The Kremlin- Red Square -St Basil's cathedral |
308 Moscow Quick - June 30-1 with Erin I only visited Moscow for a couple of days, cos my visa was finishing and anyway Moscow is the easiest part of Russia to travel to again. Likewise I decided to save St Petersburg for another time cos it easy to get to so I can go when it's not as expensive as it is today. I was also dreading Moscow being very expensive. Fortunately I had received a good tip of a place to stay from Chi Keong in Malaysia (CK in KL) . He put me in touch with HC host Erin. An American woman who has been teaching in Moscow many years. I easily found her place in suburb 40 minutes from the centre. She lives in European looking suburb witha nuclear power station nearby (only in Russia!) Actually Moscow is not so expensive, the street stalls are more expensive than in other towns, but the supermarkets and Metro are very cheap. |
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More lost time Amex don't even change their own cheques, and I had to go to find about the bus to Novgorod..so by that time all the museums were closed, so I walked around the outside of the Kremlin, Red Square and St Basils Cathedral, which are all together in the center of town.
For sure Moscow was the most prosperous area of CIS I saw, but unlike Chinese cities there weren't many skyscrapers as ever in Russia there were a few 10-15 storey buildings made of brick. sat - Some Portuguese activists came to stay with Erin before going to the G8 summit. (I guess the Russians had invited them as a way of keeping control of them). Train nightmares again ..all the trains to Novgorod were full.. so it took 3 hours to sort out a ticket. I tried to go to ... so I took the metro out to the VDNKh which sums up USSR .. it used to be a huge extravagant show off exhibition centre with huge boulevards lined with huge pavilions . Each Soviet had one showing it their successes .. however now bits of it are vandalised and the pavilions house stores selling western capitalists goods like TVs and furniture. I got lost taking the metro in the metro by going in the wrong direction cos as normal for Russia some stations don't have signs etc, but now I was an experienced Russia traveller so I made it back to Erin's and then to the train station for my 10th nighttrain of CIS. to Novgorod with 4 days left on my visa. |  Red Square from North |