tv [untitled] March 8, 2012 12:30am-1:00am EST
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to watch out here recap of our top stories now america's armed involvement in syria is not off the table u.s. military officials are reviewing their options in case the diplomatic isolation of ourselves regime fails. russia criticizes nato at the u.n. security council for refusing to admit civilian deaths to the allowances air raids in the b. and austere expresses a moderator of the training camps for syrian revolution is discovered in libya. and iran the warns the resumption of nuclear talks which of recently been agreed upon
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my proof you tom if the world powers keep opposing pressure and sanctions on iran. well like any big city moscow has some must see destinations unfamiliar even to locals coming up on it he talks to happen all throughout the moscow walks god look at it's not right next. hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview show on arts. and today my guest in the studio is leave me tapped. the kremlin and the ball shows that are
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among moscow's greatest. but like any other big city moscow has its secrets and places unfamiliar even to the natives not to mention terrorist threats yet many of them are a true must see this nation's for all interest in the russian capital so where do you find vids secret marts. the woman who has walked around virtually the whole city all third album must. see the top to. be tapped letters are a noun journalist and traveller who has been exploring the world and food for more than forty years she worked in england germany and india before finally moving to moscow in two thousand and seven here she's written a weekly column in english language newspaper and guided walking groups the rules that phoebe crown provided material for hamas who walks guidebook is divided into
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seasonal volumes at the moment autumn and winter have been published. in the show thank you very much it's a pleasure having you with. the first of all before visiting was before coming to moscow did you will you look into the question was the line. i leave you with a question for. you there do you have any silly walking spirits before coming to i did actually interesting yes i did all round in all those city walking isn't necessarily what i call it i've lived in berlin for four years. and i had a working group there that kind of took off so we walked. in the end almost every day because i got so into it around the parks around the lakes you sometimes in the
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city forests wherever we could find so yeah that was that was a great great experience and toil really had it in my head when i came to moscow that i definitely wanted to do some more and if they'd been walking i like what i've written then i would have just bought it and got on with you know walking them and then maybe done something else but i couldn't find anything i couldn't find any kind of guide like the ones that there are lots of in germany in lots of in britain and so i had to write it. choose your roots were simply simply talking to people simply looking at the map or you did have some knowledge of history we're here through a. bit of both above you know on the whole looking at the map on all what i did was i just got a city atlas and i open it up and i go to the big green area that looks interesting let's go and see what's there it's obvious you probably will be a pirate. probably although if you're quite right that you're actually taking i turn up and it was actually a building site because the map wasn't totally up to date or whatever but for some secret kids would be installation drawing there's a map and. there were all it there were a lot of there were there were
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a lot of. musing disasters but a lot of the time as well it would be something incredible and using design is. this is good to give you an example of those amusing designs when there was one tiny little of it quite so much that the path was actually talked about as such but we were exploring in is my last. over towards the kind of eastern edge of it so it gets quite wild so that you become surprised how lost you can get lost is the wrong word. doris exactly so actually it probably largest city forest in the world i read it anyway we were walking along and we got to the river and we were exploring i mean that was the whole point i didn't have a definite reach in mind and i was trying to see if there were parts that weren't on the map that might take us through this area and there was a log across the river and we went over this log and we had a whole load of kids with us we had one lady in a mini skirt and heels and we got to the other side and it was a swamp and we just went trading through this one and we went on because when we go
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back over the log and we got very very wet and muddy and we ended some people carrying their shoes they had all over them it was we all thought it was great the kids loved it. and they wanted me to come to their birthday parties and say that again this same a picture the funny thing is like a tourist impression was for me was the firm of my friends in london he took his maid to moscow and she's from sri lanka and she he took her to moscow and showed a row and when she saw the mosque the river into the mosque crew duty and so very dangerous what was the should be lots of crop about. forty five swimming in the mosque it was one of the things i really enjoyed his people for sure you know that actually kashmir is must be clean enough. but he wasn't there when the rule when you you gathered information about the places you should go what the world should know or if you prefer talking to people you prefer reading
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books. i think probably reading your. reply do i have a lot of what would you recommend. i read. i have a lot of books about moscow. they are very very useful some of an out of print but there are some really great books out there some books about it kind of hidden corners moscow and so on so i've got all of those and i look at literary details i look up you know where the museums are what but then talking to people particularly in museums they give you a lot of details going out to the little villages and talk to people like what's interesting in this area and they'll say you can go the reason i'm asking because in your books would be really knowledge of russian is true so you do. definitely i mean i did not in great detail i haven't done a degree in it or anything so interesting but one thing leads to another so you know that. oh very much so very much so i would never play i would never claim to be a scholar i very much an amateur. absolutely
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no i'm very much an amateur and i do it for fun i mean the history of it is kind of fun you know up to a point so i'll point out this is this and it's still there if people are interested but i try and keep that to some extent to a minimum i don't want to overdo the information because really the emphasis is on enjoying having a good time there's quite a lot better about part of the world from the translated into russian. and you can translate for pleasure it's fun what's your favorite. thing about. what people always ask me that's crazy my favorite one is always the one i've just been to i would go somewhere and then i go that was the most fantastic day we had such a good day today it's very very hard to pinpoint because i really i love a lot of places in moscow sometimes i say comments sometimes i save a day and sometimes i'll say so-called village it depends where we've just been but
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sometimes i don't know where people are asking because it's probably people for the russians because because well for a person like me who was right he probably. i would have a favorite race yes because it's your it's your turn and for you as a as a person watching from the outside. that's interesting the question ok what do you dislike of those oh say well no there is. no traffic is the thing i dislike i said i. cut the number of cars here and i think it's kind of killing the city i think it's a shame but that's why comfort me a funny thing you started a while ago of these these four tours yet in moscow it was a period when. these two are all really upset with the car yeah they were going to watch everything or even one russian girls through paris he hires a car and he looks at the city through the car were so are you trying to be there
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and trying to get of people yes this was exactly he actually i mean this is not the way this is but this is not the way to. get into law. you know this is exactly i mean i remember a bar called we were doing one stand and all the traffic was going to this first snow of the year it was beautiful it was like a light flakes falling and light and it was just strolling along the mall so that i love the cars were completely stopped because i was the first one will ever got stuck they weren't moving and we were walking down just. getting there i mean i think it's crazy to get in a car most the time here many of my friends still can't understand why i never rent cars when i go abroad with my family to. go the usual explanation to see under paid well. for the not just going on foot i love i do you think it's a really good public transport system and i think it's really the best in the world
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i mean i think it's you know i haven't been everywhere i think it's a really good system. speaking about the pritish nandy english adjectives best to describe my needs of which is ok. yes. wow. various contrasting eclectic. incredible. breathtaking sometimes other times quite frustrating. that is and i never thought of that before. i mean it's a i use a lot about it in the book probably too many but the ecliptic is a good almost has always been there for from the. soviet times so. you know they're going well. luckily construction is going in and. when you were
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starting the there's new construction so well it has always been eclectic and i mean making it even more eclectic but money must come or it's a ringing bells now saying it's too much of a good thing and i mean i mean moscow's losing its heritage do you do you agree do do. i do i do i what i gree a lot and i'm very worried about it i took a tour on friday morning around sokol village which is where we used to live and several more of the little old wooden call changes that are really the chant that place have gone have just disappeared and it's very distressing because those irreplaceable there are nineteen twenties experiments in social housing that is going to be rebuilt anywhere else in quite the same way and so on having said that i mean i agree about eclecticism i love the fact that you get you know a skyscraper next to an old seventeenth century church next to a you know kind of eighteenth century mansion and here you've got all that stuff i mean i love the fact that around every corner there's something different different eras and so on but i do think that we need to be careful that things aren't it
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happens everywhere but i think it happened very fast here and very furiously and there are some very big projects like this palace i'm sorry if i'm speaking out of line but that seem to have taken a lot of money when other buildings could have used it for real restoration so as he'd be out of the school. walks guy lied will do that shortly also break so stay with us. wealthy british style. sometimes the type of.
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walking back to our group and just a reminder that my guest on the show today is phoebe terrible author of the moscow orks guide book c.b. you've been watching. two thousand and seven two thousand and eleven is that one of those right the career of displayed in moscow. can you say well you just mentioned a minute ago that moscow is maybe changing to first do you see that that you will leaving a different city from the city you came to five years ago yes yes i think in a lot of ways that's true i mean there are whole. changes fast and anywhere i know and it's one of things that's very difficult the russian guidebook actually is that is that everything changes actually funnily enough we met for a walk on wednesday. over the palace and the cafe that i remember being nice little cafe called metro it was like a metro path it lets me pair of it still there and of course not only was the cafe not there the building that the cafe had been in wasn't there so it's quite hard to
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make sure all we did we found a nice clean place and it was all fine in the end but it's a frightening how fast things move the best thing is that you come well they can couple of months and you don't find. the good news is that you find two of them. than you are that's actually how i feel this is more of what i said in the book i said look you can expect it will be the same you know you'll find something and it'll be fun it's always fun it's always interesting it's great exploring the ways in which the city of changed are mixed i don't think it's all bad i mean i think some of the developments going on is actually very interesting one of my favorites is the legacy of family factory on. and that's a beautiful place beautiful building very very elegant and it's just been renovated in a very tasteful very understated kind of way the whole area has been. a nicely developed i don't know he's doing it i haven't really looked into it but but i don't know doing a great job and there's a cafe inside and it kind of picks up the it picks up the heritage of the factory because they used to make gold and silver thread so they've got these like light
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shapes that are like reels of thread well on their first visit to moscow tourists usually rush to the major must see sites like the kremlin or the treasure gallery but none conventional to reserve the city are gaining popularity spotlights you know they knew there were reports from the inside of the russian capital. see in the postcard views of moscow something you can't and shouldn't escape in the russian capital the kremlin is surely the man magnet for tourists a very beautiful site and also a place which contains centuries of russian history but at a point you will surely feel like leaving all the grandeur behind and going search of the warmth and tenderness of the old moscow the best ways to start a more intimate acquaintance with the city is who we were during it's actually a chain off the hoover arts which embrace the center of the russian capital it's nine kilometers long so working alone if you have twenty of interesting things to
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see and also when you have time to fill the spirit of moscow decides the boulevard ring is not actually a ring it's more of a horseshoe if you look at the map which guarantees good luck to those strong enough to walk in the hallway however there's no need to do that churning off a boulevard into one of the smallest streets in the center this very much worse if as you are bound to stumble upon something interesting like this we've caressed building with dragons and the golden squashed in between somewhere more typical moscow architecture it was built one hundred twenty years ago by the merchant and crowd over turbulent week which have since that time he has remained an island of stability as he has always been told here and it's just one of bizarre houses in moscow you might also come across a father rally or
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a portuguese castle. and it's. more so because you can. almost all of them. and it's just as close as you. will be like. who took part in those guided tours you know you took what they mainly foreigners ex-pats and maybe even russians but it was a mixture mainly foreigners it was a very very international group there weren't there were russians most definitely including some people who were actually born here and who used to say yes i have a favorite place and that's where i go just like you were saying but i'd like to see more of it and that was quite magical but they would never been here later on my life i've never been to this place and i well i glide when i was a kid at school i worked as a guide musk when i and they used to come because well. no it is pretty pretty
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pretty clean. and i love to say that my favorite time to show moscow to foreigners is joining the right here in the winter after the snow fall it's been. ever so what's your favorite season all i want you to look at us for a season yeah yeah yeah well it's a moment because we're walking in the winter i'd have to say it was meant to just written a whole load of features and winter magic of moscow winter wonderland in moscow and all this kind of thing and i'm loving it and photos we've got the last few days i've been quite lucky with the weather ok so so so you know there's only really winter i love the snow for it so it's nasal but like i like sunrise sunrise in winter is very pretty but but you see i'll be coming back in march april for the next book i hope and then again may june and i'm sure i'll think of a time those are my favorites and actually autumn is very beautiful someplace in.
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the splendid. leaves and so on absolutely no i think very much that he preferred autumn in the country so he. was actually interesting about pushkin's all to me is it's not a very pretty short term i mean what he described in the poem is it's bare trees and frozen. which is kind of what we think of as winter but. could you name a couple of places with moscow. in guidebooks and the. yes interesting never mention of a child and you. certainly there's a lot of little house museums and things like that that i absolutely love and i can't guarantee that they're not i think the rough guide is pretty comprehensive may well cover them but for instance we were at a polling our event and it solves house obviously big brother's house picked a resident of the house a lot of people know about but the younger brother has this amazing little flat just in the area and it's full of paintings it's full of charm antique furniture
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from a workshop and so on it's a great place and lots of little places like that i'm a big big fan of house museum so so so so you describe that in your interiors to know what it is not all the know you very much so yeah i mean i love the kind of again it's quick to dismiss the fact that you can find all these little places that are completely different styles and you said you mentioned. the same thing and yes . i am doing it now in london where else that's pretty much the at. london but in delhi before the end of the very difficult place to walk around i mean i love delhi it's very interesting it's a fantastic beautiful city not easy to walk around on the whole because the pavements until they were mounted and walking don't you can you can but i found it problematic and it's going huge traffic problem because we were he was. planning to do something something like he did most. of the so i would love to do the same
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thing in london. i would that for me that would be that would be it was my dream job actually writing books for the moscow news crazy considering how little i was paid but it was actually the best job probably that i ever will so. you had a problem with high heels in berlin you had a language program was asleep but you won so i did not. get you one so the moscow must be my favorite city to walk why one of moscow why not arts for it where your boring alone does little wonders of from london is a great place and actually of course what you know now i'm loving it it's great it's really great but the reason for moscow is exactly describe that it that it's so eclectic and that you don't know what you're going to find run any given corner and i just think if you were interior rooms british interiors are very quick to you . know not of course of course but it's been so unexpected here and a lot of it is so crazy you see if there was some as good as most of those has museums in london you probably have to pay fortunes going and here it will be forty
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rubles sixty rubles and all these little parks and gardens the churches i mean monasteries markets the metro everything i think it's an amazing city what's your opinion both the russians are russians. a lot different from. the oh yeah for sure there are there are things that a lot of my working group when they first arrive some people join the group a lot when they'd for the first right i want to explore and they say why does no one smile why is no eyes of them look so grumpy i just know it's a slightly different cultural thing we don't really inanely all the time like we do but that doesn't actually mean anything and in fact the russian grunts who used to be cool i mean cool. but also actually you walk into a shop and people might say no and they look and help and then they warm up and they start at about the end of the you having coffee and you know i mean i found people here to be very very friendly especially we get out of town and people start . asking well if it's incredible it's five foreigners one in. have been.
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a lot yes mostly in the moscow area i mean i've. been over to her is not a serious case and only as far as east as i told her and every night. we went out into the up to novgorod to petersburg obviously places around quite a lot but most of my inspiration has been immediately around moscow and one of the things that i feel are these are things that definitely won't be in the guide books are some of the little towns and this it will be an absolute top tip asking for talks in the town of cologne i mean you probably quite well know now among russian tourists but foreigners haven't heard of it it's not in any guidebook any english language guidebook that i know what it's going to be in my next but. i think i know the answer better. do you believe the russians from russia are really different from aggressions from from from from moscow it's. interesting definitely we've had
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a different reaction going out of the city and definitely people are a little bit harder a little bit kind of little bit less cool we've had people being very very friendly and some little village and it's also quite surprised and i've met quite a few people i mean out of town and they say i've never spoken to a forum for things like that i mean that amazes me and it's very much but yeah it is definitely different not completely you know they are saying it's very cosmopolitan everybody knows there are a lot more people speak english that's something that's changed. and a great thing was different russians they try to speak english where we're you when you walk into a store or something they try to speak your mind they try to make consoles for. them selves understood absolutely unlike the french. or the english. language english are figuring out if you walk into a store and you and you and you speak speak english the english is very poor they are amazed by the fact that you can at least learn some near incident in
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a foreign language which they can never do usually and older people i think we're more forgiving about accent so one thing people struggle with here is you don't say something exactly right people might not understand it whereas in english we just thank you thank you very much for being with us and just to remind that my guests are michel today was even talking author of the moscow walks and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your sales parklife or if you have someone in mind if you think patiently next time you drop me a line of how good our parties that are you have nazis prognostic interactive we'll be back with more from comments on what's going on in and outside of russia i saw them as they are teens and take you. back. to.
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