give discreet protection to Moscow's billionaires and their wives and mistresses." ...The craziest game show in the world (and guess from where!)
Jan 17th, 2008 at 9:28PM: With the writer's strike in the US, television has quickly deteriorated as all the networks switch to an overdose of reality-TV shows. But here's one I wouldn't mind watching. It's hands-down the most insane game show you'll ever read about. Set in Moscow (where else), the show is essentially a real-life version of Grand Theft Auto, the video game in which you're a professional carjacker. In the ...Photo of the Day (12/3/2007)
Dec 3rd, 2007 at 2:00PM:
Since Vladimir Putin just won the elections in Russia (can you believe it?), I decided to go with the theme of present-day Russia for today's photo. Here is a picture by Yuri Mamchur, author of the Russia Blog, of a parking lot by a 5-star hotel in Moscow. It would almost make you believe that Russians like Mercedes cars, wouldn't it.
Until, of course, you remember that although there are a lot ...UFO art-exhibition to travel the world
Oct 29th, 2007 at 1:35PM: When I lived in Dubai I worked in PR so I have been witness to many a crazy publicity stunts -- but this one takes the cake. Designer brand Chanel will put a huge gleaming white "Mobile Art Container" in the sky to fly the world from 2008-2010, displaying work of 20 international artists. Brainchild of Chanel's creative head Karl Lagerfeld, the container has been designed by Iraq-born artist Zaha ...Russian Kid Survives Ride on the Wing of a Boeing 737?
Sep 25th, 2007 at 5:14PM: Several news agencies are reporting on the story of a 15-year-old Russian boy who climbed onto the wing of a Boeing 737 and hung on for two hours as the plane flew 800 miles to Moscow. Is it even physically possible to hold onto something when traveling at over 500 miles per hour especially when the temperature routinely drops down to -58 Fahrenheit at cruising altitude? "His arms and legs were ...
