RE: OFF OFF TOPIC: Baker street, Moscow and born in U.S.S.R - (

From: Afanassiev, Alex <Alex.Afanassiev_at_team.telstra.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 11:45:14 +1000
Message-Id: <10528.109347@fatcity.com>

Hi Ari

I hope you are really enjoying your staying in Moscow and unlike many are able to see more Good than Bad over there.

BTH the old Arbat used to be a normal street with cars and buses till 80s. When I was a kid (late 60s) I used to go to the 'Pet shop' there. There was also a brilliant bakery shop over there (bagels cost 6 kopeks, French buns - 7kopeks etc. )

Novy Arbat was built in 60s and quite a few historic buildings have been destroyed in order to implement someone's ambitious project.

No need to say that Tverskaya in communist days used to be called 'Gorky street' and the place next to the monument of Yuri Dolgoruki (just opposite Mossovet building) used to be called 'kvadrat' (squre). In early 70s that was the place where all Moscow hippies used to meet (Oh sweet sweet 70s - peace and love forever - where is it now and what were we fighting with any way ? )

I hope you are enjoying 'friendly' Moscow driving (especially Metro Belyaruskaya runabout).
When changing the line in a traffic do not wait till someone gives you politely the way (I bet it will never happen), just close the eyes and do it, otherwise you'll be driving in one line all the time.     

If at some stage you are in the 'Metro Sokol' area get a small piece of the ground and send me via e-mail - I was born and raised over there. :)

Only God knows why I DO LOVE this noisy and extremely polluted city and really missing it!

With regards
Alex Afanassiev
Oracle DBA, TOC Operations Support/IDO

Tel:	(03) 8 661 20 61
Fax:	(03) 9 650 36 74




> -----Original Message-----

> From:	Ari D Kaplan [SMTP:akaplan_at_interaccess.com]

> Sent:	Thursday, June 15, 2000 11:06 AM

> To:	Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> Subject:	Re: OFF OFF TOPIC: Baker street, Moscow  and born in U.S.S.R

> - (repl
>
> OK Alex,
>
> Recently I've been staying at the Grand Hotel Marriott on Tverskaya. Bill
> Clinton and Hillary and Albright and about 200 staffers took over the
> hotel during their meetings with Putin, so I had to move to the
> Tverskaya-Yamskaya Marriott (near Belyaruskaya Metro).
>
> Other times I've been at the famous Slavyanskaya, and the Swiss Diamond
> (formerly Belgrade) near the old Arbat. For you listers out there who have
> never been to Moscow, this is a great street with performers, Pushkin's
> house, food, and even biker bars!
>
> I do have friends who live in cooler places, such as Novy Arbat.
Received on Wed Jun 14 2000 - 20:45:14 CDT