A Georgia Girl in Germany

Although though we stayed busy with the Moscow Air Show, we managed to see quite a few of Moscow’s sights, even if some of them came to us through the bus windows.

During our one day off, we headed to the Izmaylovo crafts market (stay tuned for a future post on that shopping experience), but only after stopping by some street vendors overlooking the city. While they had relatively decent offerings, we mostly just looked at their merchandise to get an idea of prices and wares. It was also nice to get a panoramic view of the city, including the Grand Sports Arena of Luzhniki Olympic Complex, or simply the Luzhniki Stadium. In 1980, it was known as the Central Lenin Stadium and was the chief venue for the U.S.-boycotted Summer Olympics.

We regularly passed the Moscow State University. It’s the largest and oldest university in Russia. It was founded in 1755, and has more than 38,000 students (undergraduate and graduate) in attendance. It was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at the time of its construction, and it remained the tallest building in Europe until 1988. The star on the top of the tower is large enough to include a small room and a viewing platform, and weighs 12 tons.

We also walked past the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building several times. In fact, it was one of my landmark buildings on my walk from the hotel to the Stary Arbat shopping street. Near the top of the building was the Soviet hammer and sickle, which I thought was interesting. It was a rather large, imposing building that was clearly visible from the nearby streets, especially since it seemed to perch at the end of a street at the top of a hill. Even the three large front doors were imposing. I caught myself standing and marveling at the architecture a while, until I realized that just accentuated the fact that I was a tourist (as if my big camera didn't give it away).







I really enjoyed walking down Stary Arbat. I made my first trek there the night I arrived in Moscow, and had wonderful dinner several times on this street. I also perused the wares of the vendors selling various items, from matryoshka dolls (the stackable dolls), palekhs (black lacquered boxes) and military items (based on the prices, I figured most of them were replicas). At least doing so gave me an opportunity to scout out what I wanted to purchase before I went to the Izmaylovo crafts market.

I even found Dobby the house elf as well as Shrek, Fiona and Donkey watching passersby during my regular walks down this street. Dobby even obliged taking a photo with me. The girl riding the pony behind me just added to the character of the street. However, I didn’t see many ponies up and down Stary Arbat -- this encounter was a one-time event.



This ballerina statue caught my eye, but I don’t know if it held any special significance.

Window shopping was one activity I enjoyed while strolling along Stary Arbat. I was enamored by this intricately-decorated matryoshka set with 29 dolls! Yes, it was rather pricey with all the gold inlay, but beautiful nonetheless. I even saw some very nice replica Faberge eggs. As much as I contemplated purchasing a stunning red and gold musical one, I couldn’t quite talk myself into that big of a splurge.

I’m not sure what this building was, but I liked the geometrically-designed flowers on the lawn overlooking the Moscow River. We regularly passed this building since it was literally across the river from our hotel.

And, when I needed to cross the Moscow River, I often walked across the Rostovsky Most bridge, which was just outside the hotel’s parking lot entrance. The view inside the bridge was also rather geometric with an odd mix of wood, metal and globe light fixtures, but the outside (below) was rather stunning.



Another of several large, stoic buildings dotting the skyline during our travels. I’m not sure what building this is, but since it looks very similar to the Kotelnicheskaya Tower, I wouldn’t be surprised if it shared the same architects -- Dmitry Chechylin (then chief architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the tallest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world, and just a few blocks away from the Kremlin. The original cathedral was completed in 1860, but was, unfortunately, demolished in 1931 to make room for construction of the Palace of Soviets. With the end of Soviet rule, the Russian Orthodox Church received permission to rebuild the cathedral in 1990. The newly-completed, although not an exact replica of the original, church was consecrated in August 2000, and former president Boris Yeltsin laid in state there before his funeral in April 2007.

We also passed the Russian White House, otherwise known as the Russian Government Building, several times. I was often turned around on our travels to and from the airfield since we never seemed to take the same route twice. One day, we’d come upon a particular building from one side, then another time I’d only recognize the same building when we were nearly past it from a different approach. There were even some buildings that I know we only passed a few days, rather than every day.

We even passed right near some of Moscow’s nuclear reactors during our travels. Again, we didn’t pass them every day, but when we did they were literally a stone’s throw away (not so in this photo though)! I was amazed that they were in the middle of the city, in and amongst the busy traffic and buildings.

We also passed Moscow’s casino district several times. We walked through the area when we were searching for the ballet one evening, sped past them during our gypsy cab experience and drove past them at a more acceptable pace during at least one bus ride. One evening, our Russian-fluent speaker misread one of the signs and thought we were entering the red light district. He mistranslated “easy slots” by substituting a “u” for the “o.” Yes, Moscow has a red light district, but this wasn’t it (and we didn’t search it out!).



The mall next to our hotel was rather large. This is the view of one of the elevator banks from the food court area. It’s not obvious in this photo, but there were seven levels!

Even with all its differences, there were a few easily-recognizable sights. The Hard Rock Café – Moscow was on Stary Arbat.

This McDonald’s was just past the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building as we crossed the last street before coming to Stary Arbat. We saw several McDonald’s restaurants in the city, although I didn’t venture inside any of them to compare the menu offerings.

I saw at least two TGI Friday’s restaurants, and did eat at one. It was good to have a Chicken Caesar Salad after more than a week in Moscow.

This Sbarro Pizza restaurant was also near our hotel, although there was another in the food court at the seven-story mall, right next to Baskin Robbins.

Yes, this is the back of a seat, but look closely and you'll see that my taxi driver subscribed to the same philosophy of buckling his seatbelt as Irakli did: it’s buckled behind his seat, and not over his shoulder and lap. I still preferred having mine buckled the traditional way, even on my last ride in Moscow, heading to the airport.

Labels: Russia, Travel