We had been warned by several people that whilst St Petersburg is a very European city, Moscow would be a big culture shock. It is known for being a very big, very impressive, very busy and very unfriendly city. On most levels, it didn't disappoint.
We took the overnight train from St Petersburg and arrived into Leninskaya station in Moscow at 7:30am, the start of rush hour. As we walked out of the station in the rain, past what Luke would no doubt describe as 'vagrants and criminals' asking us for money, and into a heaving underground station full of unfriendly commuters (approximately 10 million people go through the metro in Moscow before 10am everyday), far from feeling the culture shock I was reminded of London. It was at this point I realised that to go on the underground in London in rush hour carrying half your own weight in a rucksack whilst not being able to speak any English or read a tube map or have any idea where your going would be a very stupid thing to do.
We did manage to get out of the metro station (having taken only three or four wrong trains) and get to our youth hostel - Napolean Hostel - with surprising ease. Luke however seemed panicked by the whole experience, looking around I realised that most of the roads in Moscow have more lanes than the M4 (for anyone not from Wales that is the largest road in Wales), all the buildings are massive and there are police on every corner. I tried to comfort Luke by taking him for breakfast in what ended up being our favourite cafe in Moscow, Moo Moo (or My My in Russian), where we vowed to learn a few more words in Russian after breakfasting on sweet pancakes with chicken. The coffee was great, though.
After breakfast we walked down to Red Square in the centre of Moscow, which is as colourful and vast as you would imagine, and being there made all the hassle of the metro worth it. At one end stands the renowned and fantastically colourful St Basil's Cathedral. To the left of the cathedral running all the way along the west side is the red wall of the Kremlin. About half way down is the heavily guarded, soviet style Lenin's Mausoleum. Running along the opposite side of the square is a very elaborate shopping centre, GUM. Twenty years ago this was the state department store, but has now been transformed under the market economy to hold well over 1000 expensive and flashy shops (I'm sure Lenin would be delighted).
At the far end of the square next to the impressive building holding the State Museum stands 17th Century Resurrection Gate and the small 17th Century Kazan Cathedral, which was the first building we went into. Despite its historic feel, we discovered were actually rebuilt (as exact replicas) in the 1990s having been knocked down in the 1930s because they got in the way of the Communist Workers' parades.
We queued up first thing on Thursday (well, after breakfast in Moo Moos) to visit the must see attraction that is Lenin himself. Russia as a slightly different way of keeping an orderly than in Britain. There was no barriers or fence stopping you from skipping the queue, the left baggage and metal detectors and walking straight into the tomb. There were, however, several armed police standing outside the building and by the queue - needless to say no one tried to push in!
I'm not really sure how to describe the slightly odd Lenin experience, other than to say he looked waxy, although pretty good to say he's been there 80 years. Its a definite must see experience. As you leave the tomb, you walk past the guarded burial places of all the communist leaders and big wigs, including Stalin.
Perhaps understandably, Moscow has the feel of a city not entirely at ease with its history. Incongruously, ten minutes down the road from Red Square, towards our hostel, on Lubyanska Square there is a Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism. Also on the square stands the foreboding and overpowering Lubyanka Prison, the old KGB building, which is now used by the FSB. Stranger still was our visit to the sculpture park in the South of the city. This was the place where a lot of the unwanted Soviet statues were dumped after 1991, and is now an attraction of its own with lots of contemporary art as been added to the old sculptures.
We completed our stay in Moscow on the Friday with the all important visit to the Kremlin. A lot of the state buildings you can't go into, including the palace where Stalin lived, but Cathedral Square is beautiful, and we visited all four of the cathedrals, each of which was very ornate and impressive. Bell lovers will also be pleased to hear that we saw the biggest bell in the world.
Eating and drinking highlights of our time in Moscow included Propaganda. supposedly the oldest club in Russia it opened just after the fall of communism and has a very chilled atmosphere and surprisingly well priced beer.
Our favourite bar in Moscow, however, as to be Kruzhka, a bar we happened upon on our first night and went back to twice more in threes days and we were clearly a bit of a novelty - on our first visit the waiter disappeared for ages returning looking triumphant with a copy of the menu (clearly unused) printed in English. On our first couple of visits we thought it was a quiet small bar, but it turned out, when we went for a quiet drink on the Friday night that it was in fact a huge club, staffed by four members staff.
The staff were very helpful and friendly, and the three course lunch special for only 169R (about four pounds) was fantastic. Highlights also included watching a drunken policeman handcuff a waiter to the bar and pretend to spank him with his truncheon, and being terrified on the Friday night that we realised that two large security men were stopping people from leaving. When finally got the courage to leave we found out that they were asking for some sort of proof that we had paid. Fortunately, being the only group of non Russians in the vast bar the waiter remembered us and explained that we had paid and we were allowed out!
I said at the start that Russia was known for being a very big, very impressive, very busy and very unfriendly city. It was certainly the first three things, but unfriendly? Not so much. After a difficult start, three dyas in, I felt strangely sad to be leaving the city. But leave we had to...
Luke will pick up with the tale with the first leg of our Trans Mongolian train journey soon, as well as our time in Tomsk!
Love
Louise and Luke
xx
(Posted by Louise)
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