I had booked the cheapest flight to Moscow that left as soon as possible. This meant flying overnight from Southend to Moscow Vnukovo via Chisinau, which I found out is the capital of Moldova and we used to call it Kishinev. Southend Airport turned out to be horrible and Chisinau really nice.
I landed in russia at 10am then learned that russia has the slowest passport control in the universe. Even so, by lunch time I had caught the really swanky double decker express train into the middle of Moscow and was ready to get to grips with Russia!
The train ride took about an hour and passed some small towns, some with beautiful medieval architecture and some made of slums that reminded me of Vietnam. Coming closer to Moscow I saw industry on a scale I’ve never seen before. Sprawling factories, never ending freight trains and convoys of massive lorries. It really excited the nerd in me who’s been playing far too much Transport Tycoon recently.
The first thing I wanted to see was Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral, famous for its iconic onion domes. I found out there is also a park next to the red square called Zaryadye Park which is also surrounded by impressive buildings.
I was told that when going to Red Square, it’s essential to visit the ornate shopping centre GUM and buy icecream. This shopping centre was once the most impressive State Department Store, inspired by traditional russian architecture and London railway stations. Now its the place to buy icecream and the queue was massive.
I was also told to look for the bright green drink Tarhun which was available all around the square and GUM. It really is bright green and very delicious!
In the evening I met up with Irina, who is one of my friend in England’s mum, who had kindly agreed to show me around in exchange for crumpets.
She took me to have dinner at a retro soviet canteen called Stoloviya 57 after the World Festival of Youth in Moscow in’ 57. Irina says its exactly like the canteens she remembers except it has a better range of squash to drink. I had Okróshka soup, herring in a fur coat (shredded beetroot), liver stroganoff with buckwheat, followed by a starchy fruit drink for afters that was something between a drink and jelly. She said I was very adventurous and she’s never even tried the liver stroganoff!
After eating she took me on a tour of the Moscow metro underground stations. These stations are all decorated with marble and semi-precious stones and each is unique and has a story. One is where the government were based during the blitz and has murals of fighter planes another one was being built in 1943 and is decorated with mosaics made in Leningrad while it was under siege! I think these stations show how much respect there is here for public spaces and institutions, something we might have had once in the UK when we built glorious railway stations but that we have now lost and don’t look after.
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My first impression of Moscow is that its a modern city that’s still thinking of future development whilst also being proud for their heritage.
So far, the impression I have got of their feelings towards soviet times is not negative. There seems to be great respect and administration for what was achieved and the adversity that was overcome. There is even some nostalgia even amongst the young people – who were queueing out the door to eat at Stoloviya 57. There are so many statues and paintings of Lenin that I got bored of photographing them but I’ve yet to see any of Stalin.
As I’m writing I’m sipping Kvass which is a naturally alcohol-free beer brewed from rye bread which is also a key ingredient in Okróshka soup
Eastward Ho! 