Moscow on a Shoestring

by Maxine Bates

Taking advantage of our Avios (formerly Airmiles) four of us decided to fly with British Airways from Heathrow to Moscow to spend Easter in the Russian capital. [Note that Easyjet now operate this route too.] It was exactly 25 years since my previous visit so I was interested to see how things had changed.

St Basil's Cathedral

We had departed from the East Midlands in snow and arrived in Moscow to heavier snow. However, the difference was the Russians are geared up to bad weather so all the major roads and walkways were snowploughed or shovelled so we had no difficulty reaching our accommodation. We had pre-purchased train tickets via the internet so walked out of the airport terminal straight onto the railway platform and 45 minutes later arrived in the centre of the city. From there we managed to buy a book of metro tickets – it was really handy one of our group studying Russian at night school! – and found our way to Chistyie Prudy metro stop. Then a 15 minute walk to our accommodation for four nights; the fairly new Backpacker Ecohostel. Unbeatable value at approx. £14 per person per night.

We decided to spend our first full day, and also Good Friday, exploring Red Square and the Kremlin and awoke to glorious blue skies. Perfect for picture taking. It was around 20 minutes walk from our hostel to Red Square and the first view of St Basil’s Cathedral was awe-inspiring with the multitude of onion shaped coloured domes. At the opposite end of Red Square from St Basil’s lies the refurbished History Museum with its red facade. Behind it is a brass plaque denoting the exact centre of the city. It appeared that if you stood on it and tossed a coin it brought luck. Although it was unclear why people faced in different directions and tossed the coins in different ways. The famous GUM department store is situated on one side of the square between St Basil’s and the History Museum. This has changed completely since 1988. Gone were the old-fashioned display cabinets with stock behind glass with pay counters and receipt counters and lots of bureaucracy. The large store now resembles Harrods from the outside and a shopping mall complete with familiar names inside. Opposite GUM and in front of the Kremlin walls is Lenin’s mausoleum. During my last visit we were not able to go inside and this time it was being refurbished and due to reopen in May 2013 so once again we were unable to see the embalmed body of the former president on display. (Not sure I would have wanted to anyway! It all sounds a bit gruesome!)

 

We wanted a quick lunch so opted for McDonalds. But not any McDonalds. This was the first Western restaurant to open in the former Soviet Union and diners at that time joined long queues to spend a month’s salary on a burger. Luckily the food is much cheaper nowadays! Nearby we saw mascots promoting the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics.

As we walked around the walls of the Kremlin we found the eternal flame and were just in time to watch the changing of the guards. Rather them than me standing out for hours at a time in the freezing cold! Purchasing tickets to enter the Kremlin was a little confusing with some staff more helpful than others. We opted to wander on our own rather than take a guided tour. Each building had a leaflet that visitors could pick up at the entrance in several languages describing the history and what was inside. Apart from several churches and cathedrals we saw the Tsar cannon (never fired), the 200 ton Tsar bell (never rung as a major fire broke out as the mould was still setting and well-meaning firemen doused it causing a giant crack) and Ivan The Great’s bell tower (unfortunately closed to visitors). Upon leaving we continued walking around the Kremlin walls which led us down to the Moskva river. The water was frozen which explained the lack of boat trips during winter months!

The following day we visited the Cosmonaut Museum. We paid approx. £4 each for admission and declined to take our cameras which would have cost an additional £4 each. Free lockers were available to store coats and bags. The monument to space exploration is outside whilst inside there are galleries displaying everything to do with the Russian space programme from the early days until present day, including Laika the dog (after a visit to the taxidermist!). Although little of the signage was in English it was nonetheless an interesting morning. We then wandered to the park opposite where we found some fairground rides – the giant ferris wheel was £7 so we watched rather than rode as that seemed expensive - and the exhibit of the people’s economic achievement; an ornate building now housing market stalls. The place to go for traditional matryoshka dolls.

Matryoshka dolls

Next stop was the view point on the hill above the city and also home to the wonderful architecture that is Moscow University. However, our journey was not as simple as anticipated as the view point lies between two metro stops and the funicular that had been recommended by hostel staff was not open. We ended up having a tramp through the woods in snow and ice and arrived at the view point at the same time as a snow blizzard. We saw the ski jump built for the 1980 Olympic games and a bride and groom having their photo taken whilst releasing a dove. I assume this is a tradition as I remember seeing the same on my last visit. Beyond that we didn’t linger as we were getting cold and wet, so headed back to our hostel which was so warm we slept with windows open!    

On our third day we visited Gorky Park, even though we’d been advised it wasn’t a good time of year to visit as the winter ice rink was in the process of being removed and the summer attractions hadn’t yet opened. Our mission was to see the Buran space shuttle, although having found it, it was unclear whether this was the original or a replica and there was no signage and nobody to ask.

Then it was off to Ismailovksy outdoor market where there was more opportunity to buy wooden matryoshka dolls (depicting politicians, footballers and other celebrities as well as traditional babushkas), hand painted eggs, ex Soviet military paraphernalia, fox fur hats and more. At the centre was the Vodka Museum. A small admission charge gave access to two rooms detailing the history of the vodka industry in Russia and display cabinets, including a bottle of vodka with 96% alcohol. At the end there was chance to do a little vodka tasting.    

That evening we managed to buy tickets for the famous Moscow Circus and opted for the cheap seats costing around £8. I’d expected us to be right at the back and needing binoculars to see anything when in fact we were only nine rows behind the top priced seats costing around £60. A bargain and entertaining night out. As my guide book stated “a pie in the face is a pie in the face in any language”! Though folk who don’t agree with performing horses, elephants, dogs and parrots would be advised to stay away. We decided to walk back to our hostel so that we could see the Bolshoi Theatre and Red Square by night. Both beautifully lit.

On our final morning we decided to take a tour of the metro system en route to the airport. The metro is one of the top tourist attractions in Moscow due to the never-ending escalators, stained glass, statues, murals and chandeliers. We had selected the seven most ornate stations to visit and plotted a route. The trains were so frequent that we finished our tour much faster than expected so had time for lunch at an underground café. 

We sampled borscht soup several times during our trip and each one tasted totally different. The best was at the Mya Mya (pronounced moo moo) cow themed buffet restaurant. Very pink and creamy and served in a cow print bowl! We tended to eat at local fast food restaurants (think borscht and blinis rather than burgers) or buffet restaurants where we could sample traditional food fairly cheaply. Other restaurants seemed much more expensive so could easily take a big chunk of your holiday budget if not careful. One evening we met up with a young Russian guy who was the son of a friend of my partner’s Russian night school teacher (!) with whom we had been put in touch. Alexander spoke great English, but must have chosen one of the busiest bars in which to meet. Pilsner is one of a chain of bars/restaurants popular with young trendy types. To us it was a shock to be asked if we wanted smoking or no smoking and even though we requested the latter our clothes still had that tobacco smell upon leaving. Another evening we were relaxing at our hostel after a day of much walking and got talking to a Russian lady. Rather than stand chatting in the corridor we invited her into our dorm and listened to her interesting life story whilst sitting at her feet in our pyjamas and sipping wine. Bizarre but amusing. This is the stuff of independent travels!    

Even taking into account the visa fee of approx. £120 each, because of our almost-free flights and cheap accommodation this trip actually cost no more than the one I made 25 years ago.

 

First published in VISA 110 (August 2013)