At checkout at one of the bigger grocery stores there are televisions that run constant advertisements. It seems to be a good idea as we have found ourselves standing there for long periods of time with nothing to do but watch them. Last week, we saw an advertisement for Moscow Extreme Circus, which showed a bear riding a motorcycle. We had never seen a bear ride a motorcycle, so we thought we would check it out.
Every large city in the former Soviet Union seems to have a building dedicated to hosting circuses. The ones we have seen look like they were pretty impressive in their day and must not have been cheap to build.
It has been a long time since I was last at a circus so I may not remember clearly what they were like, but this one seemed different. There were no lions or tigers, but we had an opportunity to have our picture taken with a crocodile or a bear (a smaller, stragglier looking one than the one in the picture). One act featured a guy with a bunch of reptiles, but that was repulsive and we won’t get into it. There were more traditional acts ranging from dogs jumping rope and jumping through rings of fire to a guy juggling dumbbells and catching them on the back of his neck. And there were more interesting acts, mostly involving bears but also the one in the second picture in which a guy was stacking and balancing on pipes. The bears were riding scooters, playing pattycake, walking across narrow beams, standing on their front paws on a spinning trapeze, and most impressively, driving a motorcycle. At times it seemed a bit inhumane, but overall it was 2.5 hours of good entertainment.
-Dave
