Getaway 2010: Episode 3

Sunday, 23 May 2010

Larger Than Life

Today, we set off for the Kremlin. We walked around the grounds passing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Arsenal (yes!) and the Alexander Garden on our way to Kutafiya Tower where we queued to get our tickets to the Architectural Ensemble of the Cathedral Square and the Armoury Chamber. Foreign tourists pay substantially more than the locals, as the case is almost everywhere. We spent hours in the grounds and the Armoury Chamber (our visiting time was at 1-2.30 pm).
After that, we walked out and went to the Red Square. We’d missed the visiting hours for the Lenin Mausoleum (I’m not a fan of him) so we joined the masses at the Red Square. There were some outdoor activities there: rock climbing, skateboarding, wrestling (or was it boxing?), futsal... at least those were some that I saw. We walked on to St Basil’s Cathedral and continued where we let off yesterday. After that, sensing rain was imminent, we decided to check out GUM (pronounced as ‘Goom’ and short for Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin, yeah, what a mouthful). It’s a seriously lovely building both on the outside and inside.

We left GUM and went to the nearby stalls. It started to rain after a while – and this turned out to be good for us as some stall-keepers decided to offer discounts. I spotted some Fàbregas matryoshka dolls ;) – no, Lin, not Fàbregas Fabergé dolls or Fàbregas Fabergé eggs (opps! That has double meaning somehow), it’s Fabergé eggs. OK, OK, I better stop.

We developed some serious leg muscles today... everything in Moscow was Larger Than Life (and building blocks have never seemed larger) and they sure don’t do things half-way there! It’s like everything has to be bigger and grander than anything else.

Monday, 24 May 2010

From Russia With Love

Now, if you’re in Russia for more than three working days excluding weekends and public holidays, you should register your visa (don’t ask. To me, it sounds something like a money-making scheme) – this is in addition to obtaining a Russian visa which isn’t cheap by the way for which you may need visa support (yes, it does sound complicated. And expensive). Fifi had, however, checked with the Real Russia people in the UK and they assured her that we would not need to register our visa as we would not be in any one city for more than three working days; however, we were still worried (especially after my immigration encounter) and decided to check out with the post office (we know that we could register through a post office).

So after breakfast, we went to Kurskaya Railway Station to print out our train tickets to Saint Petersburg that night (we had earlier bought the tickets online but must change the vouchers for tickets. Thank God for the Internet; a few years ago, you would not have been able to purchase Russian train tickets online). However, this proved easier said than done. We discovered that not many Muscovites were at all helpful and the odd one or two who were didn’t know how to use the self-help kiosk. So we struggled until the lady from the Information Counter (who had earlier brusquely gestured to us to use the kiosk) stepped out of her booth, presumably on her way to the ladies, helped us. That accomplished finally, we took the metro to Teatralnaya and walked to the post office at Tverskaya ulitsa. Now, Tverskaya Street is Moscow’s main shopping street. We found the post office (hidden within some building) and found out from a couple who had their Russian friend help them with the registration that they had been there for 45 minutes and counting already – and this friend was a Russian who could understand and read Russian and Cyrillic alphabets (so imagine how long it would take us non-Russian Cyrillic-illiterate trio). And apparently, we need to get the registration form online somewhere. We debated whether or not to proceed: Real Russia had advised Fifi there was no need; Alex had convinced us there was no need; but the Russian friend of the couple we met wasn’t sure. In the end, we decided not to do it. Instead, we bought some postcards and sent them home. I signed mine ‘From Russia With Love.’

We walked up Tverskaya Street and passed beautiful buildings and statues. We also stopped at Yeliseyevsky Gastronom, a food-hall located in a beautiful building (with chandeliers to boot!). After ooh-ing and aah-ing at the décor and other buildings, we finally arrived at Mayakovskaya metro station. Now some of Moscow metro stations are tourist attractions in their own right and if you are in Moscow and you have some spare time, do, do, do visit them if you can. There are stations ornamented with heroic sculptures, paintings, stained glass, carvings, mosaics and glittering chandeliers. With trains running every two minutes and considerably cheap fares (less than a Euro for any ride valid until you exit the system), travelling by metro is very reliable here – and get this, they never have any strikes. It’s just unthinkable. Millions of Muscovites rely on the metro to get around. Anyway, I digress.

We took the metro to the All Russia Exhibition Centre or more commonly known by its old name, VDNKh (short for Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnovo Khozyaystva, yeah, I know, I know, what a mouthful), to spend the afternoon. After walking around the vast grounds of the Centre, we took a monorail from Sergeya Eyzenshteyna station to Timiryazevskaya where we then changed to metro, and after a few photo shoots at a few metro stations, we finally returned to the apartment. Fifi cooked dinner and we had an early dinner.

Alex then came before 9 pm and after chatting with him, we thanked him and left. We took the train to Komsomolskaya metro station and walked to Leningradsky vokzal, from where we would board the 11 pm 026А - Smena A.Betankurtrain overnight train to Saint Petersburg. We boarded the train at 10.30 pm and settled in our berth. A Russian lady joined in our quad-sharing berth and she showed us how to turn the seats into beds, how to pull out the ladder to climb up to the upper bunk, how to lock the berth door...we then settled in our beds and before long, the train pulled away from the station. On to our next destination!

To be continued

Getaway 2010: Episode 2

Saturday, 22 May 2010: RIX - SVO

Rosy (?!) Rossiya

We left after breakfast and walked to a bus stop to catch our bus back to the airport. Our Air Baltic flight took off at 1105 – after someone dealt with a drunk man sitting at the business area and talked him off the plane (we later saw him in a police car as we were taking off) - and we landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport at 1415 local time (Moscow is three hours ahead of GMT). God, what a horrible-looking airport it was and we had to endure such a crazy long queue (seriously, even clearing the Haj immigration wasn’t as bad). We were practically the last ones to reach the immigration counter and guess what? There was some problem with my passport or my visa or whatever and what it meant was I was shuffled from one counter to another and had to endure an additional thirty-plus minutes of waiting – by which time, another plane-load of new passengers had arrived. I was so angry that at the end, I was feeling close to tears (how oxymoronic).

After my passport got its requisite stamp, I asked what the problem was and the stupid lady said, ‘No English.’ Typical, I thought, and without thinking swore out aloud. She seemed to understand and this irony was not lost on me. I said, ‘Oh so you don’t understand English but you understand what ‘F*** you’ means?’ and she retaliated by refusing to let me got through the metal barrier. I don’t know why the thought of slowly rotting away in a Russian prison cell still hadn’t occurred to me then but I was really that furious. I was let off after a while and I stormed off. Yeah, I know I should learn to curb my temper and especially when dealing with foreign immigration. It was not exactly a rosy reception from Rossiya but there you go. Anyway, that brief episode aside: I’ve been dreaming to come to this country for some time now and finally, there I was!

We then took the aeroexpress train to Belorussky Station and, as we were still struggling with our Cyrillic then, asked a passerby which metro station we should go to take a train to Kitai-Gorod. From Kitai-Gorod metro station, we walked to Nova Hostel. Actually, we met Alex, the owner, on our way there and he had almost given up on us (I’d forgotten that I mentioned arriving between 4-5 pm). We apologised and I explained that I was delayed longer than expected at the airport. He told us he had two places: one at Kitai-Gorod (with cats!) and another at Kurskaya (no cats). We told him we didn’t mind cats as long as there are no dogs but as the one at Kitai-Gorod had no hot water and he thought it’d be a problem for us, he’d arranged for us to stay at Kurskaya anyway. So we agreed and followed him. He hailed down a car and we all somehow got in, all four of us (including Alex) – OK five, including the driver – and our bags, and went to Kurskaya. (OK, actually in Moscow, you can hail down any car and the driver, depending on his destination, may agree to take you for a fee. But don’t try this alone as he may instead kidnap you. Stick to the metro!) His apartment was in a nondescript building but it was a superbly beautiful apartment with three bedrooms, one living room (with Internet!), one kitchen and a big, clean bathroom. We were happy with this.
We rushed to put our bags and explained that we were rushing to go to the Bolshoi Theatre for our La fille mal gardee ballet show (the tickets were bought online on Tuesday and Wednesday (two tickets at RUB800 each and the third ticket at RUB2000) before our journey but we agreed to split the cost equally). It was quite hilarious really when you think of it: there we were, dumping our bags and searching our wallet to pay him for the rent, and frantically explaining to Alex that we had to rush off with him explaining how to get there by metro. It was like wham, bam, thank-you-man and off we went.
The Bolshoi Theatre is undergoing renovation so our show was in the new ballroom which was equally grand and impressive and took our breath away. And I haven’t even got to the part of the crystal chandeliers yet. I don’t know much about ballet but I enjoyed the show, the ambience, and the experience very much.

After the show (and some photo taking), we left and walked to the Red Square (Krasnaya Ploschad). There’s nothing red about the square at all of course; in fact, the name comes from the Russian word krasnaya meaning ‘beautiful’. Site of the Victory Day Parade just a fortnight before, Red Square is the heart of Moscow and the first destination for most visitors to Moskva. It is surrounded by St Basil’s Cathedral, the State History Museum, Lenin’s Mausoleum, a section of the Kremlin’s long brick walls and GUM, the magnificent shopping complex (pronounced as ‘Goom’). The Red Square and Kremlin are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We were awed by the sights and magnitude of everything we saw today and we’d only been in Moscow for a few hours!!!

We finally returned to the apartment after 10 pm (or was it 11?). For a while, we were a bit lost: in our haste to leave for the Bolshoi earlier, we forgot to note the landmarks (except for HSBC Bank which shared the same building as the apartment), the exit from the metro station, the street name... but finally we managed to find the apartment alright.

To be continued