From Russia with Love

We arrived at Moscow Belarussky station at 13.00 local time only to find that the guide who we’d arranged to meet us wasn’t there. Good start. Neither of us had any roubles so we went off in search of money, however, the banks we found were shut for lunch and the exchange counter staff we spoke to didn’t understand us and certainly weren’t willing to help. So we decided to walk to the hotel with the added problem that our map was in the roman characters and the street names were in cyrillics! However, we found our way by counting the number of streets we passed. On the way we tried to use bank ATMs only to find that our cards had been deactivated for security. They obviously hadn’t been listening to our earlier instructions. Better safe than sorry I suppose. Great start we both thought – in a country we didn’t understand with no money!

The hotel turned out to be a 2^nd floor apartment in a tenement block with 3 guest bedrooms, kitchen, shower room and WC. We were not impressed to find that we got to our room by going through another bedroom and that neither room had a lock. At least we had the whole apartment to ourselves, for the time being at least. On the plus side there was a free wireless connection and the location was good (albeit neighbourhood dubious). We were just off the main drag Tverskya, leading down to the Kremlin.

After settling in the best we could and updating the blog, checking emails etc we wandered down to Red Square and had quick look around to get our bearings. We were both shell-shocked to be in a place where we could read and understand very little. On the way back to the ‘hotel’ we stopped for dinner in a Japanese restaurant, mainly because we could see they had menus in English as well as Russian! Not a bad meal – I had sushi and Pat had noodles. We then ambled back up the street for a quiet night in.

After a restless nights sleep, wondering who would walk in and when, we woke up at 9.00 the next day. In preparation for some sight seeing we went to an Italian restaurant for breakfast, but due to language problems ended up having pasta. It was nearly lunchtime anyway!

We had a proper look around Red Square and GUM, the department store, and took photos there, as requested by my dad! We were amused to hear that a Muir was a founder of the store. Afterwards we popped over to St Basil’s cathedral to see what all the fuss was about. What a beautifully odd little place. I’ve never seen so many little rooms and chambers in a place of worship. Then we made our way over Red Square to the State History Museum. I found this a bit of a disappointment. Like the previous museums we’d been to they had relics of pre-historic man, stone age man upto medieval man and it stopped there. I wanted to know about more recent times. This was a history museum after all.

Tourist hell was in full swing outside. You could have your photo taken with 2 Cossacks with axes, the token Russian leader lookalike of the day, performing monkeys in pink tracksuits and even a tethered eagle with talons the length of my fingers. No thanks. Tourists were throwing coins over their shoulders for good luck outside Resurrection Gate whilst elderly Moscovites gathered around to compete for the discarded coins.

We decided to check opening times for the Kremlin when disaster struck. Looking like obvious tourists and easy prey we were sprung on by policemen wanting to see stamped visa documents. We didn’t have these and understood that the hotel was sorting them out for us, completely legit. ‘There is problem’ the English speaking one said and threatened that we’d be taken to the police station to pay the fine. Knowing no better we ended up paying him 5000 roubles on the spot just to get our passports back. What a scam. Such an easy way for them to make money.

Dinner that night, surprisingly, was in close proximity to where we were staying. We’d found a recommended American diner-style restaurant which turned out to be very popular with the locals and busy. We sat outside on a table warmed by outdoor heaters wearing the blankets provided and were served by staff dressed up for Halloween. There were witches, a skeleton, a babushka and oddly enough a sailor and miner (we weren’t sure about them either!). We got back to the ‘hotel’ and had the suspicion that someone else had moved in so were keeping quiet in case they were asleep.

We woke up the next day and Pat bumped into our new flat mates on the way out to have a cigarette. They turned out to be Brits, Mark and Siobhain, who seemed very friendly. They’d flown into Moscow the previous night and were, funnily enough, arranging tickets for the Trans-Siberian! Why else would you be in Moscow!? They went out and we finished getting ready and made our way to Gorky Park on the metro. Mayakovskya station, like many others, was really elaborately decorated with arched ceilings and marble walls. I couldn’t believe how fast the escalators were running – god help little old ladies. I was also disappointed that there were no babushkas manning the escalators, instead there was a person in a box. I guess this is the new Russia after all.


Gorky Park was a bit of a let down. Maybe we’d come in the wrong season, but it was a Saturday, the place was deserted and there were few plants and flowers for an ornamental garden. We wandered around the amusement park which was like a bad alternative to Butlins, if you can imagine it. Needless to say we didn’t go on any rides. We took a walk over and along the other side of the river and got the metro back to near the Kremlin where we had coffee in the Russian equivalent to Starbucks. Tired of walking we tried to contact a cinema showing American films in the Radisson, however, discovered that this had since been closed and that all other cinemas showing films in English were not today. Instead we watched Smokin’ Aces on Pat’s laptop.

When the film had finished Ruslin, a hotel helper, was showing a Russian guy around the flat. We were horrified to hear that he’d be in the room we had to go through to get to ours from the following day onwards. Over dinner in a local creperie we discussed our options and decided to book a room in the nearby Marriott. Even though it was expensive, we figured enough was enough and we wanted some privacy and security.

So the next day we gleefully packed our bags and made our way down Tverskaya to the Marriott and were able to check-in straight away. We had to wait for half an hour before Pat could get his passport back so spent the time doing laundry and hanging it all out to dry. We spent the afternoon wandering around Kitay Gorod, to the east of the Kremlin and trying to avoid policemen! The area has some of the oldest buildings in the city and it was pleasant enough. We were amused to see a real live camel with keeper standing outside what we assumed was a middle-eastern restaurant. Both were looking grumpy, but then that was normal for these parts, we thought. That evening we decided to make the most of our comfy hotel room and got room service for dinner. I was delighted to watch 2 episodes of Eastenders back to back on BBC Prime, whilst Pat read one of his books!

The next day we went for a walk in the early afternoon, before checking out as late as possible. Leaving the luggage at the hotel, we hopped between internet cafes trying to get a connection which either wasn’t there or was sketchy and cut out without any warning. To kill time we went for dinner at a Czech Pilsner restaurant. Great if you like meat and beer and lots of it – not so great for me.