Knowing that we were going to an exhibition park today, I wore a skirt and my black walking shoes. Both were good choices as we walked a very long way, and many were wearing skirts – also, it was quite warm for the first half of the day – and then cooled off to a comfortable temperature like yesterday at Vlad’s new house.
The first thing we saw was an exhibition of Soviet military tanks and trucks, etc. It was a bit sobering to think that these might some doy be used against us, and to be with Vlad and Marianna -Russians – as we looked at them
.
Another truck that was a street sprinkler went by washing down the street. Later we walked by an area where new strips of grass had recently been unrolled over an area. Most of the “lawn” was too dry except for the strip along the sidewalk which had received water while the sprinkler truck was washing down the sidewalk.
I asked Vlad for a review of his family’s being moved to Uzbekistan. As I understand it, in the 1920’s Stalin deported many people, often to Siberia. Vlad’s family was rich and was sent to Uzbekistan with the expectation that people like them would develop the area. Vlad’s mom was a child at this time.
Vlad and Marianna took their dog, Dandee, along to walk with us in the park. They don’t like to leave him at home alone. Dandee kept pulling at the leash – Marianna was getting tired – and Vlad took care of walking him later. They allowed Dandee to get in the pools in the park and kids were playing in some of the pools, too – different from home.
Vlad says that Marianna hates the heat – she and I are similar in that way, We walked through the entry arches depicting workers holding golden sheaves of grain. Many other things in the park were also decorated with gold. We went through the majestic entry arches with a gold star on top. Flowers abound everywhere, which we really enjoyed – especially Vlad and me. There were tree roses on long stems – Vlad calls them “stem roses.” As the day went on, the clouds started to build again like yesterday and it got somewhat cooler – which was a great relief!
There were 15 real gold statues around a fountain. Vlad says that each statue stands for one of the republics of the Soviet Union. Each republic had a pavilion and there was also a space pavilion. We didn’t go through any of them – it’s probably a good thing, because we spent most of the day walking as it was.
Vlad bought frozen ice cream for Verle and me – it tasted good. Vlad can’t eat ice cream or any sweets because of his diabetes. We walked past ping pong tables with people playing table tennis.
It seemed to us that this whole huge area is a source of pride and patriotism for the Russian people – and rightly so. It is very well done and a LOT of time could be spent here. It made us wonder about the decrease in the emphasis on patriotism in our schools and homes today.
We wondered how far we had walked by the time we finally returned to the car – it certainly was a long way.
We stopped for supper at a Vietnamese restaurant in a mostly Vietnamese shopping center on the way home. It was fun to eat with chopsticks again, and the food was very tasty.
Vlad bought me some soap souvenirs – cute – and the saleslady gave me a free soap piece from her!
Notes:
Writing on shirt: “Kiss Me In Paris.”
Vlad said that Dandee was a “tow truck” to Marianna.
We walked past a statue of Lenin – the founder of communism.
Vlad calls Dandee “The Little Monster.”