Moscow, Moscow, tra, la la, la la, la la!

  Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation
Sunday, July 27, 2008

Tom by the Kremlin wall

Friday 25th July
Alison: We caught our Aeroflot flight safely, after a slight trauma when they changed the gate but announced it in Russian and I couldn't read the board because all the letters are different, and finally Mike heard our names being announced and we raced down the long passage to finally get on the plane. The flight itself was very comfortable, quite unlike the stories of dodgy Aeroflot planes of yesteryear.

When we got to Moscow airport there were taxi drivers wanting to charge exorbitant prices to drive to the city, so we caught a minibus for about 20 minutes to a subway station and then a nice chap we'd met on the bus walked us up away from the station to where the taxis are cheaper (the price goes down the more you move away from the station) and we finally negotiated a reasonable fee to take us to the Radisson SAS Slavayanskya by the Moscow River. This was a very comfortable hotel which we all loved, although the restaurants attached to it were ridiculously expensive, even by Russian standards. That's what comes of staying in swanky hotels!
Anyway, after we unpacked we relaxed and then headed off for a stupidly expensive, but very nice meal in one of the attached restaurants, with once again ridiculously slow service. Then it was off to bed. Katerina had explained to us that in her opinion Russians were inherently lazy and had no service ethic, which is why she and many Russians admired the Germans so much for their discipline and hard work. McDonald's which is now open in Russia is also apparently making some slight impact on improving service standards, but they have a way to go!
 

Mall next to our hotel

Saturday 26th July
Alison: After a good night's sleep we organised tickets to see the Moscow Ballet's opening night of 'Giselle'. We then wandered across the road to a huge neighbouring shopping mall & had brunch in a food court there - much cheaper than the night before! From there we took the Metro to Alexandrovsky Sad (Alexander's Garden) and then walked all around the walls of the Kremlin (which is absolutely huge) in the hot sun.

St Basil's Cathedral

We finally reached St Basil's Cathedral which is quite spectacular to look at, and Red Square which unfortunately was closed for special children's concert being performed that night. 

Red Square

Instead we wandered into the enormous building next to it which is a kind of enclosed mall with very up-market stores and stopped in a cafe there for a rest, beers and to play some poker which the kids had recently got interested in. We used matches they had snaffled from the Radisson's bar that morning! Then we wandered up past Lenin's Mausoleum and up to and into the Orthodox Church at the top of Red Square (I don't know its name) where a service was taking place. This was interesting to watch for a brief time.

Rachel in ballet pose by Bolshoy Theatre

From there we walked to the Bolshoy Theatre which is closed for restorations at the moment & into the theatre next to it for the Ballet. Seeing the opening night of 'Giselle' was very special and while we were walking there we talked to a woman from Siberia whose son was playing in the orchestra so she was very excited about being there.

Final curtain calls after Giselle performance

We had excellent seats and everyone loved the ballet, even Tom who had been initially doubtful, but the athleticism of the male dancers was enough to convince him that ballet could still be manly!

Afterwards we walked up to a nearby mall and had a very late dinner in a nice Italian restaurant (slow service but good food) & then caught a taxi home to our comfy beds.

Dinner at an Italian restaurant afterwards

 

On our Moscow River cruise

Sunday 27th July
Alison: After a good night's sleep I had breakfast with the kids and then we took a cruise of the Moscow River which we caught just outside our hotel. This was a very pleasant way to view some of Moscow's architecture, which ranges from beautiful mediaeval Russian Orthodox churches to Stalin's hilarious empire style monumental buildings which are dotted throughout. Also there was an incredible memorial to Peter the Great on the edge of the river near Gorky Park which has a huge amusement park.

Another giant memorial to Peter the Great

  

Tom & Rachel in Red Square

We got off beyond Red Square and walked back along the river, through Red Square which was now open after the concert the night before and noted how truly magnificent it is in its size. Then we had lunch in the same complex we'd had a drink the day, and then decided we were ready to tackle the Kremlin.

Massive cannon in the Kremlin

We walked around to the Kremlin entrance off Alexandrovsky Sad or Alexander's Garden - a lovely park where they also have the eternal flame memorial to fallen soldiers. Then we queued up to get in and wandered around the huge Kremlin complex, most of which was off limits to visitors, but we still got to go inside some of the churches with their superb mosaics and beautiful ancient paintings and icons (which unfortunately I wasn't able to photograph as unsurprisingly they don't allow it inside).

In front of one of the churches in Kremlin

We didn't bother looking at the treasury, but finally exited and after resting on the lawns by the Kremlin walls (with lovely slopes ro roll down until we were told off by a Russian policeman!) we caught a metro one stop to Arbatskaya station.

Rap dancing buskers on Stary Arbat

This metro stop is at the top of Stary Arbat, an old street closed to traffic with buskers & performers doing their thing and lots of portrait painters etc touting for business. We decided to have an early dinner there which was wise as the service was so slow that by the time we got it, it was 6.30 anyhow! It was a nice enough meal at any rate, but we did find it funny when after 40 minutes since our order and expecting the food they came to say that the dish I ordered was unavailable! Having to order another one filled me with apprehension about ever eating, but eventually we all got fed. 

Heading down, down, down the escalator

We caught the Metro just one stop home. Smolenskaya metro station where we started was fabulous with great frescoes dating from Stalin's time.  It was also incredibly deep, as the line had to go under the Moscow River, so again we went down escalators where you couldn't see the top or bottom when you were on it!

Great frescos on walls of station

We looked at the views on both sides from Rostovsky Most (or bridge) across the Moscow River and then went home and packed, ready for an early start next morning as we were finally off to China!

Tom looking south, with our hotel in view

Rachel: After we had farewelled our grandma we set off to catch a plane to Russia St Petersburg. We arrived there to meet Katerina our tour guide and Alexi her husband who drove us round. We went back to their home which was about an hour's drive. They lived in an apartment.

In our seats at Giselle

The highlights in Russia for me was seeing the ballet Giselle in Moscow, and the Winter Palace and the boat tour on the River Neva in St Petersburg. On the boat tour we saw amazing navy boats!!! We had a lovely experience of Russia.

Mike: Moscow is a very different place to St Petersburg, probably accentuated by reverting to being moreso tourists or observers rather than seeing and experiencing it from the inside.  The bureaucracy of the Russian authorities is something to behold, and of course partiiiiicularly for one like me who has a compleeeeeeete dierespect for authority!!  
I learned fast here though that the rules were different to back home..  beg, plead or reason aaaaall you like... if the policy is no, that is IT!!   Noooo explanation needed, noooo questioning of the rationale required by those administering it, the rules were the rules, say NOOOO more!!!   
I learnt to curb my frustration as it dawned on me there was simply no point.  At home I can cajole and persuade, and neeeeever take no for an answer..   but here was a good life lesson that sometimes you simply have to concede defeat!!   So I took to smiling inwardly at their ways but not bothering to argue, and chose to see this as another valuable lesson and learning from this amazing trip of ours..   you gotta play by the hosts rules!!

Rolling down the grass outside the Kremlin

Just one trivial example was laying on the lawns immediately next to the sprawling Kremlin area.   After a wander about inside we stopped for an icecream and a sit and play on the lawns, as were many others.  Not 5 minutes passed before along came a couple of Polizei, who ushered all those in the vicinity off said lawn.  When I dared to ask why, as we were all occupying a minute amount of a huge grassed area and doing no harm to anyone (and indeed what else was this huge lawned area for!??), I was met with no words but simply a dismissive brushoff and further gestures off the lawn, at which point I simply laughed and moved on!
   

Covered shopping area next to Red Square

Red Square is a huge and sprawling remarkable place, bordered by a series of buildings each completely unlike the other, never have I seen such contrasts (!),  but with each a quite incredible creation in its own right. On one side a maaagnificent Cathedral, one Lenin's mausoleum, one a beautiful old converted shopping centre, one an old Orthodox Church.. amazing and a sight to behold, so steeped in history of course.

Rachel in front of Lenin's Mausoleum

The food in Moscow I found by and large reflected the feel of the city itself, mostly drab and somewhat uninspiring. Of course I tried the borsch but have to say my mother makes it better than the particular one I tried...  And if you are hungry get there an hour early as the food NEVER arrives within an hour. I made the fatal mistake one day (after a 10 minute wait) of asking the waiter to top up my beer, which was served at halfmast well below the rim, and I duly waited another 20 minutes!!!  

A pre-performance drink

The night at ballet was breathtaking, the particular company we saw I read online being regarded as the best in the world right now, so this was something else.  Fascinating though that the theatre itself was not a grand or majestic building one might have imagined, far from it it was very modest and dated, and although it was opening night I need not have felt bad about my lack of appropriate attire, as the dress was very much only neat casual.  A great experience, one of those "when in Moscow"s , and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Mike surveying the range of vodka

I was struck by the costs of everything in Moscow, which for even the basics like groceries were oftentimes much the same as at home. Given that their average wage is about $10,000 or say a fifth of ours, I truly couldn't work out how they could make ends meet, so suffice to say this just further reinfoced how good we have it at home!  

Mike, Rachel & Tom at top of Red Square

Anyway I am delighted to have now been to Russia, a place always somewhat shrouded in intrigue and mystery in my head. It is great to have blown away so many of the media-driven illusions I had carried with me, and more than any place we have visited I leave with a new clarity and understanding of this fascinating country.  The power of the media and mere innuendo in building our mindpictures was never more obvious to me than here, and this in itself is a poweful life lesson I will take away with me.