Picnics on islands, picnics on rooftops, picnics in parks

Birthday picnics
On Thursday night, Katey & I met Mitya and schlepped out to Kammeny Island with violin & ukulele in hand to celebrate Vasya's brother's birthday. Vasya had returned unexpectedly from Moscow as a surprise for his brother; the whole family was having a picnic on the island with 6 or 8 bottles of wine and a smorgasbord of zakuski (appetizers/side dishes). I was expecting something a little more thrown-together, a little more potluck-y, a little more young-hooligans-boozing-in-the-park, so I brought homemade bruschetta and a nectarine galette (oh how I love to cook) but it was unnecessary, given how clear it was that Vasya and Daniila's mother had spent at least the last 12 hours in the kitchen. They had the best goddamn tomatoes I've ever had in my life. I ate them like apples! The whole family did toasts about love and long life and how wonderful family is, how honored they are to have this son/brother/nephew, etc... A few glasses (uh, plastic cups) of wine in and the fog of fresh acquaintance was lifted; Mitya and I cracked open our cases and played a few songs; Spanish folk songs and Russian rock and international classics and Beirut. Vasya sang (Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao!), Mitya sang (Gagarin, ja vas ljubila!), I sang (a careless life, a scenic world where the sunsets are all breathtaking). We missed the last metro and walked back across all the islands, almost 2 hours on foot.


Lunch picnics
Pasha and I had lunch on Friday in the Tauride Gardens, sprawled out on a bedsheet eating egg salad and playing Simon & Garfunkel with him on guitar. I was cranky and unreasonable; I was unfair and I hurt his feelings. We parted unpleasantly.

Night picnics
Friday night, we met up on Palace Square, Mitya and me, and played everything we could think to play for an hour or more. The Doors, Janis Joplin, Beirut, the Beatles, even Radiohead. We made enough money for dinner and two bottles of wine, and while the clouds rolled in off the sea we converged with two of Mitya's friends and took our little concert up onto the roof, violin and accordion and ukulele. We drank our wine and ate our baguettes and sang our hearts out under the slight spattering of rain and the heavy, warm wind until the dawn.

Girly picnics
I've fallen in with some foreign interns from all over the globe; Elina from Kazakhstan, Sarah from Taiwan, Marcelo from Brazil, Ewa from Poland. I took Elina, Sarah, and Marcelo out to Udel'noi market, where we spent the afternoon gawking at the rare and ridiculous, the treasures and trash. I almost bought another accordion, a bigger, subtler, more elaborate and more beautiful one. Elina bought two old cameras, and charmed a vendor into giving us all scarves for free. We tired ourselves out, bought a bag of tomatoes and returned to my apartment where I made gouda crostini and bruschetta (my new favorite thing) and took them up to the roof. I felt like a hero from the excitement, amazement, and sheer glee it gave them to be on the roof, in the sun, above the domes and chimneys of this gleaming city.