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Published: August 20th 2011
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Metro artwork
in a Moscow subway station Hi,
I feel I should apologise to Moscovites for believing when people told me that Moscow was a dull city. I was pleasantly surprised, even though I spent little more than 24 hours there. Ok, back to my arrival.
I told you already about the great speed train from St.Petersburg to Moscow. It went up to 232kph but that didn’t seem very fast because the ride was so smooth. I had decided that I would face the challenge of the Metro, rather than be collected by hostel staff. I arrived at 6:00pm on a summer’s evening so there was no rush or panic. The instructions I’d been given made it relatively easy to take the Metro and make changes. The Metro stations were not as amazing as in St. Petersburg. A young couple helped me out on the last part and brought me to the Pizza Hut on my directions. I found Godzillas hostel quite easily from there in less than10 minutes.
Godzillas was brilliant! I would return to Moscow anytime I was in the area, if only to stay at that hostel. It was like a big old house with wooden floors and doors, lots of bedrooms of all
St. Basil's Cathedral
pinch me - am I really here? sizes and lots of bathrooms and showers. On each floor there were clusters of dorm bedrooms adjacent to small kitchens and a few bathrooms. I had asked for a single room so I got a room with a double and s ingle bed, off a dorm room, for about €45/night. It wasn’t en suite but that was OK. I had been advised that hotel rooms in Moscow were $250/night ¸so that’s why I didn’t plan on staying long.
If you had your own laptop there was Wi-Fi but otherwise there were a few PCs and a phone for free phone calls to the States and Canada. Unfortunately it took me quite a while to figure out the codes. The kitchen meant you could make your own meals, but they directed guests to a cafeteria-style restaurant around the corner, near the park. Another major plus for Godzillas was the location – a short walk from the popular tourist sites.
Sunday was a lovely warm, sunny day so I set of walking after I’d had breakfast and stored my bags in the luggage room.
I had been told many times, “Once you’ve seen Red Square you’ve seen all Moscow had to offer.”
Not true, there were many lovely churches, monasteries and museums in small neighbourhoods that I passed en route to Red Square. The city seems to be cultured and cosmopolitan, with many striking buildings on the skyline. There were lovely sculptures in courtyards and streets that wound through neighbourhoods. I arrived in Red Square at lunchtime and, no matter how often you’ve seen photos of those onion-topped domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral, the beauty and majesty are quite a surprise in reality. Red Square was crowded with tourists, some of whom clustered where Stalin’s statue had been pulled from its podium by angry Russians in 1989. Lenin himself is far more respected in Russia today and his mausoleum is still open to the public at certain times. It was closed for renovations when I was there.
It is interesting to see the Soviet-style buildings adjacent to Red Square and Stalin certainly left his mark. I didn't go into the Kremlin because it is mostly museums, apart from where Putin and the Big Boys hang out. It was Sunday and they weren’t there to welcome me, so I moved on. The whole area was absolutely crowded with visitors.
The red walls of
the Kremlin form the western side of Red Square and I followed them southward toward the Moscow River. It was beautiful to see the many boats in the river on the sunny day. Quite a memorable sight. You’ll see the photos that I took on my walk. I had wanted to see the sculpture park where the city authorities had decided to display old statues from Soviet times. As I walked along the river I admired the huge maritime statue of Peter the Great and the famous Red October chocolate factory.
When I finally got to the sculpture park it was getting late so I didn’t have a lot of time to admire the Soviet sculptures before I had to walk to the Metro and find my way back to Godzillas. I took the wrong exit from underground and emerged at a place I couldn’t recognise, which is very frustrating when one is under time pressures. But I was able to collect my bags and head back to the Metro for trip to the Airport Express. That was not so easy because even the police officers in the Metro didn’t know which was I should go. Luckily a very nice
Peter the Great
Maritime sculpture local man took me under his wing and brought me from one route to the next until he delivered me safely to the Airport Express station, in plenty of time for my journey and flight.
I had time to spare so I repacked my bags and listened to the announcements “20 minutes to go until the next express train”....”15 minutes...” “10 minutes..” Then when I heard “5 minutes” and still there had been no call for passengers to queue up, I noticed that people where rushing out the exit – Yikes, there wasn’t going to be any call! I gathered my stuff and made it onto the train with a few minutes to spare. It is so convenient to be able to go from the Metro to the airport in a half-hour and to be delivered right into the airport terminal. Dublin aspires to having such a service in a few years.
It was a whirlwind tour of Moscow, but a memorable one. Moscow is rally a lovely city. It doesn’t have the fabulous architecture of Sty. Petersburg or the dramatic modern architecture of Beijing, but it is modernising at its own pace and has its own style which is
Art Museum Sculpture park
a great collection of Soviet-era statues very pleasant. I regret that I only had one day to explore it and will certainly go back to Godzillas and Moscow the next time I’m in Eastern Europe.
Now I face what could be the most challenging part of this journey – Xinjiang Province in the far west of China! Sheila
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