Travel Journal: Moscow, 2018

The introduction and main page of this journal is here.


Saturday -- I got to Moscow on Saturday, 2 June. When I got in, I found a city covered in a white fluff.


I went first to the hostel where I am staying. The hostel was nice, although I was forced to be on the top bunk as all the lower beds were in use. There wasn't an issue with ceiling height, but everyone uses every available space for drying clothes and towels, so the stairs were covered in cloth and not very safe. There was a kitchen with overused dishes, a laundry machine (but no drier as there seem to be no driers in Russia), and two bathrooms, both with showers. One bathroom looked nice, the other was clean, but looked like it was in need of repair in several places. Despite there being 5 or 6 rooms with 4 or more beds each, there was never a line for the bathrooms (although there was occasionally a wait). The front entrance had a front desk, a common couch, table, and TV, and a closet for shoes.

Russians have an outdoor shoe / indoor shoe system, and in many places, especially homes, it is forbidden to walk around wearing shoes. They typically wear slippers or sandals in the house and have spares for guests. The hotels don't seem to harass people about it, but the hostel had cheap, disposable slippers for people without them. I have been told that schoolchildren needed to bring a spare pair of shoes for inside everyday.

Most public buildings allow shoes, but museums and theaters require a coat check in the winter. I have even seen them in the university buildings for MGU, but they seemed mostly closed for the season.

All of this is because in Russia, there is weather. There is cold and snow, ice and mud and salt. The method to keep things clean and bearable is to not bring the dirt inside in the first place.


Saturday evening I spent finding food and putting money on my metro card.


Sunday -- I went to Red Square as it is
    a) effectively mandatory for tourism in Moscow,
    b) there was a book fair on the square (31 May to 3 June), and
    c) I had wanted to visit Kropotkin metro station (станция Кропоткинская) and it was in the same direction (and same area).

Here are a bunch of horrible photos of famous buildings. I will label them left to right, then top to bottom. You can try to see if you can identify them correctly before reading the correct identification.

a) Bolshoi Theater -- It was interesting in that there was a fountain out in front and a statue of Karl Marx across the road. When I was wondering around after leaving the station, I was thinking about the possibility of finding myself in Red Square. I went the wrong direction, though, and instead saw this.

b) St. Basil's Cathedral -- This was a church built in the 16th century, and is now a museum of the church. It is also not the Kremlin, despite always being used to depict Russia. It is bordering Red Square.

c) State Historical Museum -- The museum was founded in 1872 using an older building, which was later renovated and altered (multiple times). It is not the Kremlin, despite having similar architecture. Besides being a building instead of a fortress, the museum uses the eagle of the Russian Federation and Imperial Russia instead of the Soviet red stars.

d) The Moscow Kremlin -- The easiest way to identify this is by knowing that a kremlin is a fortress, and not a building. (There are kremlins in several other cities as well.) It has walls and there are buildings inside, specifically churches, governmental buildings, and museums. In order to enter, you need to get a ticket for a specific exhibition for a specific time outside the walls. It is open to the public 10:00-6:00 on all days except Thursday, with the last time slots ending at 5 or earlier. I got to the ticket office at 4:30, so was unable to enter, but I do have many photos from outside of the walls. 

There are also two interesting monuments right outside of the Kremlin. Lenin's Tomb is on red square, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is right before the square.

Also, more flowers. In front of the Kremlin is a garden with flower beds. You won't be able to see these ones from the pictures above due to perspective, but they are there.

e) GUM -- It was founded in 1893 as a shopping center. It was also used as a shopping center for a portion of the Soviet era. 

f) Cathedral of Christ the Saviour -- This was built before the revolution, commemorating the victory over Napoleon and taking 40 years, after which the Soviets destroyed it, re-purposed its materials, and desired to replace it with a Palace to the Soviets, but never did. It was reconstructed after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is not on red square, but has a metro station nearby - Kropotkinskaya (named for anarchist Peter Kropotkin). There is a garden outside on one side.

g) Russian State Library -- It was founded in 1862 and expanded after the revolution. It is extremely large.

h) State Duma / Parliament -- This picture is from July. Since it was a government building with security, I did not take a picture in June. In July, I saw it from the other side of the road, so I could get a real photo. It is not in the Kremlin or on Red Square. I past by the building on the way to Red Square. Eventually there were signs showing the way to the square.

i) Lubyanka -- I saw this in June at the end of the day when looking for the metro station, but I didn't realize it. In July, I got a picture of the building. It is the KGB building, and it is within the center of the city, but not on Red Square.

j) The Russian White House -- I didn't see this. The point, though, is that there is a building commonly referred to as the White House in Russia. It is not the residence of the president, as that is in the Kremlin.

The book fair: This is the interesting part of Red Square. There were many pavilions which had books for sale, including these pavilions for the regions. The first image includes a Yakut woman in traditional dress. This particular line of sellers included several different "republics," Russian states with a dominant non-Russian majority. I don't know how much autonomy the republics actually have. The Yakut sellers were not the only ones in national costume.

The second image includes Belarus, which is not part of Russia, and the third includes Crimea (which, according to Russia, is a republic which is part of the Russian Federation). I did not see any booths for the cities. (Three cities in Russia have federal subject [state] status -- Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sevastopol in Crimea.) 

Apart from discount books, there were book signings and readings in several tents. The main stage had a large TV so that everyone could see the reader. Several other smaller tents also existed, like the one shown here, which I think were more specialized in subject.

Nikolskaya: This street is right off of Red Square. The street appears to be walking only, with decorative lights covering the top. There were signs to a monument of Stalin's victims, but it was late so I didn't seek it out.

Bakuninskaya and Kropotkinskaya: While not removing the old monuments makes sense, and many new (private) monuments could certainly be possible, this involves a government naming public places to honor anarchists, which is not something expected.

Bakuninskaya Ulitsa is a street I walked down some on my way to the hostel. It is interesting in that is is named for an anarchist. I checked online, and it appears that there is only one famous Bakunin, the anarchist. He is interesting in that he critiqued Marx's "dictatorship of the proletariat" idea, something which was reformulated by Lenin in a form of the type of which Bakunin warned. One source I found claimed the street name was chosen in 1918. 

Stantsiya Kropotkinskaya is a metro station in the center of the city. The exterior of the metro station is currently undergoing repair. Kropotkin was an anarchist who wrote, for instance, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He is one of the anarchists who returned to Russia during the revolution, but disliked the course of the revolution. The station was renamed Kropotkinskaya in 1957. 

Monday -- By this time, I had realized that trying to do so much everyday was an issue, so I left bed late. By this time, I was still having issues with food, since I didn't know what to do for cooking and almost all restaurants open at 10 am or later, even if they have breakfast. I had gotten eggs and oatmeal to make, but didn't want to deal with it then. I ended up leaving the house after noon. I had a train to Dubna at 6 pm, so went in that direction to get the tickets for the train.

Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center -- Russia has many museums, and this is a new one, dedicated to telling the complex history of Jews in Russia. The Jewish center where it is housed is protected by security. It is close to the train station with the trains for Dubna, so I had went here after getting the tickets. Due to needing to go to the train and leaving the house late, I did not have much time to see the museum.

Dubna -- So, there are several different types of passenger trains in Russia. There are the long distance sleeper cars, there are the high speed Sapsan-type trains, and there are electric suburban trains typically called electrichka. I have seen two types of these, one with benches instead of seats and ones for longer distances which use seats with basic cushioning. Inside the city, technically the light rail and subway systems can be considered electric trains as well. Then there is the express train to Dubna, which is express because it skips stops, not because it is higher speed. Because it is special, it costs (slightly) more money, requires a passport check and the special tickets, and has an assigned coach. It uses the longer distance style of suburban train, with separate "cushioned" seats instead of benches. They could have used a Sapsan train, but 2 hours is not long enough for the authorities to think it is required, even though elderly physicists need to go back and forth between Moscow and Dubna on a weekly basis.

The train between Moscow and Dubna follows the Moscow Canal, a long canal built during Stalin's reign to connect the Moscow River and the Volga. On the train, I watched the countryside. There were many villages along the way and a lot of uninhabited area. The uninhabited regions appear to contain a lot of birch trees and swamp. The birch trees appear to be a distinctive part of the landscape, like maple trees in New England and Canada.

By the time I got to Dubna, it was late, and I walked over to the hotel where I was to stay the night. The hotel appeared to be a Soviet-era hotel which had since been repaired but not redone. The main floor looked nice, the elevator was small, and my room was on the 5th floor, which was in the process of being repainted. The rooms used keys instead of the modern key cards. The TV in the room was small and did not get reception. However, there was a mirror in the front hall, and a good view of the sunset over the Volga river.

After I put my stuff away, I went out to walk to the Volga river to see the sunset. I was not the only person there. After walking around for a bit, I got some food and went to bed.

In the morning I went to the institute. It is an international institute with European funding. It is also secured. To get in, you need to get a special pass, and you need to show everything to security both to get in and to get out.








Wednesday -- I had another talk on Wednesday, this time at MGU. In the morning I went to a gym so that I could go swimming. Later, I went to the university early, but my map didn't work and ended up at the wrong building and eventually arrived late. After the talk, I went to a nearby park on the bank of the Moscow river. At one point there was an overlook, from which much of the city could be seen.

To the north were the buildings in the first photo, described to me as "New Moscow." Directly across the river was a stadium, as seen in the last photo. Behind the stadium is the Kremlin and Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but they may be difficult to see in a photo. On the other side of the overlook is MGU (Moscow State University). As can be seen from the photo, the FIFA fest was being prepared to be hosted on this side of the university campus. The area of the overlook had binoculars and cars and booths selling food and coffee.

I went home by walking on the paths down towards the river. Within the park I saw a playground region with both children's entertainment and exercise equipment. At the river bank there was a walking road and path. Along my trip home, I found a dock, which had boat tour boats. I had to walk back up the river bank in order to get to the metro station within the bridge over the river.

Thursday -- By the time I got out, I decided to see the local parks. The closest one had several playgrounds for children and several for adults, as well as several ponds. Right outside this gate was another separate park area, this time with a fountain. The Moscow parks seem to require owners to pick up after their dogs instead of banning dogs. 

There was a dog on the bus at one point. He seemed well-behaved. I had also seen a dog on the metro once. That dog was small and in a purse. For some reason, it seems that many owners of small dogs carry their dogs. I have seen this behavior even in Canada. 





In the evening, I decided to go on a boat tour. The one I found went along the Moscow river through the center of the city and back, lasting 2 hours. We went by the Kremlin, Russian Academy of Sciences all the way to the stadium, before returning.

Friday -- Friday I went to a large store, Ashan, then went to a large park, Sokolniki. By the time I got to the park, it was raining. I wandered around in the park anyways, but took some breaks under shelter. The rain was heavy, and MCHS had put up signs, warning of potential danger if the winds were to get too strong, but this never seemed to happen. (I think it did sometime in May.) Other people were hiding under various shelters, but some were not bothered by the rain. The park was large and had many things, and if it were not raining, I would have explored more.

The first region I entered was mostly forest. There was a gazebo with three people making food and hiding from the rain. The gazebo had a sign warning about, I think, ticks. When I left the forest, I came to a paved walking road with a building and outdoor park for children. The outdoor area was abandoned, probably due to rain. Right next to this zone was a wooden pavilion, gazebo and benches. It was also abandoned. 

As I continued, I saw ice cream, hot dog, and soda stands. It appeared that they were open. (The staff was protected by the rain even if the customers would not be. There were a couple restaurants, the second having people hiding from the rain. I went in for food. On the opposite side was an amusement park (of the type where you needed to pay for each attraction). It looked like everything except the indoor arcade was effectively closed. By the time I finished eating, everything was officially closed. 

I continued in order to reach the main fountain. Here many things appeared open and people were around.

Besides food stands and a restaurant, there seemed to be many museums near this central fountain. I would have explored more, but felt that I should leave.

Saturday, I left by train.

July -- I returned to Moscow on the 26th of July and left on the 29th. When I returned, I stayed at Boxtel Hostel on Arbat Avenue, which is a walking only tourist road in the center of Moscow. The hostel was a capsule-style hostel, which was actually less creepy than it seemed at first, as they could keep the lights on, but in the capsules it could still be dark. They also offered breakfast in the morning, but it was prepackaged stuff from their cabinets of basic supplies.

Impressions -- St. Petersburg is a Russian city with French character. Moscow is a cosmopolitan city with a Russian character.

Moscow does not feel very Russian. The busses use the western system where you pay the driver instead of the system like in the rest of Russia where there is a conductor. Everything is expensive, and it is difficult sometimes to find places which sell things for Russian prices instead of Western prices. Finding the canteens is difficult, and it seems easier to get American fast food or premade food from supermarkets.

With very few exceptions, when you get to the center, prices are even higher than the outlying regions. It becomes even more difficult to find places which are not trying to cater to a higher class of person. Since many of the people in the center are from the wealthy elite or foreign tourists, this works well to extract money from people.

Public transit is still cheap, though, costing less than a dollar per trip even in Russia's most expensive city.

From what I have been told, most of the residents are not originally from the city. Many people move to Moscow for work. The average wages are twice as high as anywhere else in Russia, so Russians will move for higher paying jobs. There are also immigrants from poorer countries which move to Russia for better wages and wealthier countries for a variety of business opportunities. This causes the city to grow, and the property costs to be in line with other large cosmopolitan cities.