Onboard Diary

Day 10. The Journey comes to its end

Today was our last day in Moscow. We're leaving behind a strange city, also eclectic, deeply traditional and modern at the same time. A city in which feeling like a foreigner is as easy as feeling at home.

Yesterday we celebrated a farewell dinner. We made ratatouille and gazpacho for our Russian guests. We ate, drank and laughed. At the end of the night Julia and Liuba gifted us with a traditional, sober, beautiful and vibrant song. I will probably include it in the film.

I will shortly upload the video I recorded.

We leave with the feeling of having a bit more knowledge about this strange Russian culture, its inhabitants, cold and disagreeable at first but affectionate and cheerful once they feel close; and also its streets fully crowded with snow (although thaw has been working all day long to reveal a grey landscape), with smells, noises, and contrasts between the toughest poverty and the most exhuberant luxury.

And we leave with our pockets full: important news for the film, gifts and objects, important deals, good and bad experiences.

We have the feeling of a business journey more than a holiday, too many commitments and little time to enjoy Moscow as tourists.

We also leave with our stomachs full of delicious meals, new flavors, borsh, kvas, blinis...

And we leave with some silly random words we learnt: spasiva, dasvihdania, packa, jhrasho, dobre, dobre, dobre...

You can see a sample of photos from the journey on our álbum Picasa)