Mission in Moscow

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With the platform number now on the departure board we headed out of the cool station concourse onto the frozen platform to find it empty. All the number appearing on the screen means is where they intend to put the train at the allotted time. A short while later the train slowly rolled into the cold dark platform and once stationary all the carriage doors opened almost simultaneously the carriage attendants appeared to stand by the entrances. Realising fairly quickly our coach was at the furthest end of the platform from us. We put on our backpacks and headed the length of the 20 or so carriage long train to find our attendant looking a little bored. Giving her our ID and tickets she ushered us to our cabin and pointed out which bunks were ours. For this trip we’d been allocated both top bunks in the four berth cabin. We dropped our bags onto the beds and headed back out to get a few quick photos of the train. With the obligatory tourist bit done we returned to the warmth of the carriage to figure out where and how to store our bags. Each of the four berth cabins have two upper bunks that can be folded up for extra headroom in the lower bunks that double as seating. These lower bunks also have foldable bases to allow access to storage compartments on the floor of the cabin. With both of us in the upper bunks we found a large storage area out over the top of the carriage walkway. Anna climbed up the small foldable ladder by the door into her bunk while I loaded our bags up into the overhead storage. About to remove my shoes and climb up into my bunk, the door bust open and a gaggle of waist high boys charges in testing everything they could touch in a whirlwind of activity. The adults with them wisely stood in the corridor and waited for the boys to settle down before removing them for the cabin. At this point we didn’t know how many of them intended to share the cabin with us as half a dozen cases were loaded into the floor storage compartments. With the adults pausing to chat I seized my opportunity and had my shoes off and was into my bunk in the blink of an eye. Up out of the way and with kindles in hand we waited for some sense of calm to return, where we found ourselves with a mother and her now subdued son in the lower bunks. With the train now departing they waved goodbye to the sending off committee that were now running about on the platform, all the while the station played soviet classical music from the tanoy as we rolled out into the cold snowy night. With the train leaving a little before midnight is wasn’t long before the mother had her boy changed, washed and into bed. Having had a busy few days we welcomed the early night and tucked up as we were rocked and jolted to sleep by the carriage some time later.

Waking after a rough night being unaccustomed to a moving bed, or a snoring, snotty pre-teen boy in the same room, we found ourselves coming into Moscow station. With our lessons learnt from arriving in St Petersburg we headed for the metro tunnel to grab a muti-trip ticket to get us about for the coming days. Within sight of the booths we joined the neatly lined queue for tickets, with it being about 8-30 on a Monday morning, these queues were quite long. Ours shuffled forward until we found the heaving mass of commuters all fighting for the attentions for the kiosk staff. It turns only those funnelling in from the rail station were bothering to queue; everyone else just sharpened their elbows and joined the throng of people. Having waited the best part of an hour in the queue and with sizeable backpacks we were able to defend our place rather well from the crowd. With tickets now in hand we bolted for the nearest barrier and followed the flow of people down to the depths of the metro platforms. The nest time we surfaced we were within a short walk of the hotel on the fringes of the city centre. Trying quickly to get our bearings we headed off down the road only to find a short while later we’d gone the wrong way up the street. Our mistake corrected we wandered back past the metro station and most of the ornate park in the centre of the street, finding the hotel a 10 minute slow walk away. With dawn just breaking, we’d figured we were a little early for the 2pm check in to our hotel, but hoped we could drop our bags till then. Following the doorman’s gesturing we called up to the hotel to get access to the building to no avail. A little stranded for what to do next, a streak of luck found us, as a fluent English speaking employee of the hotel arrived for work. A short while later found us with a pair of RFID tags for access to the building and the hotel front door. The kind fellow took us up and began the checking in process while we described our journey and explained our early arrival. With a few conversations between him and the maid we were given the keys to our room around 15 minutes later. Taking us through our room and a brief overview of the hotel policies we asked his name, to which he replied ‘Roman, like the football manger’. This brought a little light hearted banter between us all, which he took in his stride, as I’m sure he’d probably heard most of it before.

After sorting our things out and a quick rest we headed back across town to find the Moscow office of the company that had booked our onward train tickets. After a bit of a hunt we found the purple office building in the midst of a residential area and headed up to collect our book of tickets. We dropped into the compact office to find a pair of ladies furiously fielding phone calls and arranging diaries. After a short while one of them took us through the details of the tickets and how to decipher them. Asking about local sites to see and the location of the tourist information office drew a slightly blank expression, as well as a map of the city. Putting forward places we’d hoped to see while in Moscow brought some ideas from our host, who also kindly gave us the map. We expressed our gratitude for all they had done for us and headed off back to the hotel to plan our stay, grabbing some lunch and a pot of tea on our way. As we always seem to do, we put a small mountain of things to do over two days and figured we’d catch the bits that fell off the plan on the third day. Satisfied we’d got everything in order we headed out for a quick bite to eat before getting some rest ready for our big first day. During our research we’d found out that the Moscow metro system was full of very ornate stations. Marking these on the map we headed underground for red square via the station at ‘Ploschad Revolutsii’ to find the station filled with statues depicting fighters from the revolution. Surfacing from the metro we headed through an archway, ignoring the guide touts, hoping to find the queue for Lenin’s tomb. We were greeted on our arrival in red square by a massive ice skating rink playing Russian pop music and surrounded by fast food stalls. The area we expected to find the tomb was covered by a giant white domed tent. We walked past the all the commercialism surrounding the ice rink and were rewarded by a breathtaking view of St. Basil’s cathedral, the iconic sight of Moscow. Feeling the cold and with the Kremlin closed for the day, we headed into the G.U.M. shopping mall to warm up and pan our next move. The guide we’d brought with us recommended a Russian specialist restaurant not far from red square. A while after having set off we realised we’d gone too far as we were faced with the imposing frontage of the old KGB headquarters. Heading back and round past the TsUM department store we found the area where the restaurant once stood under heavy construction. Conceding our chances of finding it were fairly minimal we grabbed some lunch in the nearest coffee shop we could find. The nest area we’d planned on visiting was the park of fallen monuments, a short hop on the metro away from our current location. Once in the right area we found the lower edge of the park to be more of a car park than anything and couldn’t find a way in. Giving up and turning round to see the impressive entrance way to Gorky Park, we headed over the road to have a look through. Passing through the gateway we found an interactive art installation, including flexible mirrored Christmas trees and spinning wheels with cycadelic patterns. As we got further into the park we found the entrance to another ice rink as well as a bunch of amusements based around the New Year celebrations. We found a wooden bridge that seemed to pass over the ice rink to allow access to the rest of the park so we took the steps and followed it, finding the rink extended over most of this half of the park, with smaller lanes taking you away from the main rink past a series of food and drink vendors on one side, while over the far side, similar lanes went out to within sight of the river running down the side of the park. We followed the river past some large construction work and soon found ourselves in a tree filled wilderness. Wandering along the windy pathways with deep snow and trees as far as we could see, occasionally passing another person and features within the park, like an Astroturf pitch, high wore course and small formal gardens. Eventually we found ourselves at the end of the park facing a busy main road. Following it a short way we found the nearest metro station and our next sightseeing trip. With seven stations on our list we planned a rough route to take us past the remaining six on our way back to the hotel. Surfacing some 90 minutes later, thankful the metro system only records one trip as entry to the escalators at street level, we navigated our way round to the old Olympic stadium to see if we’d have more success at getting in than the last two, no chance. Finding the outside layer of the stadium filled with small businesses, all the entrances had been sealed off. While working our way round I noticed a small group or cars with strangely arranged cones in a snow filled car park. Pausing for a short while we watched as the learner drives were shown how to handle their vehicles in the treacherous road conditions they have for long periods in this part of the world. Back at the hotel we looked through the now rather small list of sights left to see in the next two days. Deciding we were both exhausted from two weeks of constant moving, walking and sightseeing and having two more nights in the hotel, the next day was going to be a day off. The only time we left the comfortable warmth of the hotel was to go on forays for food at lunch and dinner, but this did enable us to catch up on a bunch of budgeting and blogging we’d got behind on.

The last day in Moscow saw us checking out of the hotel, dropping our bags with the friendly attendants in the basement of the station before heading back over to red square, this time to look round the Kremlin. Having done a little research we knew about having to leave our smaller rucksacks with the cloakroom by the ticket booths, so after sorting our stuff out we headed up towards the rear of the Kremlin as we’d got the tickets for the current time slot of 12 till 2 in the armoury. Once through the various security checks and inside the armoury, we dropped our coats in the very warm basement cloakroom and donned the mandatory disposable overshoes and headed towards the start of the museum. On our way we found a free audio guided tour that required leaving your passport or a type of formal ID as security, I can’t believe anyone would want to try and walk off with the 80’s mobile phone sized devices. While the audio guide was useful, it also has you dashing from one exhibit case to the next, skipping a large amount of the room. We found we’d dour once round the room with the guide then do a second go round to see all the bits it had missed. As you’d expect from an armoury it has an impressive collection of armour and weapons from early Russian history. However as it was also used to store the valuables of the Tsars and the royal families is also has an extensive collection of intricate early Russian and European religious art along with table ware, thrones, cartridges and clothing for the royal court, coronations and leaders of the Russian church. All in, it took us a little over two hours to complete a trip round the museum, without staying too long at any one of the exhibits. Gathering our warm clothing we quickly got rugged up and headed outside as the day seemed to be getting away from us. Realising soon after stepping into the cold I managed to leave one of my snowboard gloves inside I made my way back to retrieve it, only to find a large queue of people waiting for the next time slot. Chancing my luck I headed back to the exit we’d come out of and tried the little Russian I’d picked up with the large doorman. He began gesturing and speaking in broken English for me to join the queue. With a little more explanation and showing him my ticket he began gesturing that I was well past my time slot and I’d have to buy another. With me now slightly concerned, Anna had joined the conversation, at which point he’d asked for her ticket. With that checked, he let the gag slip, laughing at us for losing a glove and being silly tourists with vary bad Russian, and let me back into the building. Who’d have thought nice security guards with dry senses of humour exist in the most unlikely of places. Retracing my steps to the cloakroom found my glove waiting for me like a stag horn on one of the attendants hat hooks. Spotting the matching glove in my hand, the ladies passed it over with similar comments to the security guard about losing gloves. Now fully wrapped up we continued our walk up to the churches at the top of the Kremlin. Having 7 religious buildings in close proximity (5 Cathedrals and 2 Churches) we managed 4 of these before we reached our limit of the insides if churches and headed out past the Tsar Cannon and bell to retrieve our bags. We walked towards red square passing the war memorial and the grave of the Unknown Soldier, guarded by a pair of Russia’s finest in their pillboxes. Having spotted a collection of restaurants with a wide selection of food on offer not far from the cafe we’d been to earlier in the trip, we headed out in search of some dinner. We ended up in a pan-Asian restaurant with noodles for dinner followed by desert sushi, a thin rolled up pancake stuffed solid with nutella and cut into sushi size pieces with a strawberry jam, and sweet rolls, a spring roll outer filled with fruit and deep fried, served with a really light strawberry foam. Having had our fill of food, we headed back to the station to find a supermarket for some supplies for the train. This was easier said than done, heading to the right as you look at the main station we walked as far as the next metro station of Krasnoselskaya before dropping into one of the numerous dispensing chemists to ask directions. In rubbish Russian from a phrase book we attempted to ask, then trying to understand the response. Being hopeless, the kind lady took pity on us and came out from behind the counter, took us outside and pointed across the road junction to the large blue illuminated sign behind the metro station, indicating this was what we were looking for. Looking like a massive business unit we found the supermarket nestled in the bottom of the building with a small entrance off to one side. Having got a bunch of supplies we headed back to the station, reclaimed our bags and found a seat inside the station building to wait for our train to arrive.

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Comments

[jessica]

Looks Fantastic!
How exciting! I'm headed to Moscow next month and will definitely keep in mind a few of these tips. I've written about what I'm excited to see here, http://omgitsmejd.blogspot.com