From Russia with…

3.8.2010 | Day 3 | 1170 km | Moscow, Russia

You know how the sentence in the topic ends: With love! Seriously, without going to this around the world trip, I probably wouldn’t have visited Moscow, ever. I had a lot of false thoughts how unsafe and impossible for foreigners the city would be, because of all the “propaganda” western civilization gives you. But experiencing the city for three days showed us how wrong can you be.

Moscow is a city like nothing else; Clash of new and old, rich and poor and different cultures. Traveling through the city in a car is just mind boggling. The architecture from the times of USSR into today’s glass sky scrapers is stunning. And it’s just not for a couple of blocks, it continues on and on in a way I couldn’t have even imagined. Three days is absolutely the minimum stay in this fantastic city, and you can only take a glimpse what the city can offer. But it’s part of our journey, there will be a lot of cities where we can be just for a little while, when we should have stay for at least a week. Still, this definitely won’t be the last time I’ll be visiting this unbelievable city.

We had a lot of luck coming to Moscow; My old neighbors from Jyvaskyla, Maarit and Timo are living and working in the city, and they were willing to give us the shelter for three days of our stay. And that’s not all, we had our private tour guides in them for every day, which was really priceless as we visited a lot of places we wouldn‘t have being in the city alone.  Our thanks goes to their way, they made our visit to the city something we‘ll never forget!

But, of course, you haven’t seen Russia, if you haven’t seen any strange events. First one was, when we tried to go to the Red Square. Militia closed the gates just in front of us without any explanation. Seriously, the whole Red Square closed down for the day. Why? Later on we found out that it was the 80th anniversary of the paratrooper veterans. Paratroopers of today were on a holiday, absolutely and completely drunk all around the square and so the militia decided to close the place before anything bad could happen. We even saw some trouble happening when some paratroopers tried to get into the Red Square, but that attempt was stopped in seconds by Russian special forces (OMON) guarding the entrances.

But then the bureaucracy. Some things are not as easy as it would be in Finland. Let’s use our train tickets for Trans-Mongolian train as an example. First, we had to make a reservation for our seats through Finnish Railways, costing us a reservation fee in Euros. Then, we had to take the reservation to the central railway ticket office in Moscow (which was, surprisingly, not located in any railway station), paying the actual tickets in roubles, without the possibility of credit card payment, with Swiss frangs determining the actual price. At the station, we were told to use counter 6, where a lady took our reservation and started to make several phone calls. Then we had to move to counter 13, where another lady took our passports. As soon as she started to make the tickets, she waved us to go somewhere else, as she wanted to do her work in private. Probably 50 stamping noises and 20 minutes later she waved us back, and finally the ticketing bureaucracy was over!

The reason for Moscow traffic jams; Old Ladas and Volgas cruising down the streets
with weird things packed on the roof. Percentage for a possible car failure is just a little too big.

Hannu taking a cooling shower in a public fountain at
Alexander Garden like everybody else. Not probably legal, but
at 37 degrees the militia didn't mind.

Aleksi rubbing the nose of a war statue
at a subway station. Locals touch it
every time they pass it for good luck.

Travel tips for Moscow:

• First of all, learn Cyrillic letters. We didn’t bother to do it because we had no idea it‘s actually very easy, but especially if you’re alone in Russia, doing a quick week of studying of the letters is enough and essential. You will understand a lot of needed information by just knowing the letters.
•  Don’t rent a car. Unless you’re used to Manhattan traffic x10, it’s not recommended to drive by yourself. That clash of new and old, +100k’s Cadillac’s versus 1k Lada’s are a dangerous mix. And obviously nobody cares about speed limits. If you know what you’re doing, it actually could be very rewarding, but without any experience it’s just unbelievably stressful and dangerous.
• Eat local foods. Saslik meats, fast food potatoes filled with all kinds of different ingredients and lots of other foods are amazing. In three days, we always ate something new - and never were disappointed!
• It’s very safe. You can walk freely in Moscow and feel that you are in no risk of being robbed. As I said in the beginning, I had lots of doubts about how Russia is, but it’s just the opposite. I felt much safer walking Moscow streets than I felt walking in Manhattan.
• Use the subway. It’s clean, it’s safe, it’s cheap and it’s effective. Maximum 3 minutes waiting time before the next subway on the route. It takes you across the city in just 30 minutes. So don’t take a taxi if you have already seen the views, use the subway like the locals do. Moscow subway compared to New York is cleaner and all stations look different and interesting with magnificent artwork.