Moscow - Days 1 - 4

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Day 1
After a very long day I landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with the announcement that it was -15 degrees outside -yikes! After catching the Aero train into the centre of Moscow I had my first taste of the complexities of the Russian Metro which would confuse me fr the rest of my stay in Moscow. I foolishly gave up in the end and asked a policeman who promptly sent me in the wrong direction but eventually after catching 6 trains even though there was only one stop between my arrival and destination I finally arrived and followed the directions to the hostel which was called Godzillas at nearly midnight!

I was then shown to the room and I don't know what hit me first, the smell or the snoring!!, it was the worse I’ve experienced and would trouble my sleep for the remainder of the duration - the joys of dorm life:-) the noise whoand smell was eminating from 2 Greek guys who had come to Russia to find a bride God help the lucky lady who ended up with one of these guys. Needless to say by the time I left they had not found their Tatiana yet, they blamed it on the fact that the ladies were only interested in money mmmm me thinks there could have been other reasons:-)

Day 2
On my first day in Russia I thought it right to go and say hi to Lenin and so I joined the first of numerous queues to do this - I thought the Brits liked queuing but the Russkys have taken it that one step further. First of all I joined a queue in order for me to queue later on a pre-queue if you like. Then I joined another queue near the metal detectors, after about 10 mins I was told I couldn’t take my man-bag in so I had to leave it at the left luggage office, which yes, had another queue, after depositing my bag I then had to join my previous queue to get through the metal detectors before my last queue in the Mausoleum itself. It was pretty spooky in the viewing room - Lenin is in his glass case and the embalmers had done a good job with his head and hands but I think they may have cocked up with the body as it seems too big for the head.

After that I had a wander round Red Square, saw St Basils cathedral (with the multi-coloured) onions on top and had a wander round GUM. In the halycon communist era shoppers would queue for hours to get some black bread and a potato and now it was full of designer label stores - Lenin would be turning in his tomb - well his head at least!

I then visited the Pushkin museum which housed many treasures including the spoils of Troy - so take that Brad Pitt!! As with many of the museums in Russia the descriptions were only in Russian - in the Cyrillic Alphabet so I couldn’t tell you much about what I saw but it was very nice.

Day 3
Today I decided to tackle one of the walks in the guide I picked up at the hostel, this took me to one of the most exclusive shopping districts in Moscow - which was saying something - Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton, Primark all graced the shop windows and the cars purring outside with their drivers inside were all Rollers, Bentleys and Range Rovers. Next door to this street was the Maserati, Bentley and Ferrari car dealership - I was green with envy.

During the first 2 weeks in January Moscow has a winter festival with events all over the city, one such event was taking place at St Basils which involved the creation of numerous ice sculptures. I then went on another wander down the embankment of the Moscow river, past a horrendous 130ft memorial to Peter the great that locals have dubbed Peter the Ugly, this was commissioned by the Moscow mayor and its creation may have lost him his post as the residents of Moscow have never forgiven him for it - Prince Charles would call it a carbuncle. After that I visited the park containing old statues from the old Soviet regime and continued on to Gorky Park which is a really kitch amusement park with very few amusements.

By this time the cold was starting to seep into my bones so I called it a day and headed home as usual getting lost on the way.

Day 4
Christmas day for the Russian Orthodox church - so I though it best to go to church. My day started off with a visit to the churches in the Kremlin, there’s around 6 at the top, some of them dating from 1475. After paying my respects I went on another wander down Old Arbat Street which turned out to be a bit tacky and full of souvenir shops and finished off at the Bolshoi ballet, but didn’t get to see any nuts being cracked.

As it was my last night in Moscow I decided to visit the legendary Propaganda club. I was sat at the bar for around 10 minutes admiring the scenery when a couple of guys came up and ordered some beers in English - well we got chatting and I joined their group for the rest of the night. As it turned out they guys worked in Moscow and were also in a band and were playing that night in Bourbon Street next door. They band ended up playing for 3 hours and were very good, they played my type of music as well and finished their set with a track by the Velvet underground - by that type I was well established as a groupie:-). I eventually said my goodbyes to the band at 3am as they were leaving for home, but I stayed on in the company of some dodgy Russian girls who were dancing on the bar. I finally left Bourbon Street and tried my luck with getting back in to Propaganda but it was full by then and they wouldn't ;et me in - either that or maybe it was my inabbreviated state. I got home by taxi, and by taxi I mean some guy in a car. Basically any car can be a taxi, so if you stick your hand out someone will stop and you can agree a fee - Kinda like paid hitchhiking. I fell into my bed around 05:30 and eventually woke up at 13:00 - crikey.

Day 5
Surprisingly I wasn't feeling too well today but I had two things that I wanted to do before I left Moscow, the first was to go and see a cemetary - Novodevichy, this was where many of Russia's most famous people were buried - Chekov, Nikita Kruschev, Boris Yeltsin, Tupalov plus some authors whose books I have read e.g. Bulgakov.

I then wandered back to red square at night to take some pics with it all lit up.

Later that night I boarded the night train to St Petersburg, I took the Smena train which departed Moscow at 23:00 arriving in St Petersburg at 06:45. I travelled second class and the train was lxury compared to some overnight trains I have taken int the past. The cabins have 4 berths and I was accompanied by 2 old dears, one of whom I gave up my lower berth for, and another bloke - none of whom spoke any English - so I soon got off to sleep.

Boring bits
Cheapest Flight I could find from Manchester to Moscow were with KLM but the carrier was Air France as they are Sky partners.
Stayed at Godzillas hostel in Moscow - staff very friendly and place was constantly being cleaned.
Visa - first you have to get an invitation from Russia - numerous websites do this but I went with way-to-russia and can’t fault them. - I got the invitation 2 days later. You then have to send the invitation and your passport to VFS Global (same guys that issue the Indian Visas) in London - all details on their website - total costs around 120 pounds. On arriving at your hostel and each one thereafter they have to register you and he hostel charges 150 ruble for this.
1 pound = 48 Russian Rubles.

Train tickets
There are companies online who can get train tickets for you but this incurs a cost. Your hostel should be able to help you out - basically tell them which train you want to get - all this info is online if you want to have a gander in advance - seat61 is a good website. Then they will fin in a slip with the details, you then have to get train to leningradsky station at Komsomolskaya metro station - go to the Kassa (Ticket office) hand in your slip and pay the money and you get your ticket. Make sure you do this at least 3/4 days in advance as they get booked up very quickly.

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Photos

Lubyanka
Where the KGB and now FSB torture confessions from the prisoners