The Art of Blogging

Good grief, blogging is hard. It's like brushing your teeth everyday. It's a learned activity; you first have to get used to it.

So much has happened in the past few weeks. First, let me start by saying that we (my husband and I) received our residence permits (residence Visas) today. What a victory that was!

Secondly, and most importantly, I want to let you know that from now on, aside from focusing on our travels in Europe and beyond and our general impressions of everything from food to people to places, I will also attempt to share periodically my views on the issue of press freedom. Because I work for an organization whose mission it is to fight for a free press, I am consumed with it daily and there are times I would like to share some observations, and invite you to participate in a conversation, on press freedom worldwide. I hope you will find it interesting.

Today, however, I'll tell you a little about my recent travels.

Two weeks ago, I went across the border to Bratislava, the capitol city of Slovakia. ... I can hear some of you Americans saying it now: What? Where? Well, Bratislava -- formerly part of the former Czechoslovakia -- lies on the eastern border with Austria and is a lovely city. It is also home to the Bratislava castle, seat of the Hapsburg emperors. (see: http://www.slovakia.org/sk-faq.htm).

I arrived in Bratislava via catamaran which cruised along the Danube river, the longest river in the European Union and the second longest in Europe, behind the Volga. The hour and 45-minute trip was all very lovely! Particularly interesting were the small fishing "huts," for lack of a better word, that sit along either side of the river.

A day after leaving Slovakia, I traveled to Russia on a press freedom "mission" to talk to government officials and journalists about freedom of expression and media freedom in Russia.

Our first stop was Moscow.

Moscow. Wow.

What hits you immediately is the amount of traffic. It makes New York City look like main street in Poughkeepsie. Traveling anywhere by taxi is more than an hour in most cases. But what a nice looking city, full of old buildings and broad boulevards. Full of restaurants offering wonderful pickled vegetables and dumpling dishes (that amazingly resemble the Chinese type) and, unfortunately, full of vodka. Vodka EVERYWHERE. It is a city of heavy, heavy drinkers.

Better to let the experts explain it to you. This from World Affairs Journal:

"How many Russians are actually drinkers, and how heavily do they actually drink? Officially, Russia classifies some 7 million out of roughly 120 million persons over 15 years of age, or roughly 6 percent of its adult population, as heavy drinkers. But the numbers are surely higher than this. According to data compiled by the World Health Organization, as of 2003 Russia was Europe’s heaviest per capita spirits consumer; its reported hard liquor consumption was over four times as high as Portugal’s, three times that of Germany or Spain, and over two and a half times higher than that of France.Yet even these numbers may substantially understate hard spirit use in Russia, since the WHO figures follow only the retail sale of hard liquor. But samogon—home-brew, or “moonshine”—is, according to some Russian researchers, a huge component of the country’s overall intake. Professor Alexander Nemstov, perhaps Russia’s leading specialist in this area, argues that Russia’s adult population—women as well as men—puts down the equivalent of a bottle of vodka per week.

"But medical and epidemiological studies have also demonstrated that, in addition to its many deaths from consumption of ordinary alcohol, Russia also suffers a grisly toll from alcohol poisoning, as the country’s drinkers, in their desperate quest for intoxication, down not only sometimes severely impure samogon, but also perfumes, alcohol-based medicines, cleaning solutions, and other deadly liquids. Death rates from such alcohol poisoning appear to be at least one hundred times higher in Russia than the United States—this despite the fact that the retail price in Russia today is lower for a liter of vodka than a liter of milk."

Despite the grave news, Moscow is a city not to be missed. I'm looking forward to returning so that I can do more touring. And I have to take Nicholai! I ran into no less than six people named Nikolai (Russian spelling) while I was there. Russian names are great: Nikita, Alexei, Galina, Dmitry, Anatoly, Arkady, Vladimir, Natalya, Dominika, Tatyana, Veronika, Anastasiya, Alexandra.

Just like the movies.

After three days in Moscow, we left on an overnight flight to Tomsk, a city on the Tom River in Russia's Siberian Federal District. Yes, Siberia.

Tomsk is a beautiful, quaint city and was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Moscow. A university town, it is full of trees and has a lively nightlife, including a wonderful jazz club called Down Under, owned by a character-of-a-man named Dennis. I loved it. We even had the opportunity to have an Armenian-style barbecue of grilled pork and grilled vegetables at the vacation cottage of a local businessman. In some ways, it reminded me so much of Martha's Vineyard.

As for the temperature, we were more than lucky. The weather was great with temperatures in the low-to-mid-70s, when normally there would have been snow on the ground! I lugged a full-length winter coat with me and didn't wear it once!

In my next blog, I'll tell you about my trip to Turkey, which came on the heels of Russia.

Alison
Tuesday, 13 October
10:23 p.m.