Moscow - By Day

Moscow, the spiritual, political and financial center of Russia, is one of the great cities of the world. An ancient city that has been rejuvenated over the last 15 years, it is clean, hospitable and endlessly interesting. Every time I go I find something new that I had not seen before or find an even more fascinating shop or cafe. Today we have a group of us, three Americans, an Australian, a Russian and myself; our goals, sightseeing and some shopping in the centre of Moscow. We exit the Metro at Teatralana, right in the heart of the centre, across from our exit we can see the Bolshoi Theatre, but we turn right and head towards Tverskaya Street. This is because we are desperate for a McDonalds!! OK, maybe desperate is an overstatement, but after five to six weeks without any fast food, the thought of a BigMac and large fries plus coke is highly motivating. We pass the Duma on our right, the home of the Russian Government, a huge granite fronted building with a guard on duty out front, behind barriers. To the left we can see the Kremlin, we go under the road, all of the centre has convenient underpasses under the main streets; these are home to a wide variety of shops, selling everything from jewellery to lingerie. I often wonder who actually shops here, I mean buying lingerie in an underpass strikes me as somewhat odd, but I guess for the busy comrade rushing home these shops are a delight. Anyway we soon reach McDonalds and settle in to eat our brunch. The McDonalds on Tverskaya was the first McDonalds in Russia, and was established during Soviet times, on the day of opening it is claimed that the line was over 5 kms long, stretching down to the Kremlin and around the inner ring road. This McDonalds is flagship first class stuff, very clean very chic and comfortable, it even has some sort of McCafe place in one corner where you can relax on sofas and drink designer coffee and eat fancy pastries, I avoid it like the plague.

After refreshing ourselves at MickeyDs we head back down Tverskaya to the Kremlin and Red Square. From our slightly elevated position on Tverskaya you get a great view of the city walls with the Kremlin behind it. As we head up to the gates and the entrance to Red Square we pass street vendors selling all the tourist stuff, Tshirts, Russian dolls, mugs, Russian hats. It is here that Steve, American, spots a particularly tacky Tshirt, featuring a cartoon fat Russian bouncing an enormous jug of beer on his even more enormous belly, Steve wants this Tshirt; I am called over to conduct the transaction, but unfortunately, or fortunately, they do not have one in his size. However we have not heard the last of the Tshirt.

Passing through the gates we are on the North side of Red Square the view is stunning. St Bails in the distance slightly shrouded in haze, the Kremlin to the right, close by is the Russian Museum and to the left the Church of the Ascension. As we walk down the length of Red Square, it is impossible not to think of the military parades that were such powerful images in the West, growing up as we did during the height of the Cold War. None of us ever imagined that one day we would be taking a leisurely stroll through Red Square. We take photographs of all the correct places marvel at the beauty of St Basil's and then head back, with the Gym, ( pronounced Goom) store on our right. The Gym is an enormous department store, located on the ancient market site that was just outside the city walls. It is very upmarket, very expensive and very beautiful. We walk the length of the store and come back onto Red Square. Lots of tourist groups are coming in at this time, we see Chinese, Japanese and even a group of Indonesians all dressed in blue robes and smoking clove scented cigarettes. The lines are forming to visit Lenin's mausoleum, always popular for tourists the line stretches a long way. We make our way out of Red Square declining to have our photos taken with Stalin, Lenin and Napoleon look alikes, and turn left down to Alexandrovsky Park.

Next stop the tomb of the unknown soldier. This is a really interesting place, it is guarded by two soldiers and a third who comes out to check them every twenty minutes, they change soldiers every hour. Here is the interesting piece, these soldiers are picked because they all look the same, they measure their height, their facial measurements, hair color and if they fit the profile they are selected for this duty. Every Russian male has to serve one year in the army, but to get this gig is considered a real honor. They train for nine months for this duty and then stand at the tomb of the unknown soldier for one hour and then that's it, they are discharged having completed their service to Mother Russia. The Russians lost 20 million in the Second World War and there is always a crowd of people here photographing and being photographed, soldiers are also allowed to lay flowers at the memorial where the eternal flame burns.

We walk through Alexandrovsky park, past the fountains and then enter an underground department store that I didn't know was here until I discovered it on my third trip to Moscow! It is bizarre, built recently, slightly down market from Gym but still plenty of good shops. It is here that I start to glimpse the shopping abilities of Scott and Steve, the two Americans; they are into everything. If the rest of the group had not intervened we would have been there for the rest of the day, pleasant as it is I did not really want to spend the next eight hours, three floors underground.

So, we finally get out and we are heading back up Tverskaya Street. I point out the world clock that is mounted on the corner of the Telegraph building. This clock, which revolved and told the time in numerous time zones around the globe, mysteriously, some would say supernaturally, stopped, when the Soviet flag finally came down in 1991. We then continue past a wonderful bookshop on the right and then past the Mayor's headquarters with the statue of the founder of Moscow, Uri, seated on a horse opposite. We then reach one of the highlights of our trip, the supermarket in Catherine the Great's palace ballroom. It is superb, not just for the great, reasonably priced food, but the ornate decortaions are stunning, huge gilded chandeliers, wonderful cornices and pictures, it is beautiful. The food is great and I pick up some marmalade and peanut butter, along with some wonderful salsa and Tostitos. It is here that we find, in the fish display, the largest shrimp I have ever seen, I call our Aussie over,

" Hey blue! Look at these shrimp mate, how do they compare to the ones you sling on the barbie back in Oz?"

He walks over obviously confident that whatever they have in Moscow will be poor fare compared to Aussie shrimp! He takes one look and is stunned, word's fail the poor chap, he makes a sort of gurgling sound I think he might faint, and grab his arm,

"You alright blue?" I ask,

" Yeah mate I'm alright, what shrimp mate! Never seen bloody shrimp like that mate, never mate! Where they from?"

"Russia" I reply.

He is speechless and we move on.

Having got some much needed provisions, and some water to help Aussie Dave recover we carry on to the next intersection, where we go under the road and exit on Tverskaya Boulevard. This is a beautiful walkway, built by Catherine the Great for her nobles to stroll down in the evenings it is quiet, tree lined and quite long. The houses on each side tell of the time when the nobles and aristocracy lived in some style in Moscow. There are benches on either side, and this is a great time to take the weight off, kick back and do some people watching. I think it must be an English thing, I could spend a whole day sitting on a park bench, enjoying the warm weather and people watching. Unfortunately the woman on the bench next to us, sadly appears to be living on a park bench, she has all her worldly possessions laid out on her bench to air in the warm sun. Couples and families stroll by and while I am enjoying myself, it appears that this is not much fun for the rest of the team so we get up and head down to Nikitski Boulevard which will eventually lead us to Stari Arbut.

It is a warm day, maybe it will be the last warm day of an historically hot year, and as a result it seems most of Moscow is out enjoying the day. On Nikitski we reach an expat favourite in Moscow the "John Donne" pub. Serving real English beer and great English food it is a meeting place for beer and sports lovers on Saturdays and Sundays, when they televise Premier League and European football. We slip into here and have a couple of refreshing pints of Fuller's bitter and then head on down to Stari Arbut.

Stari Arbut is an ancient street in Moscow, and is now a pedestrian walkway, cobbled, it is lined with restaurants, tourist shops and cafes. It is really the tourist centre of Moscow, and stretches for about two kilometres. It also has excellent street performers, artists, dance troupes, trick cyclists, musicians and comedians. Steve soon noticed that the very same Tshirt he had seen near the Kremlin was on sale in the tourist shops here, surely it would not be difficult to find one in his size? To cut a short story long we ended up going into every Tshirt type shop on Arbut, there must be close to a hundred!! At the end of it I was exhausted and Steve had not got a Tshirt! But, he did meet a lot of people and after we had had a beer at the Hard Rock and were heading back down Arbut, the good friends he had made on the way up Arbut, were smiling and waving at him like he was a long lost relative!

After Arbut it is time to head home, we catch the Metro and we are soon back at Leningradsky, then the train home to Konakova, our batteries recharged and ready for the weeks ahead, until our next day trip.