Moscow - The Most Expensive City in the World

I have to say, I am grateful to be living in St. Petersburg, because I would not be able to afford Moscow if I lived there for four months. We were excited to only pay about 500 rubles for dinner Friday night at a diner (yes, I had a cheeseburger in Russia and it was delicious. I’ve been here for 3 months, I am allowed.) I do not even want to know what our hotel bill was at the Cosmos (the biggest hotel in the world that has 4,000 beds or 4,000 rooms – I can’t remember which).

The hotel was built for the 1984 Olympics in Moscow and has the most bizarre layout ever complete with a casino, bowling alley, club, gift shops, bar, restaurant, salon, and equipped with rugs that are supposed to look like the galaxy. The building in curved in a U shape, so it takes forever to traverse to your friends’ rooms on the other side of the hall, or galaxy.

To get to Moscow, we took an overnight train from St. Petersburg.

It was the first time that I even slept in a cabin on a train and I really enjoyed the experience (I should have gotten a little more sleep but all of my classmates and I were on the same train together and since we don’t live together regularly it was what I like to call “socializing time”.)

After we arrived in Moscow at 7am we ate a buffet breakfast at the hotel and then went for a bus tour around Moscow. Moscow is a HUGE city, and the streets are very wide. The population is 14 million, but with commuters as well as tourists the real number is closer to 17 million – Wow - and you also need to see their extensive metro system. As much as people say that Moscow’s metro stations are like museums – I wasn’t super impressed by those I witnessed - I guess I didn’t see the special ones. Overall they were nicer than New York, but they were not as beautiful as some in St. Petersburg. I guess I’m a little biased.

I guess Dave doesn't want to be picked up!

We were supposed to be paying attention and posing in front of the Kremlin

Driving around Moscow I began to notice the differences between the two cities. Moscow seemed to be a very fast paced city and had very contrasting architectural styles - soviet, classical, and baroque. What greatly upset me about the city was the advertisement pollution. Currently there is an effort to start pulling down many of the billboards and clean up the city’s image. However it is going to take a very long time for this to happen. One of the worst in my opinion is the BOOM wall behind St. Basils. While taking a photography stroll in the Red Square two weeks ago, I noticed the huge digital billboard advertising cars behind St. Basils. I was disgusted. The one advertisement I didn’t mind seeing all over the place was the one for the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

And no, I have not seen it yet, and hope to see it within the next week, first in English, then in Russian. (I called up three places today and none of them are playing it in English. My first conversation was in broken Russenglish and then I got better and the next two were in Russian :)

The lake that inspired Swan Lake

Friday night a couple of my friends and I took a trip to Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery.

The collection was divided up into two museums, and we decided to see the older one which spanned from Byzantium relics to early 20^th century art. The museum was incredible and we stayed for two and a half hours. The Tretrayakov Gallery carries solely Russian art, and contains much more of each Russian artist than in the Hermitage or the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. It also contains most of the works on the artist I wrote about in my paper, Isaac Levitan, as well as an incredible exhibit on Vbrubel – whose “demon” paintings really intrigued me. Please Google Vbrubel, he has some very interesting and very “different” artwork.

Saturday we took a class trip to the Kremlin and it was really incredible, as you can see in some of the pictures below.

The Kremlin Walls

Courtney and Me in front of the largest cannon ever built, but not surprisingly, never used

It was an absolutely (but very cold) beautiful day. Inside the Armoury I saw the coronation gowns, thrones, carriages, and crowns of the tsars and tsarinas - - AND the Fabergš eggs! After the Kremlin we walked into the Red Square – it is incredible (as well at night too).

Our first view of St. Basil's Cathedral

Of course, I had to go inside GUM, the famous shopping mall whose architecture blew me away. Do not worry Mommy, I only went clothes shopping in Paris, not Moscow :)

Inside GUM, it was a rich girl's paradise

GUM at night

Afterwards, I was running around like a chicken without a head because I wanted to visit St. Basils, go to the huge open market and purchase souvenirs as well as get back in time to try to catch a performance of Tosca at the Bolshoi Theater. Unfortunately I never made it home in time before my friends left (I was 45 minutes late), so I went out with my friends to dinner instead and then walked around the Red Square at night with my friend David.

The next morning was a little hectic, because I missed my metro stop and then had to switch trains and go back, and then I couldn’t figure out where the train was to the airport. I asked a babushka for help, but she gave me too many directions, so there I was staring at all the trains, and this old Russian guy comes up to me and starts talking to me. I finally figured out that he was trying to help me. He picked up my suitcase and walked me up and down the escalators and brought me to exactly where I needed to go. And yes, he afterwards asked me for my number in New York, but I pretended not to understand and said goodbye…no hassle though! Ha ha.

Some caparisons between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Moscow’s metro is a lot more complicated and much more intricate. I can pick up the different dialects (and I like Petersburgers better!) There are many more men in Moscow than in St. Petersburg. I now consider Moscow a men’s city, whereas St. Petersburg is a women’s city. And the men in Moscow are not all alcoholics and dress nicely. Muscovites ARE friendly, we had many people stop what they were doing to help us out, and even out of their way to get us to the right place.

Well, that’s it for now. Be prepared for the update of my Paris vacation. Coming Soon! (Oh and it snowed today – Palace Square was beautiful)