Russia Travelogue day 6: The athlete, the actor

June 21:

Today was the match day. Shaks wore the Portugal jersey that she got and I wore the black t-shirt with Portugal written on it. Wearing a jersey made all the difference when we were walking the same streets as yesterday in the morning. People see and recognize us as an invested party in the world cup. There are glances of recognition by other fans sporting jersey as fellow sufferers at the mercy of how 11 guys play for us. Shaks got more attention as she was wearing the Portugal Jersey unlike me and also because the jersey looked good on her. The attention also brings with it a kind of shame to me personally. What would I not give to be here supporting India not because I’m patriotic but because it would give me a legitimacy which is entirely absent with me supporting Portugal here. Our thought process was that since we are going to these matches, we should pick a team in each match and support it as well. I was sporting Portugal jersey but between you and me, I wouldn’t mind if Morocco wins. I am kind of in between two minds here. I am watching this match to see Ronaldo in action so I felt I should show support for Portugal but I am at the same time not a big fan of Ronaldo. Speaking of supporting the countries, I really need to learn Spanish, at least that would let me connect with all the south American fans. I feel every time I see another supporter and expect them to be surprised once they ask me a question and I reply in English. Mind you, this is all in my head. The other supporters have shown nothing but love once they have got to know us and accepted us whole heartedly into the fold.

We took a metro to the match. On the match day, the public transport is free everywhere in Russia. Once we reached the stadium, we finally got to see other Portugal supporters. Still, they were dwarfed by the Moroccan support. There were bunch of stalls by Fifa sponsors once we got inside the stadium. Shaks was happy to browse around and really wanted to get the free face paint on her cheeks with Portugal and Morocco flags. But we had been slightly late so we skipped that line and made a beeline to the stadium entry doors. A word about the food that we did stand in line to get, all we could get was hot dogs and burgers with coke and bud light for beverages. Pretty limited fare but reasonably priced. As we headed towards the stadium door, we could hear the roar of the crowd inside and that could only mean that Ronaldo had walked on to the field, he is after all a global celebrity. It took me a moment to absorb the atmosphere, of actually being in the stadium. All I could do was smile at Shaks, she had made it happen. We were in the stadium to watch our first match. Our seats were really good. We were right behind the goal post and at suitable height to see whole of the field. The Portugal team had the other side, so it meant that we got to see Ronaldo attack the goal on our side. He did his customary tricks and turns. It was surreal to see him this close live instead of on a small screen. And within first few minutes, Portugal had a corner and he scored. This was his 4^th goal in the world cup and it’s turning out to be a great occasion for him. Of course he ran to our side, did a jump in the air and then threw back his hands behind him, if you have seen him on the TV; you know the celebration I am talking about. I have complicated feelings about Ronaldo. He is by any measuring yard, one of the two best players in the world. It’s a privilege to see him and I take that opportunity whole heartedly. At the same time, he is easy to dislike. The drama, the dives, the throwing of hands if his team mates ignore him, sometimes his selfish games, it all means that you can easily hate him. And I did, being an arsenal fan for a long time. It was always a point of pleasure for me that he had never really performed against us of course until that champions league game when he took us apart. Damn Almunia, letting a free kick go through his hands so now I couldn’t even say that he hadn’t scored his overrated free kick against us. What Ronaldo does on the field is half for people around him and half for people watching. The pitch is like a stage and he is the actor we have turned to see in that movie.  Every action is exaggerated for our benefit, here look at the big throw of hands once his run wasn’t picked up , there see the huge shake of head after missing a half chance. He owns the whole field.

Getting back to the match, after that one header Portugal didn’t really do much. They had one more good chance. Morocco, on the other hand, were much better team. They made chance after chance. They played the better game. Their right wing play was amazing. By the end I wanted it to be at least a draw because they deserved more. But it wasn’t to be. The score remained 1-0 and Portugal won. Couple of other interesting things that I saw at the stadium; one, there were surprisingly many Indians here to watch the match. In fact, I saw a person with a print out of Indian flag, wearing a full traditional south Indian dhoti and sandals, getting his pictures taken by his friend. Another couple next to us was also from India and they were huge fans of Ronaldo. The girl especially was going crazy at his every move. Lastly, since we were close enough to the players, it struck me how buffed up all the players are. Somehow on TV, the players look thinner than they actually are. I can’t even begin to imagine how Roberto Carlos would have looked on the field if even we could distinguish his massive thighs on TV.

Thus ended our first world cup match and it was a great experience. Here was an item off our bucket list. We took the train back to Moscow and made another trip to the red square before starting a slow walk back to pick our stuff and go to the train station. The red square looked wonderful in the evening golden light. We were going to miss Moscow too, it was a beautiful city. One faux pas that I made on our walk back was that I saw this Moroccan fan walking alone. He asked us for some direction, then I commiserated with him about how morocco was such a good team and they deserved more. Well half way through that sentence, Shaks elbowed me, and I ignored that. By the time I was ending the sentence I saw his emblem and he was actually wearing the Portuguese jersey! They both seem so alike from the behind! Well, I recovered as well as possible from that point on. Personally I thought, I was smooth in handling that situation so that it didn’t turn awkward. I, also, totally denied Shaks, when she made fun of me for making me look like an Idiot. For the record, I did not make myself look like an idiot, since I am already one. So who is laughing now?

Our long walk took us through Arbatskya street, which was very nice and had musicians and artists every few steps. We spent some time there, looking at the performances and enjoying our last few minutes in Moscow. Then it was time to head to Nizhny Novgorod.
Our train was at 10:50 PM and by the time I checked with the receptionist about the train station we were going to was the right one and called the cab, it was already 9:45. Still we had enough time so I wasn’t worried. We got to the station and I, despite having already confirmed the train station, had a feeling so I showed my ticket to the cab driver as well and asked him if we were at the right station. He confirmed to assuage my feelings. I looked at the train scheduled for departures and there was a train leaving at 1050 but it was to St. Petersburg. That made me apprehensive so I decided to go inside to the door to confirm with the security guard. He looked at my ticket and confirmed that my train was at the track that st. Petersburg train was at. It still struck me odd that the train’s final destination was St. Petersburg and that the train number wasn’t the same. Anyhow, now we had only 35 minutes so I got hold of Shaks who was taking pictures of the train station and headed to our coach which of course was at the far end. Half way, through the two things which had made me apprehensive made me stop and for the third time confirm that we were at the right train. So, I showed a conductor and volunteer my ticket. The volunteer was halfway through confirming that we had the correct train, when once I asked her why the train numbers didn’t match that she said, oh, this is not the right train, you have to go to another train station. Well, that made me speechless and with great fear, I asked how far was that other station, she said, its 15 minutes’ walk from this station so not to worry. We didn’t wait for further instructions, and started walking back as swiftly as we could. By the time we reached back to the gates, I didn’t’ want to go out, go through the security check again and come back only after realizing there was a miscommunication, so I showed my ticket again to another conductor and volunteer. The volunteer who could speak English said yes, this is the train and when I showed her the train number and asked her the same question, after conversing with the conductor in Russian told us that she was wrong, we were indeed at the wrong station . She also said “RUN”. We broke into sprint to this other station. It’s damn hard to run with a heavy shoulder duffel bag swinging around. I think I will buy Shaks a backpack to help me stop my shoulders from bruising as I heave her polo bag around rushing to things. After asking once more, we finally made it to our station which was 10 minutes run away. We made it by 10:45 and could finally take some time to settle down in our seat. As I write sitting on my berth, I see the couple we are sharing the compartment with. They are Argentinians and were stoked that we were going to watch the Argentina match and were supporting them as well. The guy especially was very friendly. Once Shaks told him that see wanted to visit Patagonia, he pulled up pictures of his visit there and made us go through them.  I like them, they are good people. Hopefully, we get to see them tomorrow at some point in the match. I cannot believe that I am about to see Messi after I just saw Ronaldo, the two best players in the world.

Russia Travelogue day 5: the capital

June 20th, 6 am
I only got 3 hours of sleep in the train, instead my brain decided to just go on random journeys of fancy. So, it has been a kind of slog the whole first day in Moscow.  One silver line to being awake most of the morning was that I was able to see the train enter Moscow.  It’s always fascinating to see the city emerge from surrounding landscape to industry and then to a maze of populated building as you enter the station. It kind of reminded me of entering New Delhi for the first time. This resemblance kept dropping in and out as we glimpsed parts of old Moscow that was being slowly layered over by the New Moscow. 
We dropped our luggage at the hotel since check in was only at 2:00 p.m. Then it was a nice walk to red square. We came across a lot of people going to work. It felt strange to not be lost in that crowd going to my work too. Again, women were stunning. They take their appearance seriously. Shaks was very satisfied with all the fashion display.  Moscow, at least near the main area had beautiful wide streets, lined with landmark looking buildings. Spotless as well. Russia has presented itself in a very pretty light to rest of the world. Everyone I talked to, was impressed with the Russian hospitality. If you forget the rest of politics, it's hard to match the Russia you read about to the Russia that we are seeing here.

Walking towards red Square, we took a detour following a couple who seemed to know where they were going to, also google map suggested that we walk in that direction. It was a good decision. We came up to a few cobble stone steps and then saw a path through a building that gave way to an archway. It reminded me of running through gully's of Varanasi, running under houses that have a room as a bridge connecting two houses on either side of the street. The gully’s in Varanasi used to be cobbled as well although most of them have stone path now. My memories of Varanasi were heightened as we stepped out of the arch to a road with hanging lights. The street was filled with sounds of multiple bells ringing in discordant fashion as if I had just stepped into Shiva temple back home and people in every corner were ringing bells to their own rhythm. I came back to the present when I saw all the bells were on the top of one church and being rung by an old pair of hands holding ropes attached to the bells. I have not thought of temples from my childhood in a long time and it all just floated up from deep recesses of my mind in Moscow, a city so very different from home. Moving forward takes you in some way to past as well.    Taking in the sights of that cobbled street lines with souvenir shops and restaurants, we got to the end and suddenly were thrust straight into the Red square. Red square is a wide expanse flanked on all sides by amazing structures. The colorful cathedral standing proud at the other end of it from where we walked into the square. St. Basil cathedral was as beautiful as it looks in the pictures. After taking pics of every single building surrounding the red square, we got into the long line to walk inside the cathedral. The inside was not as stunning as outside but that is a hard bar to rise to. It definitely doesn’t discount the beauty of the structure. It was good that we got in line to enter the cathedral early as later the line increased at a rapid rate. Once we finished the tour, we entered Gum which is a historic building turned into a huge mall, quite close in scale to mall of America or maybe even bigger, certainly more striking. The one interesting thing I'd like to mention about Gum is that Shaks needed to use the restroom which proclaimed to be a historical restroom. She was then charged 200 rubles for the privilege of using it. Verdict: nothing special. If you ask me, skip that history if you don’t need to answer the natures call. Plus, if it was truly historic, it would be a terrible restroom to use. The plumbing would be atrocious, maybe you would have to do your business in a chamber pot.
We had Russian cuisine today. The salads are great. I love eating the Russian salads while I stay away from American ones. Why you ask? Is it because its exotic that I am showing this hypocrisy? No, it’s because they are not just green leaves thrown together. There is cooked potatoes, veggies and meats with mayo added on in those salads. I am not fan of salads but this type of cooked salad I can get behind. 
Later, in the night, we tried to get to fan fest in red Square to watch the Russia match but unfortunately red square is closed at that hour. Still we saw the rest of the match standing near where the Russian tv has set up their commentary booth. Russia won the match handsomely. The crowd went crazy after that. People packed in to the streets, waving Russian flag. People honking in street, chanting Ru-ss-ia. Today everyone was Russian. On a side note I saw Argentina and Morocco fans the most apart from Russian fans here. It's surprising because I would have expected a large contingent of Portuguese fans but I think I saw one family in all of St. Petersburg. Hope there are more sightings tomorrow. 
The party in the streets kept going but by now my feet were stone, same for Shaks. All the walking is starting to catch up with us. Also, the limited sleep doesn’t help. So even though I wished to breath in the atmosphere, soak up the sweat of jam-packed Russians, Argentinians, and Moroccan supporters, hear the bang of drums and chants in tongues I couldn't fathom, it was time to rest and be ready for my first ever live world cup match! 

Ronaldo here we come to see you and all the strut and all the drama.