Blogs from Moscow, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 12

Moscow Early start out of Berlin was uneventful. Taxi to Schonefeld also proved straight-forward. Our driver was terse but efficient and the long drive to the forgotten airport was swift. The terminals there are seriously out of date but given plans for opening Brandenburg Airport in 2014 it is unlikely Schonefeld will get much of an upgrade any time soon. The service and treatment were exemplary nevertheless and we were soon on our way to Moscow. Arriving at Sheremetyevo all was new and grand - welcome to Russia! We learned that our terminal was the newest of six vast halls. It was only later when we shared with friends their 'transfer stories' that we were grateful to have arrived at Sheremetyevo instead of Domodedovo. The traffic in Moscow is notorious and rightly so. Friends experienced 2-3 ... read more

Despite a poor night's sleep on an especially noisy sleeper train, we made a visit to Imaylovsky market. Few stalls were open at this time of year, and when we arrived at about 10:30am we were the only tourists we could see, although a few more turned up later on. There were enough stalls open for us to get the idea if not quite the full buzz of the fully open market, with displays of rows and rows of matryoshka dolls, with designs from political to glitzy, and racks of fur hats (apparently the other sourvenir of choice from Moscow). Odder was the fake Kremlin, which must be a strange place to visit even when packed with tourists, but only the odd person milling around, felt like an abandoned theme park, like a little bit of ... read more

Weather went from pleasantly warm to snowing and back again today. We visited the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNKh). I'd expected outdoor displays that demonstrated the perceived Soviet brilliance - weird and wonderful inventions and homages to the brilliant scientists who created them, and so on - but it turned out to be much stranger than that. The basis of the park is a large number of "pavillions", a cover-all name for buildings ranging from large huts to imposing and ornate stately buildings in all kinds of architectural style. They are loosely arranged over a great, flat, mostly concreted area, around the famous "Friendship fountain" (not operational at this time of year, but still the most eye-catching part of the park). This alone would have been quite a sight, but over the years the use of the ... read more

Visited the Kremlin today. Found the experience a bit sterile - probably because there must be 1 guard for approximately every 2 visitors. The more military-type ones are equipped with whistles, forcefully blown whenever a hapless tourist puts a foot in the wrong place. They mostly look a bit bored. Spent the rest of the day planning the next stages of our trip at our hostel. The hostel has two cats, one of which in particular has learnt that looking adorable and mewling tragically and at increasing volume will get hostel guests to do pretty much anything for her. Still, I expect she... read more

I had envisaged (and, in the past, experienced) border guards to be severe, authoritative, suspicious and humourless. But I figured that it comes with the job, anyway the UK guards have the same reputation, and border guards are just one of those trials that any traveller has to face. I had especially dreaded the Russian border guards, cynically imagining they might be particularly hostile, an opinion based on nothing but stereotypes.. However, every border guard I have encountered so far has been friendly and unproblematic, and the Russians were positively charming. In some cases, almost fun. One found it hilarious when instead of saying I speak Russian "only a little", I accidentally said "only slowly". And they were considerate in checking passports at the beginning and end of the overnight train journey, rather than waking us ... read more