Moscow

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Unfortunately I am without the ability to upload pictures for the moment so you'll have to make do with text only!

I arrived in Moscow at 8am to find minus 2 degree weather and a light smattering of snow. A start, maybe good or bad - either way it didn’t last. By the end of my week in Moscow it was 25 degrees, and I was mooching around Red Square eating ice cream, in Russia! Who’d have thought it! Classic Brit talking about the weather here….

I have had an excellent week in Moscow, I like it better than St Petersburg, probably for two mains reasons, neither of which are much to do with the cities. Firstly, the weather. Or rather, peoples reaction to it. In St. P it was fairly miserable, which was not great, and made everyone there generally a little grumpy, which made the whole place seem less friendly and less positive. Moscow on the other hand came alive with the sun, and people poured out of buildings in the droves. This meant a bigger queue for things, but that didn’t seem to matter - at least people were happy to be doing it.

This wasn’t just Moscow in general - My first day was miserable, and in my first stroll to Red Square it was virtually deserted and generally looked pretty grim. The wet Wednesday afternoon really didn’t do it justice as I later realized.

The second reason has to be the company - much as I loved the people in St. P there were just6 more of them in Moscow - The Napoleon Hostel had a great atmosphere, and attracted some great people.

Malcolm for example, an American Chemistry Professor who had been working in Novisibirsk, a large industrial town in Siberia for a year. My first impression was an unusual one, entering the kitchen to find a bearded American eating a whole cooked chicken - He was keen to extol the virtues of this, telling me “ you know what you’re getting and you know it’ll be good.” The logic is irrefutable, I had to admit… Malcolm was a wealth of information about Siberia having lived there for a year. As it turns out Siberian wisdom is surprisingly similar to all other cultures - ‘Don’t call your wife drunk’ was one he advised another guest who shall remain nameless. Classic. He also delighted other guests with his child-like glee at finding himself in a room occupied by a group of Russian models coming to Moscow on a trip. In all honesty, there was plenty of glee from everyone here - They just wondered around in their underwear all day in the hostel.

After wondering around the ‘bohemian’ Arbat district with Femke, a Dutch Trans-Siberian tripper, I began to realise that no-one can really explain why they were drawn to take the trip. Everyone I talk to has always wanted to do, or always been fascinated by the 8000km train ride from Moscow to Beijing, but can never explain why. “Russia!?” people ask, “But its really cold and unfriendly and rubbish!” However lots of people are inexplicably drawn to exploring this huge and varied country.

Oh, and just to clarify, it’s not always that cold, and there aren’t bears everywhere.

I spent several days exploring the city with Mike. An employee of the Utah department of corrections, you might expect some sort of redneck - Quite the opposite. A well travelled connoisseur of global museums Mike took me round some fantastic Art Galleries, such as the fantastic Pushkin Museum of fine arts and an equally interesting gallery next door, which we couldn’t work out the name of. A little sub-gallery of the Pushin, it nevertheless held an impressive collections of Van Gough, Monet, Cezanne and many other very well known painters.

We also visited Church of Christ the Savior, built about 6 years ago to replace one torn down by the communists. The site was going to be the location for an almighty ‘Palace of Soviets’ The centre of global communism, some 300m high topped with a 100m tall statue of Lenin, which even had glowing red eyes on one of the blueprints! Now THAT I would like to see! Just imagine….

And while we are on architectural monstrosities, there is a 95m high statue of Peter the Great on a ship which is riding a wave of other ships. Magnificent and awe inspiring, but also one of the ugliest monuments I have ever seem. Words cannot describe…



I also braved the queue to see Lenin. I mean, when else would I get the chance to see the embalmed corpse of a communist leader who died 85 years ago?

He was…creepy. Seems obvious, but really - Lit up with yellow lights, he looks distinctly waxy in a dark suit. To get in you walk around a series of corners in solemn silence, with guards positioned so that you are always walking directly towards one, who is staring at you in a menacing way. What, do you expect me to try and run off with Lenin’s left arm or something!?



After days of seeing him sleep all day, I finally met Jean, one of the people in my dorm. a Frenchman, his daily routine was to go out at 11pm, party till past dawn, sleep till 3, eat as many pancakes as he could at Teremok, a place across the road, then sleep until it was time to go out again. Awesome…

I went out for a drink with him, a fascinating guy who knows far more about the British political system than most Brits - he taught me about the French one, and even humoured my schoolboy French. In the bar, we promptly met an Italian girl who announced she didn’t like French people as her opening gambit. I ended up watching Russian Ice Hockey in a US New Orleans themed bar with a French and Italian. Talk about international!



Soon came the time to stock up on instant noodles and biscuits for the train - I hit the supermarket round the corner, walking past the vast FSB (new KGB) building at closing time. I was met with waves of black suited men in black sunglasses getting into black Mercedes and BMWs with black tinted windows giving me black looks. Slightly unnerving but at least I can say I have been told off by the KGB (even if it was only for walking across their car park…)



And now back to the train!

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Comments

[Banwaitt]

Jealous
Reading about your exciting adventures from my office in Milton Keynes has made me very proud, but also very jealous of you Lukey! Keep having fun. If the Russians thought you were tall, think what this Chinese will think. I'm certain you're going to get on the news over there - "Giant roams the country with polite conversation, intellectual whit and a thirst for learning!"