Since I became passionate about this city life so busy and abundant in possibilities and diversity, I created my favorite entertainment route, I found the spots and the activities that make my time pleasant and remarkable. I lost my count on how many times I walked down Nikolskaya Ulitsa to see the everlasting New Year’s atmosphere with decorative lights covering the whole boulevard. I can barely afford entering one of the shops there to buy some clothes or goods, but I am naturally fulfilled with bliss just by watching people smiling in enchantment with the wonderful vibration of that walkway.
Once on a summer day I went for walk in Alexander’s Garden, carrying my camera along and trying to find something new to capture or start by accident a conversation with some stranger and share some enjoyable stories. On that occasion after taking couple of pictures I ended up getting myself a burger and some cold soda, found a breezy tree shadow on the grass near the low fountains and just settled there with crossed legs watching with delight the flow of people coming in and out of the garden. On the back stood the memorial graves and the tall red wall of the Kremlim and the presidential palace, harmoniously featuring the view upon any season or weather.
Few meters away is the high square, place where I come often to photograph the city skyline, framing the front face of the National History Museum, the Manezhnaya Square in front of Four Seasons Hotel, or the parliament building on the other side. I changed the horizon of the beaches in Brazil for the emblematic oligarchic spirit that molds the very center of Moscow. And I did so because personally I felt like I could make out the obsession for grandiosity and power that is so commonly referred as a an attribute of influential Russian emperors and dictators.
Despite the fact that I often seem to be a lonely person here in this city, in reality I’m mostly engaged with some gathering, I come almost regularly to a bunch of pubs, antikafes and to a variety of places where locals and foreigners meet up in search of new acquaintances, laughter and sometimes just to feel the energy of a crowd. One of the locations which I recently started visiting was the Duma Bar on the Manezhnaya Street, where was being held every weekend international Couchsurfing meetings. Without claiming any prize or praises for my interaction in these meetings, it is worth to mention how much real connection I found with the people coming to this place. There was not a time when I felt ignored while telling my experiences, my opinions or even my life story. Always I found someone new who would feel familiarity with my way of being. In hangouts such as this I encountered the motivation to become at least for a while an inhabitant of this marvelous monster capital.
So, life was going on so perfect, I had joy in doing simple things. I didn’t need to possess any luxury to deem my life as worth living. My routine was largely a constant exposure to an environment that quite much resisted over centuries the unstoppable march of history. I was getting to know new people in a way that the world seemed nothing more than a giant home, I saw the energy that unites nationals from any country in a single brainwave. My days were filled with inspiration, intense communication and discoveries. One day came the invisible plague and all of us were forced to isolates ourselves in our homes, rooms or caves as if the world were toxic and I lost my right to have the joy of appreciating my lifestyle.