(Please back date to 3/2/13)
I had heard that Moscow was going to be different experience than with the rest of Russia. I had read an interesting article somewhere previously that put it this way. It explained that all the money generated in Moscow, stays in Moscow. All the country’s rich oil tycoon billionaires live in Moscow. And all you read about in the news is what Moscow has to say, what Putin and the Kremlin have to say (this is the main reason that I am so excited to see the Kremlin today). I also read in my book, “Travels in Siberia”, that the city has had such a problem of people wanting to move in (not just immigrants, but non-Muscovite Russians as well) in order to help bank on that wealth, that Moscow has created a permit system that forbids people, most of them, from living there. So Moscow for most non-Muscovite Russians becomes this unattainable dream city.
One question I am always asked by Russian people I meet is about what my impression is of Russian people now that I’ve been traveling through the country. I always said that I was pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of Siberians and although difficult to engage at first, once you take the time to try, they quite like to open up and help you out. And then when they found out I was heading west on the train and not east, most Sivberians told me that the closer I got to Moscow, the less friendly the people become because Muscovites have money (although I think this is often the case in most big cities of the world). I can’t say if that’s true or not, it is sort of transparent as a visitor, but I will agree, after spending the day yesterday and today walking around Moscow, people watching, sight seeing, that Moscow really is on a different page than the rest of Russia. It’s like they forgot that they belong to a whole other country. Very few Muscovites that I’ve talked to have been to Siberia. While Siberian Russians are classy and elegant (the women, I mean), Muscovites are hip and trendy. Moscow is full of architectural marvels where as Siberian cities have few. Siberia has a culture very much on its own (from the train folk, to the skinny bears, to the babushkas) but Moscow it appears belongs to Europe. This city and its people could easily be located somewhere in the Eurozone. Don’t get me wrong, I think Moscow is incredible. I’m relieved to finally be back in a place where I can sip coffee in a bilingual cafe and read an english language newspaper (The Moscow Times publishes a decent paper). Where waitresses don’t look at me funny when I can’t speak Russian. And obviously culture abounds here, but in its own Moscow Russian culture sort of way. I cannot wait to keep exploring (and I think I will stay a little while - at least until next thursday because I’d like to watch the Champions League matches that occur at midnight here on both tuesday and wednesday nights. I can easily kill a week in this city). There certainly is a lot to see.
With that said, I spent all morning and afternoon walking around Red Square, seeing the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. I hopped out of bed, showered, and was out the door at around 10 this morning. I walked across the street to grab some breakfast and read up on my plan for the best way to see this massive area. I sat down at a small table in a large cafe, ordered some cabbage pie and an “Americano”, the most cost efficient of coffees, and read through my guide book. The cafe was playing American rhythm and blues from the sixties and was projecting over a large canvas screen on the far wall music videos from a Russian TV channel - Ke$ha was dancing in the background to what sounded to me like Louis Armstrong. The cafe had its own bar where two stylish guys were sitting, talking with the barkeep. They were sipping on a large glass of light beer, it was 10 in the morning. Satisfied with the breakfast pie and coffee, I set out for Red Square.
Since I had been wandering around the area the day before, I sort of new where I was going. I approached the Kremlin by its west gate, the Trinity Gate Tower. The Kremlin, when viewed from outside, is like a huge castle fortress, surrounding a large area on all sides by a large, red, brick wall. Along the Kremlin’s east wall is the sprawling Red Square. Red Square is nothing like the communist style square that is Tiananmen in Beijing, surrounded by Soviet style buildings in a very blocky, orderly way. It is very much a European style square of cobblestone, ringed by historic, non-Soviet buildings like St. Basil’s Cathedral with its onion domes and multi-colored walls. I paid for my ticket which allowed me to go into the Kremlin walls and into the main square, to observe the government buildings from the square, and then it allowed me entrance into the many cathedrals, chapels, and other historic buildings on the grounds.
As you can well imagine, the Kremlin is under high security. The security officers were swift at tooting their whistles at wandering tourists, herding them back into the main square like lost sheep. As you pass through the main gate and through the Kremlin’s high, red-colored walls, you immediately see all the most important government buildings in Moscow, all off limits to tourists. On the right is Poteshny Palace, now some office buildings, where Stalin used to reside. On the left is the Kremlin’s Armory and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and straight ahead are the official offices of the President, the Senate building, where Vladimir Putin works, and the old Soviet Communist Party headquarters building, the former Soviet Senate Building, now under reconstruction, to what purpose I’m not sure.
Just to be surrounded by these buildings that house the movers and shakers of the Russian world and where decisions that you read about in the news occur daily was a cool feeling. I get the same feeling when I’m in DC, surrounded by building after building that house people that are making decision that affect the world every day in some way other.
But once you get past the government buildings you can’t visit, you wander into the main square where all the cathedrals, towers, and chapels are, mostly built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Ivan the Great Bell Tower, with its high peaked, golden domes rises in front of you. Below the tower sits the world’s largest cannon, too large to be functionally practical I read, and what may be the world’s largest bell. Behind the tower are some cathedrals that house the burial caskets of most of the old Tsars and Tsarinas from Russia’s imperial past. The burial casket of Ivan the Terrible in the Archangel Cathedral was particularly interesting. And other chapels and museums that mainly house a collection of Imperial art work from the 16th century and other interesting items from that time period, like robes worn by the Tsars, their crowns, some furniture, etc. I took lots of photos.
I spent about three hours wandering around within the limits of where I could visit and then I moved on. I walked back out to Red Square. Yesterday, when I walked through, I had taken some photos of the ice rink that was set up in the middle of the square for public ice skating. The DJ booth from yesterday had been replaced by an ice hockey official’s chair and a broadcasting booth. I watched on for awhile as a youth ice hockey league game was being played. Little Russian kids were hammering each other onto the ice and into the walls - future NHL stars, no doubt.
Then I walked over to St. Basil’s Cathedral on the southern edge of Red Square to walk through the iconic labyrinthian corridors of the famous cathedral. St. Basil’s is actually called the Intercession Cathedral, St. Basil’s is just one of four chapels that make up the cathedral. St. Basil was the name we associate with St. Vassily, an orthodox priest that correctly predicted Ivan the Terrible’s demise. Each chapel within the cathedral has its own spiraling tower rising well above the small room, filled with paintings and murals, that make up the space. Each chapel is connected by a dark maze of corridors that wander and wind through the cathedral, dimly lit by iron-clad lanterns. You sort of follow a route to the top of the cathedral and exit through a doorway from the outside that lead you down these grand steps to the square. It was a very cool place.
Tired from the day’s activities, I walked back to the hostel, not far from Red Square, and took a rest. I was meeting up with Yana later for a late night of partying in Moscow’s nightlife scene. I was able to stream “El Classico”, the famous league play matchup in Spain’s La Liga between Real Madrid (my personal favorite) and FC Barcelona. The matchup occurs three or four times per year and attracts some of the highest watched ratings of any sports match in the world, these two teams easily being among the very best club teams in the world. So I watched it from my computer in the hostel (Madrid won 2-1) and napped.
I met up with Yana near the metro station outside the hostel and we walked to a nearby sushi bar to grab some dinner (sushi bars are apparently Moscow’s big thing these days) and then we went around to visit some of the city’s main bars and pubs. I don’t need to discuss anything in detail about the night (bars, clubs, Moscow, you get the idea) but I will mention a few things. The bars and pubs in Moscow are very similar to the ones in Boston and I’ve seen this style of bar and pub in very few other places. The bars and pubs are normal bars and pubs until late when the owners open up the place to big dance floors, spreading away the tables and chairs, DJ’s or live bands in the corners, and people squish and squeeze their way to dance in the middle. Boston’s bars do this because the city doesn’t really have a club scene. The bars of Moscow were awesome. But Moscow does have a club scene as well. But the club scene in this city services the city’s rich and famous, and I probably couldn’t get in to them even if I tried (based on my clothes - they were club appropriate but not billionaire club appropriate) but we avoided them mainly because the price of admission is well above my budget. They are the kinds of clubs that you pay thousands of dollars in for bottles of Vodka and private tables. Besides, Yana said the women in these clubs are snooty and we’d have more fun in the city’s underground bar scene. She was right, we did. We did hit one club though at the end of the night (well, early morning) called Propaganda which prides itself as the city’s first club, opened in the seventies, and caters to all types of people so it’s not very expensive. It’s also located directly across from my hostel so it was a nice exit to the evening.
All in all it was a great first day in the city. Yana has been an excellent and very helpful guide and I look forward to the many days to follow. Tomorrow, after sleeping in for a long, long time, I will meet up with my old train travel pals, Shaun and Karen, the Aussies, for what they are describing as a free vodka walking tour. You can’t go to Moscow without doing a free vodka walking tour, I’m told.
I had heard that Moscow was going to be different experience than with the rest of Russia. I had read an interesting article somewhere previously that put it this way. It explained that all the money generated in Moscow, stays in Moscow. All the country’s rich oil tycoon billionaires live in Moscow. And all you read about in the news is what Moscow has to say, what Putin and the Kremlin have to say (this is the main reason that I am so excited to see the Kremlin today). I also read in my book, “Travels in Siberia”, that the city has had such a problem of people wanting to move in (not just immigrants, but non-Muscovite Russians as well) in order to help bank on that wealth, that Moscow has created a permit system that forbids people, most of them, from living there. So Moscow for most non-Muscovite Russians becomes this unattainable dream city.
One question I am always asked by Russian people I meet is about what my impression is of Russian people now that I’ve been traveling through the country. I always said that I was pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of Siberians and although difficult to engage at first, once you take the time to try, they quite like to open up and help you out. And then when they found out I was heading west on the train and not east, most Sivberians told me that the closer I got to Moscow, the less friendly the people become because Muscovites have money (although I think this is often the case in most big cities of the world). I can’t say if that’s true or not, it is sort of transparent as a visitor, but I will agree, after spending the day yesterday and today walking around Moscow, people watching, sight seeing, that Moscow really is on a different page than the rest of Russia. It’s like they forgot that they belong to a whole other country. Very few Muscovites that I’ve talked to have been to Siberia. While Siberian Russians are classy and elegant (the women, I mean), Muscovites are hip and trendy. Moscow is full of architectural marvels where as Siberian cities have few. Siberia has a culture very much on its own (from the train folk, to the skinny bears, to the babushkas) but Moscow it appears belongs to Europe. This city and its people could easily be located somewhere in the Eurozone. Don’t get me wrong, I think Moscow is incredible. I’m relieved to finally be back in a place where I can sip coffee in a bilingual cafe and read an english language newspaper (The Moscow Times publishes a decent paper). Where waitresses don’t look at me funny when I can’t speak Russian. And obviously culture abounds here, but in its own Moscow Russian culture sort of way. I cannot wait to keep exploring (and I think I will stay a little while - at least until next thursday because I’d like to watch the Champions League matches that occur at midnight here on both tuesday and wednesday nights. I can easily kill a week in this city). There certainly is a lot to see.
With that said, I spent all morning and afternoon walking around Red Square, seeing the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. I hopped out of bed, showered, and was out the door at around 10 this morning. I walked across the street to grab some breakfast and read up on my plan for the best way to see this massive area. I sat down at a small table in a large cafe, ordered some cabbage pie and an “Americano”, the most cost efficient of coffees, and read through my guide book. The cafe was playing American rhythm and blues from the sixties and was projecting over a large canvas screen on the far wall music videos from a Russian TV channel - Ke$ha was dancing in the background to what sounded to me like Louis Armstrong. The cafe had its own bar where two stylish guys were sitting, talking with the barkeep. They were sipping on a large glass of light beer, it was 10 in the morning. Satisfied with the breakfast pie and coffee, I set out for Red Square.
Since I had been wandering around the area the day before, I sort of new where I was going. I approached the Kremlin by its west gate, the Trinity Gate Tower. The Kremlin, when viewed from outside, is like a huge castle fortress, surrounding a large area on all sides by a large, red, brick wall. Along the Kremlin’s east wall is the sprawling Red Square. Red Square is nothing like the communist style square that is Tiananmen in Beijing, surrounded by Soviet style buildings in a very blocky, orderly way. It is very much a European style square of cobblestone, ringed by historic, non-Soviet buildings like St. Basil’s Cathedral with its onion domes and multi-colored walls. I paid for my ticket which allowed me to go into the Kremlin walls and into the main square, to observe the government buildings from the square, and then it allowed me entrance into the many cathedrals, chapels, and other historic buildings on the grounds.
As you can well imagine, the Kremlin is under high security. The security officers were swift at tooting their whistles at wandering tourists, herding them back into the main square like lost sheep. As you pass through the main gate and through the Kremlin’s high, red-colored walls, you immediately see all the most important government buildings in Moscow, all off limits to tourists. On the right is Poteshny Palace, now some office buildings, where Stalin used to reside. On the left is the Kremlin’s Armory and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and straight ahead are the official offices of the President, the Senate building, where Vladimir Putin works, and the old Soviet Communist Party headquarters building, the former Soviet Senate Building, now under reconstruction, to what purpose I’m not sure.
Just to be surrounded by these buildings that house the movers and shakers of the Russian world and where decisions that you read about in the news occur daily was a cool feeling. I get the same feeling when I’m in DC, surrounded by building after building that house people that are making decision that affect the world every day in some way other.
But once you get past the government buildings you can’t visit, you wander into the main square where all the cathedrals, towers, and chapels are, mostly built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Ivan the Great Bell Tower, with its high peaked, golden domes rises in front of you. Below the tower sits the world’s largest cannon, too large to be functionally practical I read, and what may be the world’s largest bell. Behind the tower are some cathedrals that house the burial caskets of most of the old Tsars and Tsarinas from Russia’s imperial past. The burial casket of Ivan the Terrible in the Archangel Cathedral was particularly interesting. And other chapels and museums that mainly house a collection of Imperial art work from the 16th century and other interesting items from that time period, like robes worn by the Tsars, their crowns, some furniture, etc. I took lots of photos.
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| The State Senate Building where Putin drinks his coffee every morning |
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| The largest cannon in the world |
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| The main square in the center of the Kremlin |
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| Annunciation Cathedral |
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| Ivan the Great Bell Tower and Archangel Cathedral on the right, home to Ivan the Terrible |
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| A view of Patriarch's Place from an alleyway in the square, now an Imperial museum |
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| A World War II memorial along the Kremlin's outer walls |
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| A youth hockey game on Red Square |
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| The maze-like corridors of St. Basil's Cathedral |
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| Each chapel of St. Basil's was laden with intricate art work like this |
I met up with Yana near the metro station outside the hostel and we walked to a nearby sushi bar to grab some dinner (sushi bars are apparently Moscow’s big thing these days) and then we went around to visit some of the city’s main bars and pubs. I don’t need to discuss anything in detail about the night (bars, clubs, Moscow, you get the idea) but I will mention a few things. The bars and pubs in Moscow are very similar to the ones in Boston and I’ve seen this style of bar and pub in very few other places. The bars and pubs are normal bars and pubs until late when the owners open up the place to big dance floors, spreading away the tables and chairs, DJ’s or live bands in the corners, and people squish and squeeze their way to dance in the middle. Boston’s bars do this because the city doesn’t really have a club scene. The bars of Moscow were awesome. But Moscow does have a club scene as well. But the club scene in this city services the city’s rich and famous, and I probably couldn’t get in to them even if I tried (based on my clothes - they were club appropriate but not billionaire club appropriate) but we avoided them mainly because the price of admission is well above my budget. They are the kinds of clubs that you pay thousands of dollars in for bottles of Vodka and private tables. Besides, Yana said the women in these clubs are snooty and we’d have more fun in the city’s underground bar scene. She was right, we did. We did hit one club though at the end of the night (well, early morning) called Propaganda which prides itself as the city’s first club, opened in the seventies, and caters to all types of people so it’s not very expensive. It’s also located directly across from my hostel so it was a nice exit to the evening.
All in all it was a great first day in the city. Yana has been an excellent and very helpful guide and I look forward to the many days to follow. Tomorrow, after sleeping in for a long, long time, I will meet up with my old train travel pals, Shaun and Karen, the Aussies, for what they are describing as a free vodka walking tour. You can’t go to Moscow without doing a free vodka walking tour, I’m told.
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