The park itself is a large grassy area with fine small-stoned walkways and benches, colorful flower beds and trees. On the other side of the street are buildings as old and interesting as those found on Bolshaya Pakrovka. Even the most modern buildings are made to fit in with the others, including the worst western eyesore of the city: the new McDonald's restaurant, smack dab in the middle of historic Gorky Square. McDonald's is in a newly faced building that was the House of Books, a quaint bookstore, until a few years ago. Now the citizens of Nizhni Novgorod can get fast food there instead of reading about it.

The Lower Lower City

The lower part of the city features a number of stores, shops, cafés, restaurants, and

It was in lower Nizhni Novgorod that I fondly remember spending good times with friends in an old wooden pub that drew its beer from huge wooden barrels. Some friends and I went in search of the bar, but instead we found a new restaurant with a stuffy inside and white plastic chairs and tables. The modern setting did not suit us, so we went to another place the Russians thought I would like.

The Crazy Bison tried to be a Western-style pub and restaurant. We ate fried meat and seafood salads with beer and vodka. The polished-wood and stone interior had a ‘hunting lodge’ ambiance. A band played in the distance, and there was a small dance floor of shiny wood. We played billiards near the striptease show. We played roulette with some Russians and a couple of Germans. The big-spending German had a system, but apparently not a very good one. He lost a lot of money. Good thing he was playing roulette in Russia instead of Russian roulette.

Russian Hooters

One of the churches was partially burned. One onion dome was gone, and the others were charcoal black. When we passed a native walking with her goats, I asked her about the church - curious to know if the defamation was the work of religious or political critics. She simply said that it was nothing more than the work of vandal hooligans. The church had been attacked before, and it would be again.

On the way back we walked through the forest path, shaded from the sun by spruces, oaks, elms and birches. At the edge of the forest, a woman used a forked tree branch to rake dried grass. We came to the pond's edge where people were bathing in the sun and in the water. Dogs chased sticks into the water, and friends laughed as they drank beer and kvas. Some of the swimsuits were more revealing than the uniforms at a certain American restaurant chain. No, Russian hooters are not to be missed.

Birthday on the Edge

Vasily's party was held in the lower part of the city at the riverside café of a friend - and the entire place was devoted to the party. Since there were only a dozen of us, we received top-notch service. To one side we could see the double-staircase weaving its way up the hillside to Minin Square, and to the other side we watched the golden sun set into the Volga River with a cathedral silhouetted upon the horizon.

Long after the moon had replaced the sun in the sky, we continued to celebrate. In fact, we were just getting started. We dined on more salads than I can remember, on seafood, and on fresh kabobs of beef, pork and chicken. We drank beer, wine and vodka, all native to the region. The only thing here that was American, besides me, was the carton of cigarettes. That, and some of the music.

One of the party members was a military officer who had spent time in the war in Chechnya - a conflict that continues today. His wife was a television reporter who covered the war. We talked about the war and its effects on Russia, and when we had several drinks in us we decided to coordinate a series of writings targeted toward westerners about the day-to-day living of a Russian soldier in Chechnya. Several toasts later, after toasting to the project, it was long forgotten.

After the initial birthday toasts and well-wishes were made, the three-man band began to play. We danced and sang along with the music, Russian, American and British. At one point, after I'd had enough to drink to convince myself I could sing, I was asked to take the mike and lend my voice to their renditions of "Time in a Bottle", "Let It Be" and "Yesterday". And as the party raged on well into the wee hours of the next day, when I awoke in the late morning ‘yesterday’ was the last thing I wanted to think about.