Moscow

Moscow is the capital of Russia and with a population of over 13 million people it is by far the largest city in the country. What's interesting is attitudes. The relationship between St-Petersburg and Moscow is much like that between Montreal and Toronto: a person from one city will never admit to liking the other city. Moscow is the busy, fast-paced business city and St-Petersburg is smaller and seems to have a little more importance placed on art and culture.

I've made 2 trips to Moscow so far, and I'm sure there will be more to follow. Though St-Petersburg is an interesting city, I'll admit that I do like these little weekend trips from time to time - I guess I enjoy being able to play tourist openly!

We first set foot in Red Square at night back in October. Many of the travel guides recommend visiting this historical site at night for the first time, and I must admit that it is impressive. The buildings are all lit to emphasize the beautiful architecture of the various buildings. St-Basil's Cathedral sits at the far end, which is probably Russia's most recognized building, with the Lenin Mausoleum on one side by the Kremlin walls and GUM, the former general store now converted to high-end shopping, on the other.

Just outside the gates opposite St-Basil's is the "0 km" road marker. All distances are calculated from this point.

Our visit of the inside St-Basil's was interesting. This domed structure is a series of small chambers connected by passageways - no large central space as would normally be expected. Even the view of Red Square from inside the building was something worth seeing!

There are a lot of beautiful buildings sprinkled along the edges of the Moscow River. We were fortunate enough to have a clear sunny day to be able to enjoy the sights.

The charming difference in Moscow is that for a big city, there is still a lot of green space. There are a lot of tall buildings and busy streets, but there are still lots of smaller streets, narrow and winding as one would expect to find in Europe.

There were many pleasant surprises hidden around the city - I liked finding this little onion-domed church through this little alley.

There are some great fountains in the area just outside the Kremlin walls. Behind these horses is a walkway where the sprays are only on sometimes. It's funny to see the reaction of the poor victim walking by when the water gets turned on.

This is Petrovka street, where I stayed on the first trip. Right in the centre of town, and up the street from the Bolshoi Theatre.

A friend suggested visiting Arbart Street, which is a more bohemian part of the city. It's a street only for pedestrians and is lined with cafés, restaurants and gift shops.

We stumbled upon this little pub, which is actually a city bus that was converted. There was live music and it was a great place to enjoy a beer and get out of the cold.

To continue on the spontaneous musical theme, on our second trip, we came across this party in one of the underpasses. Underpasses are common because they let you cross busy intersections without having the interruptions of traffic lights. So instead of just having steps and concrete walkways, they have shops that sell everything from food to flowers and card to hosiery. And this being Russian, there is, of course, a shop that sells beer. So walking back to the hotel to hear loud rock music coming from this underpass, where the crowd was gathered to drink beer and listen to the line-up of bands was somewhat of a surprise!

Moscow is a busy city where the metro is a vital form of transportation. The stations are all decorated differently and the art is quite interesting.

I have yet to be there during rush hour, but I'm sure that the system must be very crowded. A wonderful find was this little park filled with sculptures. There was a great range in the types of work, which is what made it interesting to visit.

Where's Waldo? ; )

And what's this next one? A new, more visually appealing lock-out procedure? It's actually a Russian wedding tradition. On the day of the wedding, the bride and groom write their names on a lock, which is then fastened onto a bridge. The lock is to symbolize the union of the couple. Moscow has created tree structures for these locks to be placed all along one of the pedestrian bridges.

Of course this wouldn't be me if there wasn't some food pictures! I had to admit that I do prefer the restaurant scene in Moscow over St-Petersburg: there's so much more variety! Matvei and I had been craving good, spicy Asian food and we hadn't found much of it in St-Pete's. On our first visit, Elements Moscow (local free newspaper) made a few restaurant suggestions and we fell in love with Thai Thai, a little spot in "Chinatown" (even if there is no one Asian living in the area). The soup was almost too hot to eat - almost ; )

A local landmark is Café Pushkin, which seems to be the place to bring clients for brunch if you want to impress them. Four of us went on a Sunday morning and this long-standing establishment did not disappoint. The food was yummy and the presentations were beautiful.

The letter "P" in Russian is "pi", which makes the chocolate topping on the cappuchino kind of cute.

This was my omelet, served in a latté cup. And what makes this dish Russian? The sprinkle of caviar on the top.

This presentation of what looked like Christmas on a plate was interesting: reindeer carpaccio.

Matvei is still drooling over this blini-layered cake that we only saw once. He's been looking for it in all the pastry shops and cafés, but it doesn't seem to be common.

On the whole, Moscow was wonderful. I can't say that I would rather live there than here in St-Petersburg, but I certainly enjoy visiting Moscow!