Nightswimming

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After all this whining I decided to treat you guys with something more pleasant: I'll share some more pictures of my life in Moscow. I came to this conclusion for two reasons. Firstly, 'cause I'm lazy. Secondly, 'cause they say a picture can tell more than thousand words (this argument only underlines my laziness and inability to write you something fresh). 

But before the good stuff bare with me for awhile. As strange as it may now seem and sound (after all this time in the Russian capital) I've finally learned to really like Moscow. The key was under my nose all this time: to accept this city, its habits and its people just the way they are. But now let's start with the collage:

Wet Moscow riverbank after two beers and few vessels full of partying people that passed by.

Some unfortunate bublik in a pond in Moscow zoo few seconds before it was eaten up by a swarm of salmons, turtles, catfish and some perch.

Me enjoying myself as one of the locals: chilling out in a fountain in the Moscow's Victory Park with live concert playing some lame popsa on the background.  

From here on the pictures are from last Friday evening which I spend just roaming around the city with a friend of mine after a hard day's work and after we had bought tickets to a theatre play you shall soon enough hear about..

This picture could have ended up earlier in the post "Moscow's got Magic" because the park and the pond in the picture make the first scene in Bulgakov's novel Master and Margarita. This park is the Patriarch Ponds and it is here where professor Woland first appears on this visit to Moscow in spring somewhere in early 1930's.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour at dusk..
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...and probably the best possible view on Moscow skyline at dusk. Here you can clearly see all the layers (the tzarist, Soviet and modern) of makeup lady Moscow has on her face.
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And here am I thinking of the summers past, pining for Tarnovo and dreaming of a nightswimming (mind you not in the Moscow river - I'm not mental enough to plunge myself into that river!) that I'm going to undertake with my friend some of these days in an outdoor pool.


And speaking of nightswimming here I have my official theme song for this summer: (Psst! mind the link in the subtitle below)

Nightswimming (by R.E.M.)
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Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge
The moon is low tonight

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

Nightswimming, remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
Could not describe nightswimming

You, I thought I knew you
You, I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me,
This one laughing quietly underneath my breath
Nightswimming

The photograph reflects,
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night

Yours on the photographs above,

Stefan