Circus Boy

This time ten years ago, I was paying a visit to the Yuri Nikulin circus on Tsvetnoi Boulevard in Moscow. Russians take the whole big top business seriously; for 150 roubles, I got an evening full of lion taming, stunt motorcycling, contortionism and gravity-defying acrobatics. Plus, I only got one huge man in a uniform glaring and shouting at me for no apparent reason while on the premises; to put it into perspective, that's four fewer Random Uniformed Russians Glaring And Shouting than I got in Lenin's tomb, seven fewer than in the local restaurant, and about sixteen fewer than going through customs at Sheremetevo Airport. Carefree fun even by Russian standards!