Sunday, November 11, 2007
Moscow Metro & Shopping Market
Moscow’s metro stations are extensive and exquisitely beautiful. I could have easily spent a day traveling the metro just to look at the different stations, some dating back to when the metro first opened in May 1935. My day would have been made easier by the fact that I can’t read Cyrillic...and would have probably ended up with me totally lost and turned around. So, I just looked in awe at the different stations I needed to travel through the few times I ventured underground.
This vestibule is in the Kievskaya station, which was completed in 1953 and was just down the street from our hotel. Each station, and each line in each station, has a completely different look, each uniquely decorated from a variety of more than 20 types of marble as well as many other natural stones and either sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics, paintings, stained glass panels or murals by some of the best artists of the time. Each station was truly an “underground palace,” and I can see why the metro itself is one of the main attractions of the city.
Three different lines came together at the Kievskaya station. We passed this detailed painting on our way to the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line.
This statue greeted us in the entrance to the Ismaylovsky Park station. As went deeper underground (below), even more statues greeted us. There were some stations that had statues guarding every column. I especially liked the stations filled with mosaic artwork and beautiful marble walls.
I really liked the multiple mosaics at the Kievskaya station, but we returned and exited this station from a different location, so I missed snapping a photo of them. This is one of the exits at the Kievskaya station -- still beautiful! I even bought a set of postcards with different stations in the Moscow Metro since my photos don’t do them justice, and since I only had a chance to see very few of the nearly 150 stations.
Here are Yolanta and I during our subway ride en route to the “Vernisazh” market (Izmaylovo crafts market) at Izmaylovsky Park. We thought we were being very observant of the stops along our route so we wouldn’t miss our stop, especially since reading Cyrillic didn’t come naturally to us. Getting on the metro was easy since the Kievskaya station was next to our hotel, and the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line was a direct shot. However, we incorrectly got off the metro one stop too far, at Izmaylovskaya instead of Ismaylovsky Park, so we ended up walking about two kilometers along the Izmaylovsky Park back toward the market.
During that extended trek to the market, we passed the five-domed 1697 Intercession Cathedral (Pokrovsky Sobor).
The market was wonderful -- rich with sights and sounds to excite the senses. We had less than two hours to shop the first weekend, but ended up staying four hours on our second visit...which allowed for a much more relaxed shopping experience. During both days at the market, this group of ladies was performing the matreshka -- traditional Russian folk singing. I loved their costumes and headdresses!
One of the main reasons we went to the market was to search out intricately-carved wooden Father Christmas statues. Between the two of us, we were good business for Sonya (yes, that’s this vender’s name). Fortunately, we both felt we walked away with good deals from her. Of course, the more Santas we purchased, the better our deals.
I bought a few other Santas from this other vendor...and oooh’ed and aaah’ed at this large and gorgeous Santa. He was a little out of my price range, although still a steal when compared to the prices at the on-post bazaars back in Germany.
On our second visit to the market, we realized how large the market really is -- wow! It’s a sprawling area packed with attractive art and handmade crafts, including original matryoshkas (the stackable dolls), palekhs (black papier-maché or enameled wooden, lacquer-finished boxes named after the town east of Moscow where they originated, with intricate scenes painted on their lids), Khokhloma ware, religious relics, replica Faberge eggs, military souvenirs, and traditional costumes and clothing.
I tried on a few ushankas before settling on a faux-fur one for Benjamin over the much more expensive varieties of real fur, despite assurances from the vendor that the rabbit fur ushankas would provide much more warmth.
No, not all those bags contained my purchases, although I can honestly say about half of them were mine. My #1 purchases were wooden Santas, palekhs and matryoshkas.
As we left the market, we walked past a display of live bears. We were surprised, and somewhat appalled, to see them there. Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos, especially when their tamer directed one to the top of the pole and climbed up there with it!
This vestibule is in the Kievskaya station, which was completed in 1953 and was just down the street from our hotel. Each station, and each line in each station, has a completely different look, each uniquely decorated from a variety of more than 20 types of marble as well as many other natural stones and either sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics, paintings, stained glass panels or murals by some of the best artists of the time. Each station was truly an “underground palace,” and I can see why the metro itself is one of the main attractions of the city.
Three different lines came together at the Kievskaya station. We passed this detailed painting on our way to the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line.
This statue greeted us in the entrance to the Ismaylovsky Park station. As went deeper underground (below), even more statues greeted us. There were some stations that had statues guarding every column. I especially liked the stations filled with mosaic artwork and beautiful marble walls.
I really liked the multiple mosaics at the Kievskaya station, but we returned and exited this station from a different location, so I missed snapping a photo of them. This is one of the exits at the Kievskaya station -- still beautiful! I even bought a set of postcards with different stations in the Moscow Metro since my photos don’t do them justice, and since I only had a chance to see very few of the nearly 150 stations.
Here are Yolanta and I during our subway ride en route to the “Vernisazh” market (Izmaylovo crafts market) at Izmaylovsky Park. We thought we were being very observant of the stops along our route so we wouldn’t miss our stop, especially since reading Cyrillic didn’t come naturally to us. Getting on the metro was easy since the Kievskaya station was next to our hotel, and the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line was a direct shot. However, we incorrectly got off the metro one stop too far, at Izmaylovskaya instead of Ismaylovsky Park, so we ended up walking about two kilometers along the Izmaylovsky Park back toward the market.
During that extended trek to the market, we passed the five-domed 1697 Intercession Cathedral (Pokrovsky Sobor).
The market was wonderful -- rich with sights and sounds to excite the senses. We had less than two hours to shop the first weekend, but ended up staying four hours on our second visit...which allowed for a much more relaxed shopping experience. During both days at the market, this group of ladies was performing the matreshka -- traditional Russian folk singing. I loved their costumes and headdresses!
One of the main reasons we went to the market was to search out intricately-carved wooden Father Christmas statues. Between the two of us, we were good business for Sonya (yes, that’s this vender’s name). Fortunately, we both felt we walked away with good deals from her. Of course, the more Santas we purchased, the better our deals.
I bought a few other Santas from this other vendor...and oooh’ed and aaah’ed at this large and gorgeous Santa. He was a little out of my price range, although still a steal when compared to the prices at the on-post bazaars back in Germany.
On our second visit to the market, we realized how large the market really is -- wow! It’s a sprawling area packed with attractive art and handmade crafts, including original matryoshkas (the stackable dolls), palekhs (black papier-maché or enameled wooden, lacquer-finished boxes named after the town east of Moscow where they originated, with intricate scenes painted on their lids), Khokhloma ware, religious relics, replica Faberge eggs, military souvenirs, and traditional costumes and clothing.
I tried on a few ushankas before settling on a faux-fur one for Benjamin over the much more expensive varieties of real fur, despite assurances from the vendor that the rabbit fur ushankas would provide much more warmth.
No, not all those bags contained my purchases, although I can honestly say about half of them were mine. My #1 purchases were wooden Santas, palekhs and matryoshkas.
As we left the market, we walked past a display of live bears. We were surprised, and somewhat appalled, to see them there. Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos, especially when their tamer directed one to the top of the pole and climbed up there with it!
