HIPSTERMATIC IN MOSCOW
Moscow, the capital of Russia, Nasvay Tuse and Wendy's and Mu Mu on Arbat.
Everyone was anxious to arrive in Moscow. It is one of those cities that is high on everyone's list and everyone tells you it's really gnarly.
In Moscow we stayed with Stas Provotorov and his grandma. Stas's grandma is a real dear. As often as she could, she would great us back home and say something sweet in Russian to everyone and maybe even pet one of the guys on the head. She really made us feel welcome and at home in that one room where we slept with 5 people and the balcony that we claimed us our post-session hang out.
We tried to skate everyday and hooked up with a ton of cool people: photographer Eugene, some of the Nike SB riders, Kirill, Dima, Katya... too many to name. We didn't manage to produce a lot of footage, but we were just happy to be in there. Plus some of the spots we went to are really hard. We searched for creative spots in Russian videos and magazines and found more to spots than we could handle in a week. The stuff some of the Russian skaters manage to do on those spots is ridiculous. Mad respect!
We skated this one bank spot a ton. We went there once, when not everyone was able to skate. We went their twice for a trick, but on one occasion we got kicked out and the other was a succes. When we got kicked out we were greated by some strange police men. Once they finally understood that we were Dutch and Eugene and Stas were Russian, they asked us how you say "Fuck off" in Dutch. After saying it twice, they could't phantom how to say it, so I just walked up to the car and yelled "Fuck off" in Dutch and they left. I like Russian police.
After a week of skating, some sight seeing and hours of metro rides we had to leave Stas, his grandma, Katya and our new friends in Moscow and go to Saint Petersburg. I'd rather not leave, but the prospekt - get it:) - of a party hostel and female students were too good to pass up. And I have the feeling it won't take too long before we will meet our Moscow friends again.
