Happy to Meet Russia in City.

Wandering along Sai Gon’s streets, I suddenly recalled an old memory as I gazed upon a panel with the Russian lettering Золотая Oсень (Golden Autunm), hanging outside a restaurant.

The painting Golden Autunm of Russia's Isaak Levitan

The name brought back memories of a famous painting by the well-known Russian artist, Isaak Levitan.  If I had not looked up at the yellow leaves falling in front of me, I would not noticed the panel.  The unique lettering, existing only in the Russian alphabet appeared in front of my eyes, making me remember the past….

Many years have elapsed since I returned home from Russia. I have not had the opportunity to return to Russia, where I spent my some of my wonderful youth.  The letters Золотая Oсень, triggered my longing for a Russian autumn, with the deep red of the birch leaves and the light yellow of oak.  I also miss the white poplar tree trunks, naturally tinted with alternate white and black stripes, and how they shed their leaves at the end of autumn.

Standing outside the Russian restaurant, I read the menu and peered inside through the window.  The menu was full of familiar dishes, like black bread with salty fat, salted fish, sour cream, beet soup, shashliks, and even kvas, the traditional Russian drink fermented from black bread.
 
The memories continued.  I used to run to school in such a hurry after eating beet soup with sour cream on a winters morning.  Eating black bread and yorghust whilst reading text books and studying in the evenings, was a very interesting time in my life.  I often saw  trolleys of kvas on sale while walking the streets in the summer afternoons.  I could not help but drink a glass of cool kvas, the sour, sweet liquid passed down my throat and eased my exhaustion.

With the melody of “Moscow Evening” in my head, I let my mind drift through the past.  Russian songs like this one and others such as “Weeping Willow”, “Take Me with You”, “Two River Banks”, “The Russian Field”, “Life, I love you”, “Our Addresss Is the Soviet Union” were a big part of the Russian experience.  In Moscow, Leningrad, Vladivostok, Kharcov, Sakhty, and on every corner in Russia, Vietnamese students like me could hear these songs.  Thanks to these lovely melodies I heard almost 20 years ago, and today whilst looking into the Russian restaurant, nostalgia came to visit my soul.  Coincidently, this comes right on the 90th  anniversary of the Russian October Revolution.

In the city’s center, meeting once again the familiar figures, dishes, melodies, traditional Russian costumes, and people who consider Russia as a second home, brings about the feeling that Russia is still close. 

Source: SGGP