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Last weekend the World Allround Speed Skating Championships were being held right here in Moscow, at Krylatskoye ice palace:


The Dutch Club in Moscow managed to get free tickets, which, with speed skating being immensely popular in the Netherlands, made for a nice turnout among the Dutch Muscovites:


(Despite all the orange, I managed to get spotted on TV in the Netherlands by a friend :)

I decided to go on Sunday only, to see the 1500 meter men/women, 5000 meter women and 10000 meter men races, and of course the awards at the end. The Dutch currently have won more golden medals than any other country, so expectations were pretty high.

There were quite a few interesting races, but sitting through 6 5000 meter races and another 6 10000 meter races, which in total took well over two hours, it did become a bit of a drag. That is unfortunately one of the cons of speed skating championships, they can easily last 6-7 hours a day.

At the end of the day (literally :), not only did Ireen Wüst win gold, but Sven Kramer, Jan Blokhuijsen and Koen Verweij won gold, silver and bronze respectively, making for an all-orange awards podium and a wild orange crowd :)


Lastly, a small impression of the actual skating, the very last race between Sven Kramer and Jan Blokhuijsen:

Half an hour it took me. Just half an hour. I'm spotting a trend here :)

This morning I went to pick up my long-awaited permanent residence permit (PRP). I'd been there in December, about 5 months after having handed in the application, and was told it wouldn't be done any sooner than 6 months after I had handed in the application. By law it's not supposed to take any longer than that either :)

Last Saturday exactly half a year had passed, so I went to check again. My name was on the list (yes, that's how you check if it's done, you go there and check the list…), so we got in line with two other people coming to collect their PRP. We were called in only minutes later, and within half an hour I was back out with my precious PRP in the pocket! :)

So there I was, cycling in Moscow, minding my own business, when a group of pedestrians was blocking my way, as usual. So I ring my bell and ask

• "May I?"
• "No, you may not, sidewalks are for pedestrians, go on the main road."
• "Seriously? I'd rather not die…"
  (I'm referring here to the fact that people in Moscow drive like maniacs, and everybody knows it. Not that anyone cares, but that's another story altogether. Also, especially in winter, I'm less visible and would rather not get sprayed with wet snow by every passing car.)
• "We'd rather not die either."
  (I had already come to a full stop.)
• "Ehm, death by bike?!"

Only then did they let me pass :(

I would love to make use of bicycle lanes, but alas, on my way to work there are none. However, Russia is in fact slowly developing a proper cycling culture, e.g.:

• There are actually a number of bicycle lanes (sort of), which have been laid out last year (do check the photos ;)
• Yandex (where I work) has a bicycle parking (except in winter).
• Some of my colleagues are actually commuting by bike in winter as well.
• There are some initiatives, like Let's Bike It! to promote cycling in Moscow.

But still, we've got a long way to go, judging by this nostalgia-inducing promotional video from "back home"…

For lack of Sinterklaas and a proper commercial/family oriented, Coca-Cola-backed Christmas (it's mainly a religious event), New Year's is Russia's main, going-all-out holiday of the year. (Btw., Christmas takes place January 7th, because for some reason the church still uses the Julian calendar.)

It is widely and intensely celebrated, leading till up to 10 days off in January, giving everyone enough time to get completely wasted and recover again :)

People usually celebrate New Year's with their core family and prepare lots and lots of food: meat, fruits (mainly mandarins), lots of alcohol and the obligatory Olivier salad ("оливье" in Russian). Every year the movie "The Irony of Fate" is shown, and just before midnight the president gives his New Year's speech, which is watched by millions upon millions. This is probably caused by the fact that this speech is shown on every single TV channel :)

After the midnight toast, people go outside to light some fireworks and often go to friends to party on into the night.

Before our annual Sinterklaas celebration at home, this year I was asked to help out with the Sinterklaas celebration of the Dutch Club in Moscow by playing the role of Zwarte Piet. I'd never done so before, but thought it might prove interesting for once :)

The preparation consisted of me putting on an apparently Moorish costume and a wig, and having any bare skin painted dark brown (including eyelids and ears…). So this is me in the process, and fully painted:


My task consisted of frolicking around, handing out traditional Sinterklaas candy from my traditional burlap sack (especially imported from the Netherlands! :), and helping the kids out with some mini games and making paper flags and hats. This turned out to be quite hectic, as there were almost a 100 kids, with at least that many parents. It was great fun though :)

After the celebration was over, together with a friend and fellow Zwarte Piet, we decided to stay in full regalia for the celebration that evening at home, but not before we paid McDonald's and the supermarket a visit! The looks of all those Russians that had no idea what was going on was priceless :D That's us in front of one of the Seven Sisters:


At home we had a similar celebration to last year, with home-made kruidnoten and speculaas, and of course the very popular Secret Santa present giving. Like last year, we have tons of candy left after the Netherlands' most popular holiday, so we're set at least till Russia's most popular upcoming holiday, New Year's :)