Kazan — summer 2012

I returned to the Frankfurt airport in transit from Barcelona to Kazan. First I took some time out to see if I could find some free wifi. No go. In the meantime I glanced over at some recliner chairs, and a young father was nodding off. His daughter climbed onto him and fell asleep as well. I was so touched. Family scenes like this make me, a childless single man, very... hm... what is the word... it's like nostalgic for something you have never had. The decisions that have made me single in life were, for the most part, wise ones, but sometimes the could-have-beens do have their impact on me.

After that I again went to eat at the Käfer’s, the restaurant where I had had the wonderful veal the other day. Today I ordered the “Frankfurter schnitzel vom Schwein” (Frankfurt-style breaded pork cutlet) which comes with bacon-fried potatoes.

Notice in the upper left there is a square container with a light green sauce, a specialty of the house. Ohmigoodness, so interesting and good! I've been trying to figure out what it is. It's a very light sauce. My first sense was of freshly minced celery (not powdered), followed by a minced parsley impression, and the sauce must have been based on yoghurt or perhaps buttermilk, and then there was the slightest taste of banana, like the hint one gets from a not-quite-ripe avocado, and maybe the slightest taste of lemon, but that could be acidity from buttermilk or something else. One puts the sauce on the pork. Very interesting flavor.

From there I got onto my plane to Kazan, where I came to the conclusion that Russia has really changed. When I first went to Russian in 1986, most Russians never got to travel. In 2010 I was struck by how many Russian teenagers were travelling. And this time I was struck by how many Russian children are traveling. There were at least ten children between the age of 12 months (yes, I asked) and seven traveling. They wandered up and down the aisle, and Russian strangers and friends laughed and played with them. The Russian adults allowed themselves to smile in front of strangers. It was marvelous. To be honest, I have never had a less stressful flight, and the lower stress was mainly due to the presence of children that everyone would allow themselves to love.

There are moments when I think the world might be becoming a better place. This was one of those moments. And no, I'm not going to try to qualify that statement. Though criticism is necessary in life, it's also necessary at times to simply enjoy the good without double think. This is one of those times.