What’s engaging about the 2010 documentary, My Perestroika, and that was largely absent from my own visit to Russia isn’t so much the views of Moscow but the captured moments of real Russians, those not selling anything to tourists or trying to be pleasing in the hope of gaining a tip. The film follows a…
Author: BashfulAdventurer
It Took Me a Lifetime to Get to the Kittle House, and Now I Need to Go Again
The Bashful Adventurer finally visits Crabtree’s Kittle House in Chappaqua, NY. Will this restaurant live up to its good reputation?
Roads through Russia
The story in the film Roads to Koktebel, that of a widower trekking to the Black Sea with his young son in the hope of starting a new life, seems emblematic of the Russian experience. The characters are resolute, obdurate. Their terrain is vast and harsh, but they’ve found a way to adapt, to make…
Remember the Plaza?
After a carriage ride through Central Park, crossing 59th Street for a cocktail at the Plaza Hotel seemed a logical next step. There in the land of Eloise, though, the reality was not quite as perfect as my memories of the place. The Oak Bar is closed, the result of some apparent arrears in rent…
When One Place Leads to Another
Ever since getting on a plane and flying to Rome 20 years ago with a backpack full of traveler’s checks (do those still exist?), I’ve never much worried about not having a place to stay when I arrived at my destination. So I found myself in Hamburg, Germany, planning for a weekend in Berlin. I…
Germany Year Zero
I wasn’t sure what to think when I happened upon a memorial to victims of the war at St. Nikolai church in Hamburg, Germany. What remains of the church is basically a bell tower and a basement, some walls, now open-air, and art. What I hadn’t counted upon, after gaining admission, was the mention of…
Is Ecuador Full of New Yorkers?
The Youthful Adventurer and I hadn’t even boarded the first plane on our journey to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador when I began to wonder whether I was heading to a tourist trap populated by visitors from the tri-state area. In line to go through security, we’d been just ahead of a rude, impatient, obnoxious…
Bosco Cafe: Chewing It Up in Red Square
The Bashful Adventurer dines in Red Square at Bosco Cafe.
The Kremlin: Napoleon Was Here
I’m not sure what I expected to see within the walls of the Kremlin, the centuries-old fortress that is the seat of the Russian government. That old cannons from Russia’s own War of 1812 were there surprised me as these belonged to Napoleon, who, with his army, took up residency, however brief. I was surprised…
Russia, Contrariwise
Five months back from Russia, I am still challenged to write about my trip, still trying to even begin understanding this vast country. Russia seems to me to be a nation of contradictions, the brute of a country cousin to its sophisticated European neighbors, a country full of capitalists despite its century of communism, a…