From Russia with love

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We arrived in Moscow late, approximately 10pm after a 6hr train ride from St Petersburg. Luckily we’d manage to secure transfers before we left and there was our driver waiting at the end of the platform. It could’ve been very interesting trying to secure a taxi and also nerve-racking seeing the number of police and officials around and trying to get a taxi would’ve put the bright neon “tourist” sign over our heads. We arrived at our hotel the Aerostar, while in the middle of nowhere, was gorgeous, definitely the flashiest we’ve stayed in. After asking the price of the internet, we both looked at each other abit worried about what we were gonna do for dinner. Luckily and very surprisingly, dinner prices were very reasonable, thankfully since there is nothing else around. Walking towards the tourist pamphlets, Chris and I saw pamphlet after pamphlet advertising escort services. Sex definitely is a big part of the Russian culture.

We woke early the next day just in time for our Moscow Metro tour. We had arranged this for the very next morning hoping that it would teach us all we needed to know to catch the Moscow Metro and also to secure a 20ride ticket for approx. 380 rubles. The Metro here works per ride, there are no zones, you just pay per ride. Must say I like this system given what I pay in Perth just to go one zone! Stalin was determined to build the best looking metro system in the world and he definitely accomplished this as our tour took us through the most beautiful metro stops. I must say, despite nearly everything being written in Cyrillic, this is one of the easiest metro systems I have ever used. Colour-coding and simply counting the number of stops you need, ensured we never got lost.

After leaving the tour in the middle of town, we wandered around through the markets outside Red Square, getting both excited and disappointed at the price of souvenirs. Moscow is the 3rd most expensive city in the world, and for many years held the title as THE most expensive city, so we simply assumed that souvenirs would be more expensive here than in St Petersburg.. WRONG! Souvenirs are about 200roubles cheaper in Moscow than in St Petes, just to put that in perspective, you can buy dinner for about 230roubles. Getting back to the hotel later than expected, we had 2hours before our night tour for a quick shower and dinner before again heading out.

The Moscow night tour was a great way to see the city lit up at night, especially if you weren’t so confident going out at night which we weren’t. Red Square lit up was gorgeous with its Church of Assumption, GUM store and Kremlin Walls. Also inside the Red Square was the Lenin Mausoleum, where Lenin’s body lies. Since Chris and I saw Ho Chi Minh’s body in similar circumstances in Hanoi, we didn’t bother going in to see Lenin.

Our first major expedition on the Metro came in the form of seeing Victory Park. Victory Park is a tribute to World War 2, housing a museum celebrating the Red Army aswell as tanks, planes etc which thrilled Chris. We’re both interested in Russia and World War 2 history so this was fascinating for both of us. At this park is also a museum dedicated to the war against Napoleon. When Napoleon finally went to invade Moscow, he was met with a burnt out city. The people of Moscow had set it alight and fled, rather than see it fall into French hands. We also visited a place called Monument Park where as Chris put it “Soviet statues go to die”. After the fall of the Soviet Union, lots of statues and monuments from this era were pulled down and housed in this park.

The Kremlin was the original city of Moscow and still houses the Moscow parliament today. Because of this, our tour guide warned us about heavy security, however a quick metal detector and handbag search later we were inside. Nothing compared to Eiffel Tower or Empire State security. The Kremlin is a number of different buildings, churches and palaces that used house the country leaders, including Stalin until he decided that no one would live inside the Kremlin after the death of his second wife. Very nice and peaceful place. Inside the Kremlin is also the Armory, which really should be called the Treasury as it holds the Treasures that used to be in possession of the Royal Family.

We’d been to Red Square a number of times but it wasn’t until after the Kremlin tour that we decided to actually go inside the Red Square and not just shop at the markets outside! We had seen it during the night tour and I don’t know whether that spoilt me but walking inside Red Square was abit like “ok.. is this it?”. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well that day and maybe even slightly on the side of “over it” but Red Square, whilst what I was expecting, it can be said, was a little disappointing, built up too much in my mind maybe.

Before going to Russia, I read many books, travel blogs and spoke to many people who had been about what to expect. The three biggest things was going to be the English barrier, pickpockets and corrupt policemen. Now I don’t know whether we were extremely lucky, lucky enough to be travelling off-peak or expecting the worse and were therefore prepared but as I write this the night before we fly out, I can safely say we had NONE of these issues. People spoke enough English to get by, there were many many restaurants with their menu’s in English, and parts of the Cyrillic language proved to be similar enough to English to be able to identify places. Chris and I relaxed a little in St Petersburg when it came to the police, but we were both on red alert heading into Moscow as the police were said to be a lot worse here. Again, they were everywhere but we were never approached, never had to produce our passports and never saw anyone else doing so either, despite taking a number of photos under the watchful eye of the boys in blue. As for the pickpockets, I had firm hold on my handbag the entire trip but I cant say I ever felt unsafe, no more so than one would in London, New York or any other big city.

The one warning I would give about Russia, would be to the ladies and public toilets. Do not enter if you have a weak stomach. Whilst clean (most of the time), they would have to be some of the smelliest I have ever been in. Why? Because used toilet paper does not go into the toilet to be flushed away, no no, it goes into an open bin.. Not allowed in the toilet! So as you can imagine, the smell does start to build.. Thank god it wasn’t summer.

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Comments

[Dmitry]

three biggest things...
"The three biggest things was going to be the English barrier, pickpockets and corrupt policemen. " These problems are greatly reduced since the late 90's. Police chiefs cleared his brain to his subordinates. :) Toilets. Is a problem. Use Macdonalds. A global network of toilets. :)