News from Moscow by Arthur Lookyanov

1st International Festival in Moscow, Russia goes on October 21-23, 2011 from 20:00 to 23:00 every evening on the Red Square, Manezhnaya Square and near entrance of Gorky Park. To attract more tourists to capital of Russia Moscow government spends about 6 million USD to provide this grandiose light show first time here, in Russia and have plans to make it annual. On this show they use thousands of colorful soffits, hundreds of floodlights, tens of stroboscopic lights and fireworks....

Today I met and provided a city tour for two nice Jewish couples from New York, US. We spent this nice sunny hot day very enjoyably and I was able to show and introduce my clients to Red Square, cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow Kremlin, Sparrow Hills and Moscow State University, Victory Park and Arch of Triumph, Moscow Metro and some other sites on our route. We also wanted to see the Beit Menachem Synagogue and Jewish Community Center led by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Despite having trouble finding the very small passage (street) at first, since it wasn’t on my city maps, we did find it. At the end of the day, after all sightseeing and before going to get dinner, I was even able to show another synagogue in ...

Today, on June 27, 2011 I am going to visit St. Petersburg by car. I have not been in our “culture” capital for many years, probably from mid of 90s and very excited right now that very soon I will visit our Northern Venice again. On my way to St. Petersburg I planned to make stops near couple of famous lakes, Valdai and Seliger, very popular national parks for Russian citizens, and, of course, going to visit Velikiy Novgorod within couple of days. I am crossing my fingers right now for a good weather and hope to bring back to Moscow lots of interesting photos of Russian countryside and views of the wonderful Russian cities!!!
PS: Even I am taking my netbook in this long distance journey, as you can guess, within the next 10 days I will be having very li...

Every year when we all feel the breath of the coming winter holidays, like all people in the world, I want to thank all of my friends throughout the world for our friendship, for all the minutes they’ve spent in Moscow with me this year, and for all the things we have explored together. I really appreciate our brotherhood, and hope for collaboration in the future. Here in Russia we have no such great holiday as Thanksgiving, and traditionally, the only time we can give our thanks to people we are obliged to is the New Year’s Night.
As you know, in Russia, New Year’s Eve is the great time when relatives and friends meet each other, prepare many tasty dishes, put their presents under the decorated fir tree and wait for the midnight to start a new yea...

I’m proud to inform all my friends all over the world that on the 2nd of December 2010 one very important event took place. On that day, after a long and very difficult competition Russia was able to win the right to host in 2018 a FIFA World Cup. Our honored competitors were England, Spain, Portugal, Belgium or Holland and all of them were worthy and deserved to organize this famous and important event on our planet - The World Football Champonship. And that is why this victory is more precious for all 150 million Russian citizens.I think that this event will be very important for every citizen of my country as well as for me. This sport event should bring a lot of changes in sportive life of Russia and in our everyday life.In 8 years, first time in Russian hi...

The pleasure of new working days or home, sweet home...
Today, October 6, 2010, the work days after my 10 day vacation in Turkey, which I spent with a great pleasure with my wife near the solar town Alanya, began. As usual for a person who is engaged in individual businesses and lives in a large metropolitan area I've got a lot of urgent matters and there was no time even to rest yesterday. It was necessary to answer many letters that were received from my friends and potential customers, as well as to do some work about new design of my website, and of course, there were some chores. The only free day I withdraw for "the acclimatization" flew very fast, because I felt bad and a lot of things had to be done ... But today I got up brisk with wiliness to work because ...

 
On Vacation in Turkey from September 25 to October 4th, 2010
This special news I would like to start informing my friends and clients that tomorrow I leave Moscow to spend with my wife (Olga) our 10 days vacation in Turkey, not so far from Alanya. We will return back to Moscow on 4th of October and I will have limited access to check my correspondence (emails). Thank you for understanding that I will not be able to reply on your messages on "a fly" because of I also want to relax a bit from my work and big megapolis where always not enough free time for my family and leisure. Our last vacation together was 3 years ago, in September 2007, where we spent great time in Lazarevskoe, in a place not so far from Sochi, located on Black Sea, South of Russia. This ye...

Today I met my new client, Bob from Los Angeles, at the airport. Over the next two days we have two great countryside trips to the Golden Ring of Russia planned. On Monday, August 16, 2010, we are going to visit Sergiev Posad and Perslavl-Zallesky and on Tusday, August 17, 2010 we will visit Vladimir and Suzdal. When I met Bob at the Sheremetyevo airport we hugged like friends and recognized each other easily due to Skype's amazing service. After he checked into his hotel this evening, we met my wife Olga and drove to the Red Square to see it illuminated at night and had drinks in a local cafe.
I want to thank Logitech Support in Russia, particularly Igor Kondrashov, for his fast and efficient service in replacing a defective webcam that I purchased from the “...

Terrible smog from fires in the region have covered the whole city of Moscow again and again. From the end of June, 2010, the heat in Moscow beat all records for the last 130 years and most people weren't prepared for such extraordinary climate conditions. Many people still don't have air conditioning in their apartments or private houses outside the city, so as you can guess, it is very hard times for millions of people here. Many families are trying to move their kids to safer areas where there are lower temperatures and no fires.  For example, they are trying to go to the Kalinigrad Region, which is the western point of Russia that is between Germany, Belorussia and the Baltic countries, but no airplane or train tickets are available.  Nor is anyone able...

The next morning, April 8, 2010, was sunny and pleasant. I got up early, saw my wife, and checked the mail just in case, but there were no more letters from Nancy. I checked the flight status of flight 964 on the United Airlines website and found out that the plane was early. So I set out early for the Domodedovo airport to allow time for the traffic jams in our capital, which are normal for Muscovites, but frightening for guests. After coming in to the international flights arrival hall at 10:45, I thought I would have to wait 30-60 minutes depending on the number of arriving flights and the timeliness of passport control services and baggage claim.
Our first meeting at the airport
Before I could write the name "Artem Hansen" on a plate, I saw a little boy in a ye...