Ken & Judy's China Adventure

MOSCOW

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From Ekaterinburg to Moscow is only a 24-hour trip. We barely had time to get settled in our compartment -- this one decorated in a rust/beige colour scheme. We knew we were moving toward the west because everything cost more! Our sheets and towels cost 170 roubles for the two of us – previously we’d paid 10 or 20 roubles. The basket of goodies placed on our small compartment table was not free -- like a hotel room bar, we were expected to pay for whatever we used. We gave ours to the provodnitsa, since we had lots of goodies of our own. We did appreciate the fine filigreed holders for the tea glasses, and the accompanying filigreed tea pot. We found wine tasted better in these fancy glasses!

Once on the railway platform, hefting our luggage yet again, we said goodbye to the Trans Siberian, found our driver/guide and headed for his large van, along with seven other people. Our guide was very informative, giving us a quick rundown of where the main attractions were as we travelled through downtown Moscow. There’s the Kremlin, St. Basil’s, the Moscow River, the Rossiya, one of the largest hotels in Moscow. Over there is the new cathedral -- see the guilded domes? We kept going until we were in a residential apartment area, across from a rather unkempt public park (the Filyovsky Park), where we turned in to the forecourt of AST Hof 3 Hotel, 8 kms away from the downtown. It was a very hot day, with lots of humidity - quite a shock after the air-conditioned luxury of our rail carriage. We needed to stay in a hotel so that we could be properly registered by government officials, a requirement we had experienced in each of the previous cities we had visited. This procedure means that you give up your passport for as little as two hours or as long as two days. We had booked into a homestay for the remainder of our time in Moscow.

The AST Hof 3 had no air conditioning. Our room was very small with little room to spread out our luggage -- something we found necessary after the confined spaces of our railway compartment. There was no bathtub, a longed for luxury after the splash and dash of the railway toilet. However, there was a very good dining room, which we thoroughly enjoyed after the limited range of the train dining car. And it was hot! That afternoon we had a tremendous thunderstorm, and another on the following day. It remained hot for the rest of our Russian stay. Where were the mid-20s temperatures described in our guidebooks? The sweaters and long sleeved shirts we’d packed stayed in the bottom of our suitcases.

Since next day we were transferring to our homestay, which was in the downtown area, we decided to explore this area of suburban Moscow. Everywhere were 10 or 12 storey apartment buildings, grouped into small neighbourhoods, screened from the busy main streets with mature trees, walkways and small gardens. The park across the street was very large, but so overgrown that we decided against exploring it. Instead we went the other way and found a very large outdoor market, with a wide range of foods and goods for sale. As well as the inevitable bottles of water, we bought some amber jewellery, and a couple of malachite boxes -- always remembering the limited amount of space we had in our cases. We also found an Internet cafe, where we were able to get caught up on our email.

Our downtown homestay was magnificent. We were on the 6th floor of an old apartment building, with a small elevator in the centre of the stairwell, and the stairs winding around the elevator shaft, very similar to older styled apartment buildings we’d visited in Paris. The apartment itself was very large, with 12-foot ceilings and tall wooden doors. Our hosts, Marina and her daughter Basha and son Kiril, all spoke some English, and were able to give us directions and advice on where to go and how to get there. Our room was large, with several sofas and a pull out bed set between two large windows. The breezes helped dispel the heat. We looked out on a large government building a few streets away, and the Kremlin to our left, a 10-minute walk away.

Directly across the street, workmen were refurbishing a building, installing steel sheeting along the edge of the flat roof. In fact, there was quite a bit of construction in the downtown area. Buildings which had been closed for several years were being reopened and spruced up. Old buildings were being torn down, sometimes with the facades left standing, and new structures were taking their places. Lots of traffic going at breakneck speeds between stoplights. We had several dashes across wide thoroughfares, barely making it to the other side ahead of oncoming traffic. We soon realized that there were underground passageways for pedestrians at these intersections. This made our walks much more pleasant, and safe!

Vignettes:

• The Alexandrovsky Gardens outside the Kremlin are a wonder, especially on a hot day. There are fountains spewing water, water falls where people dangle their feet in the cool water, and a waterway below the balustraded walkway, decorated with sculptures of animals and shallow water falls. Beer gardens, food stands, benches, formal gardens of flowers all make this a most attractive place for an afternoon stroll
  
  
• BRIDES! As we rounded the corner of the Kremlin wall for our first glimpse of Red Square (Krasnaya Ploshchad), we met several bridal parties coming toward us. Billowing white gowns, frothy veils, bottles of champagne and full champagne flutes, much laughter and picture taking. Our hosts later told us that this is a tradition here - the weddings take place outside St. Basil’s, and then the wedding party parades through the square and over to the Alexandrovsky Gardens, and then back. We saw one bride, hobbling along on the return walk, bend over and remove her very high heels, continuing in her stocking feet. Another more gallant groom was carrying his new bride back!
  
  
• Red Square is an immense, cobbled space, rivaling Tian An Men in BJ in size, but very European in style. With the GUM Department store along one long side, and the Kremlin walls along the other - with the red marbled cubist inspired Lenin’s Tomb up against one part of the wall -- our view was funnelled to the magnificent coloured domes of St. Basil’s at the far end. And with only glances at the buildings on either side, we walked, along with returning bridal parties, to this wonderful church.
  
  
• St. Basil’s Cathedral is such a marvelous confection -- the enamelled domes resemble hot air balloons in their bright reds, blues and greens, stripes and criss crosses, zig zags and ribs. The sturdy multi-sided lower red brick walls set the motif with their rounded arches, which multiply as the building rises upwards, each set of semi circles echoing those around it, bursting forth at last into the faceted domes, each topped with a golden cross. The interior is surprisingly small, filled with tiny rooms and narrow, vaulted corridors and sets of very steep high stairs. Every surface is decorated with frescoes and mosaics, difficult to see because of the many tourists in the way! Our overall impression was of great opulence amid closed spaces. For a long time, this church had been a museum, as is the case with many Russian churches, but recently it has returned to active duty.
  
  
• The GUM State Department Store is so reminiscent of department stores in Paris! A very highly decorated facade in the Baroque style, running the entire length of one side of Red Square, with imposing entrances midway and at the corners. Inside, it’s like three Eaton’s Centres side by side -- three vaulted glass ceilings over three storeys of small shops. No Canada Geese, however! We wandered from section to section, admiring the window displays, waiting for the perfect object to catch our eye. All we bought was water. However, we did have a tasty ice cream and a cup of coffee at one of the many small cafes situated in the wide corridors of this amazing building. Generally, we found the prices of goods very high in Moscow and St. Petersburg -- obviously we’d been spoiled by the merchandising in China.
  
  
• INSIDE THE KREMLIN. We hired a very knowledgeable guide for a 3-hour tour ($10 US per person per hour) which, as it turned out, was a very good plan. The Kremlin is a huge walled area which houses many government buildings painted yellow with white trim, columns and cornices, a large theatre of very modern, utilitarian design, and several historic churches and monuments. It’s the churches that are the main tourist attraction. And they are magnificent, with their sparkling white exteriors and equally shining golden domes. The buildings are quite compact, tall and sturdy with very few windows - similar to early European Romanesque churches. The interiors are filled with images - no surface goes undecorated. And the altar screens - iconostasis - are brilliant with colour, jewels and gold. Stern faced saints and church fathers pin you with piercing eyes. In the first church, the Annunciation Cathedral, Judy turned to her purse to get some change for postcards, and discovered that her wallet was gone! A quick mental search followed - when did you last see it? Was your purse open or closed? Could it be somewhere else? We quickly realized it had been stolen. Then of course, were the other questions - what was in it? How much money? What other valuable documents? Where’s your passport?
  
  Fortunately, all of Judy’s Canadian documents were at the homestay, and her passport was in another place in her purse. By this time, we were outside of the church, and our very efficient and level-headed guide Lena, had called Marlis Travel to ask advice and telephone numbers. Judy’s only valuable item, apart from cash, was her Visa card. Within half an hour, it had been cancelled -- the Visa agent on the line paused only briefly when Judy told him the last item purchased with it had been in a restaurant in Ulaan Baatar! We continued our tour and our trip, with Ken as the only source of funds, since Judy’s debit card had also been stolen. Only Ken’s debit card remained, since we shared the Visa card.
  
  Probably the most distressing part of this episode was that someone had been watching us, and had seen us as easy marks. And maybe we were --we always think well of people until they make us change our minds. As a result, we were very cautious during the rest of our trip, trying to think as the petty thieves did.
  
  
• THE MOSCOW METRO. One look at the schematic map of the metro was enough to make us think twice about trying to use it. Seven separate lines move from north to south, intersecting in strange patterns around the city centre, where a circular line intersects all seven lines. All signs were either in Cyrillic or in a Romanized equivalent, both equally useless for us. Fortunately, we were able to persuade our guide to give us a brief tour. We got off at stations filled with crystal chandeliers, or art deco designs or stained glass or bronze sculptures in special niches. It was astounding. As well, the Moscow Metro is known for its efficiency - trains appear regularly at minute intervals in peak hours, and even close to midnight, passengers will wait no more than five minutes.
  
  
• The ARBAT was right around the corner from our homestay. We couldn’t resist a stroll down this pedestrian shopping street. As well as shops on either side, the street itself was filled with souvenir kiosks selling every imaginable item: stacking wooden dolls; fur hats; jewellery, especially amber; stone boxes; wooden boxes, exquisitely hand painted with scenes from Russian fairy tales; scarves and shawls. Artists displayed their works on specially constructed metal stands. People could test their strength by whacking a platform with a huge hammer (shades of the CNE!) or have their pictures taken by sticking their heads and hands through holes in boards painted to look like clowns or famous Russian figures. At one point we came upon a man with a large snake curled around his neck and down his arm, and another with a crow on his arm. The idea was to hold the snake or the crow (or both?) and have your picture taken. Ice cream stands, patio restaurants for coffee, tea or beer were everywhere. In one establishment, on the roof a young girl played her violin accompanied by a man playing an accordion, who sat on the windowsill.
  
  
• A funny thing happened at breakfast at our homestay…a wonderful feast of scrambled eggs and crepes, coffee and juice and these curious candy covered yogurt bars (so sweet that our mouths pucker at the thought of them!) was laid out for us in Marina’s kitchen. Judy chose to sit on the window side of the table. The window was open to catch the cooler breezes of the early morning, and the long curtains which hung from a wooden bar above the window were pulled back beyond the window. Judy sat down, unaware that she was sitting on the curtains, and CRASH! she had the wooden bar, curtains and all, as part of her breakfast, scattering crepes and spilling coffee and juice, and breaking her breakfast plate as well. Marina came running, Ken began mopping and Judy just watched, a prisoner of the wooden bar and the curtains. Certainly a more eventful breakfast than any other of our trip!
  
  
• On our final day in Moscow, we visited the PUSHKIN ART MUSEUM, a beautiful classic building set in lovely gardens. As with admission prices at most attractions in Russia, tourists pay different fees than Russian citizens -- at the Pushkin we paid 240 roubles each while a Russian paid 25 roubles! At 30 roubles per USD, we didn’t feel we’d been overcharged. The Pushkin is known for its extensive collection of French Impressionist works, but has a strong historical collection from ancient artifacts to modern day pieces. We kept on running in to plaster casts such as Michelangelo’s David, the Laocoon group from Hellenistic Roman times, as well as the Venus de Milo from the ancient Greek culture. Once we had found a brochure in English, we were able to explain -- this museum began as a collection of plaster casts of the famous sculptures of the past, used by art students for their life drawing and painting classes. These casts now occupy a large area in the museum, and seemed to us at odds with the originals also housed there.
  
  
• Across the street from the Pushkin is the extremely large and very new Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, visible from anywhere in Moscow’s city centre. Decorated with several series of tall rounded arcades and ogee topped semi circles, all in white marble, it’s topped with 5 guilded domes and surrounded by lush, colourful gardens. Our guide of the day before had been quite critical of the way in which this church was financed -- from taxpayers’ roubles. She was upset that no one had asked her if she wanted her taxes spent this way. Apparently this site had once been home to a 19th century cathedral which Stalin had ordered blown up so that a huge open-air swimming pool could be built there. Now that pool has been replaced by another church, the realized dream of Moscow’ s present mayor.
  
  
• TAXIS IN MOSCOW are haphazard at best, and often extremely expensive. On our final night, we had arranged to go for dinner with our Australian friends Tania and Darryl. We met them at their hotel, where Tania (our Russian speaker) began negotiations with one of a group of taxi drivers parked outside. One thousand roubles was the going price. There were no bargains to be had. So, Tania walked out into the wide avenue which passes St. Basil’s Cathedral and hailed down a city resident driving by. Would he give us a ride to the Novodevichy Convent? Yes, for 200 roubles. We clambered in and were on our way to a lovely dinner at the Georgian restaurant across the street from the convent, a walled compound with a pond full of ducks in front of it. We did the same thing on our return -- another 200 roubles got us back to the Rossiya Hotel. Apparently this is not unusual in Moscow. Residents are glad to give rides, using the extra roubles for gas and car repairs. Just one of manyexamples of the state of the economy in the post Soviet Union.
  
  
• NIGHT TRAIN TO ST. PETERSBURG. We were transported from our homestay to the train a few minutes before midnight. After a very long day, we wasted no time in getting ready for bed. On the Trans Siberian trip we had logged 7621 kms. Now we were adding another 750 kms to St. Petersburg! It was a very peaceful ride. We slept soundly, awaking in time to wash our faces and get ready for the last city on our 20-day tour.