"njtourist's New Travelogue on Moscow" Moscow Travelogue by njtourist

Rick and I went to Moscow in September 1998. Rick was on business, I was a tourist. The girls stayed home with Rick's mom at our house. Since Rick was going on business, he got a business class ticket. I was back in coach. But fortunately I got to partake some of the benefits like Business class check in (no lines) and the business class lounge (free drinks, wine and cheese). In the lounge, we sat next to some people from the Center for Disease Control who were studying TB break outs in Siberian Prisons. They said that they should visit periodically because they noticed that the prison was spruced up for their visit. Oherwise the prison would probably never be improved.

We left on Saturday at 6:00 pm. It was an hour late taking off from JFK airport, but from what I heard from frequent Moscow travelers was that it always takes off an hour late due to runway congestion. On the plane I sat next to some Russian gentlemen working on the space station. It was weird to see a lap top with Microsoft Word and the writing be in Cyrillic letters. We got to Moscow to Sheremetyevo II airport with no problem. Of course there was a long line a passport control, one of the few places where Moscow wasn't overstaffed.

We stayed at the Savoy hotel near Red Square. At first we weren't sure if they were taking credit cards (what with the collapse of the Russian Banks and all) but they did. American Express told us that it would be tough to use traveler's cheques in Moscow now so we just took cash. Fortunately there was a little safe in the room to stash our cash in. The week before we got there the exchange rate was 20 rubles to the dollar. When we arrived, it was 12 to the dollar. It went up to 10 and then down to 18 by the time we left. Since the ruble varies so much, some stores (especially restaurants) have taken to pricing things in "economic units" (codeword for dollars) and then posting the rubles/economic units conversion rate. The first time we went to a restaurant I couldn't believe an entree costs 16 rubles; it turned out it was 16 dollars.

That afternoon we went to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. We went with an Intourist Guide who was terrible! She would just read the signs, and this is one of the few places that the signs were in English, too! We had thought there would be some Russian Art there, but this museum just had "Fine Art" from other parts of Europe (Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, etc.) They also had alot of reproductions
of greek/roman statues. I guess they couldn't get out of the country to see the real thing so the government tried to bring it to the people. There is another museum with Russian Art but we didn't make it there.

Friday I went with Lee and Barry again with Lena the tour guide since she was so great. We went to this Sculpture Park near Gorky Park that has all of those statues of Lenin and Stalin and the like that were
toppled with the down fall of communism. Since Moscow had its 850th anniversary last year, they have really spruced the city up. That included doing something with these statues. They took the discredited leader statues, put them back together if necessary, and put them up in this park. They also got alot of other sculpture that had been sitting in storage and put it up quite randomly in this little park.

We also saw this giant statue (60ft tall) of Peter the Great. It started out as a statue of Christopher Columbus that was to be given to the US for Columbus' 500th anniversary of discovering America, but I guess we turned it down. They took off Columbus' head and put on Peter's and put a double headed eagle (a symbol of Russia) on the front of the ship. It was too funny!

We also went to the Novodevichy cemetery for famous Russian people. Khruschev (only leader not buried at the Kremlin) and Stalin's wife are buried there, among other generals, academics, writers, etc. The gravestones were fairly elaborate; they would usually have a depiction of the person (picture, etching, or sculpture) and an indication of what they did for a living. There were a couple of generals who had a miniature tank and a missile launcher on their grave stones. Chekov, the writer who wrote "The Seagull", had a seagull on his tombstone. The photo above was of a gravestone of a man who was the "Voice of Russia" on the radio during WW2. There were a lot of interesting styles of what can only be called gravestone art.

We then went on a tour of interesting Metro stations. Some have chandeliers, some have stained glass panels depicting different types of workers, some have mosaics in the ceilings. Big difference compared to the NYC subway!

That night Rick and I went to a Casino in a nearby hotel. We thought it would be a good way to get rid of extra rubles. However, our 300+ rubles only converted to $15. We supplemented that with some US$ (100) and played roulette since that had the lowest minimum bet ($10). We would be playing $10 per spin but some of these other people seemed to be sprinkling chips everywhere! Anyway, at midnight
when we wanted to leave, we were ahead by $150! That paid for a few souvenirs!
Saturday I took Rick over to Lenin's Tomb since it was something that could be seen before we had to leave for the airport.

The flight home was uneventful, and fortunately I got an exit seat with lots of leg room. I sat next to a gentleman from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, the limo that picked us up to take us home
didn't seem to have more than first gear, and even that went away after a while. We got to a gas station and waited an hour for a new car to come. I was so tired I slept so it didn't bother me too much.

Other things I noticed:
+They had a lot of people doing jobs. Like the half a dozen people raking leaves in the park with brooms. The ladies who monitored the escalators. The street sweepers. Too many people staffing
a booth in a store.

+They aren't concerned with efficiency. To buy something (like decongestant) you go to the drugstore. All products are behind the counter. You have to find out what you want and the price. For me, they could
tell quickly that I didn't speak Russian so they would write down the price. You go over to the cashier and pay for the item. Then you take the receipt and go back to the counter and get your item.

+People don't wait in line for their turn. They will jump in front of you.

+They smoke alot! No smoking areas aren't generally available.

+There is no law about not being able to drink in public. People were walking all over the place with beers

+They don't have a trend toward megastores (Staples, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us) like we do. There were lots of street vendors with very small inventories ( a coupleof shirts, a few books)

+ The Matroyshkas (nesting dolls) were very prevalent. I got some of those. I tried to get a Winnie the Pooh book in Russian (my daughter collects them) but was unsuccessful, even though I could find a lot of bookstores. I did get a Winnie the Pooh nesting doll set.

+They drive like maniacs! Fortunantely many busy streets had a pedestrian underpass.I did see some cars driving on the sidewalk.

+Moscow is 8 hours ahead of NJ,so it was impossible to talk to the girls when they were awake.

+Despite economic problems, there is a lot of repaving, reconstruction, and maintenance of buildings/roads/monument going on.

+Didn't see too many homeless or people begging.

+I didn't eat any caviar as I had no interest. They do have caviar or sturgeon on a piece of bread sold at snack bars.

+Everyone seemed nice enough and tolerated me even though I couldn't speak the language.

+I did learn most of the cyrillic letters so I could sometimes translate words that correspond
to english words like: hot dog, pizza, cafe, restaurant, bar, McDonald's, Baskin Robbins, etc.
I can say thank you, good bye, yes, no and can count to 3.

+I never did go on the Metro by myself. I couldn't figure out what stop I was (some stops would have multiple stations connected if more than one line crossed there) and where I wanted to go, and where exactly the line I wanted was and which direction.

+They have a lot of billboards up so capitalism is catching on.

+Toilets: It is true that there is a lack of toilet paper. Mostly it was in public restrooms (like at a museum and the cemetary). Sometimes there wasn't even TP holders, or if there were, there was one for the whole bathroom and it was empty. I brought a little pack of tissues with me. They also sometimes think that sitting on the seat is unsanitary, so sometimes there is no seat. You squat over the bowl. At the cemetary there wasn't even doors on the stalls (in addition to no seats nor toilet paper). Foreign bathrooms are always an adventure. I did see TP for sale at stores and there was always enough at our western style hotel.

+Hot water: had some almost everyday but at very low water pressure. I hear that they turn it off in the summer for a month. Hot water is centrally heated (like for parts of the city) and is also used to heat buildings (via radiators).

+The business cards for the Rick's office in Moscow are in Cyrrillic on one sideand English on the other.

+When I called Rick's office from the hotel, it would take me 10 tries to get through. I am not sure if that is because I don't know what all the tones I was hearing were (busy? all circuits busy?) or because of inefficiencies in the phone system.

+English is their second language. Most tourist related businesses could speak enough to complete transactions.

+The weather was somewhat warmer than normal. I think it was in the upper 60's low 70's.
It only rained one day. The weather report was in Celsius, so I am not sure. I would
wear a coat in the morning and take it off in the afternoon. Most days were sunny/partly
sunny.

+ I read in the paper that 80% of the rest of the country is operating a barter economy, but only 4% of Moscow is.

+As far as food goes, we ate quite well. 3 nights Rick's co-workers took us out for (fairly expensive) dinners. Entrees were above $20. The night we went to the Bolshoi we ate at the hotel. We also
went to a Mexican restaurant and a "Route 66 Diner". Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel that was included in the room rate. For lunch I ended bringing an apple from breakfast and grabbing a hot dog or something during my travels. We didn't get to eat any authentic Russian food. We were going to try the night we went to the hotel restaurant, but I was running late and we had to get to the Ballet on time, so we just ordered Entrees. There was one time we went to a restaurant w/ the partner Rick was working with. He had had his secretary make a reservation and make sure that the restaurant was taking credit cards. They
had said they were. When we got there, there was a sign on the menu saying they weren't taking credit cards. The partner ended up talking to the owner/manager saying that we would have to leave if they didn't take credit cards as he didn't have that much cash on him. Fortuneately the owner has caught on somewhat to capitalism and said that he could leave his business card with the check and come tomorrow and pay the bill. We ended up staying and had a wonderful meal.

So, poor Rick got stuck working all 5 days. Usually on these sorts of trips it only takes 3.5 days
or so. He did a few things at night. He is the one that has always wanted to go to Moscow
since his paternal grandfather was Russian. I took lots of pictures so he can see what he missed.

The first evening we checked out Red Square. It isn't actually red, of course. Red comes from the Russian word meaning beautiful. Red Square is right next to the Kremlin (meaning fortress). At one end is the National History Museum (shown above). At the other end is St. Basil's Cathedral. On the west side is the GUM department store. On the East side is the Kremlin.

The next day Rick was off to work and I went to the hotel business office and asked how I could get an Overview tour of Moscow. One of the women who worked there arranged for a driver and took me for an (expensive!) private tour. We saw Red Square, drove along the Moskva River, went to the New Maiden Convent( where Peter the Great sent his first wife that he didn't want around any more [beats getting your head chopped off]) (Shown above), drove up to Sparrow (Lenin) Hills by the Moscow University to a look out over Moscow.

I also went over to "Dyetsky Mir" which is the Children's Department Store. This store was more like a cross between a mall and a flea market. There were lots of little booths and stores with mostly children's items (clothes, toys, cribs, etc). These stores were targeted toward everyday Russians. Imported toys were more expensive than the domestic toys. I got a sweater (acrylic) for Stephanie that was 79 rubles (less than 8 dollars) but I paid 300 rubles for a Russian Barbie. That night Rick and I wandered up Arbat Street which is a pedestrian only street lined with shops. We ended up eating at the Route 66 diner because it had English on the menu, but only the titles. So I had a chicken sandwich and I couldn't tell what it came with because the details were in Russian. Turns out it didn't come with fries or anything. Luckily Rick's Texas Steak did. We generally drink Diet Coke and it was pretty hard to find it (or Diet Pepsi) there. We found it in a few vending machines (only 6 rubles (less than 60 cents) for a can of soda).
Also, we couldn't find sweet and low (which Rick uses) in Moscow. One of his co-workers gave him some that he had brought with him. It was in pill form in a little box that would spit one out when you pushed a button.

Tuesday I decided I needed less expensive group tours, so I went over to Intourist (which used to be the official state tourist office but I think has since been privatized). I took a tour of the Kremlin which has existed back to the days of the Tsars. It used to be "communist central" but now allows tourists as well as being used by the government. Before the communists it used to be the palace of the Tsars (before Peter the Great moved to St. Petersburg). There is an "Armory" there that acts as a museum. There they have Crowns, Thrones, Carriages, Coronation outfits, Religious Icons, Faberge Eggs, gifts from other countries going way back before the communists. I was really surprised that all of that stuff was still around. I met up with a father and son (Barry and Lee) from South Africa on that tour.

Afterward, we went over to GUM (pronounced Goom) the State Department Store (really a mall, and a high priced one at that). Rick and I later went on our first (escorted) Metro (subway) trip. The tokens (made out of plastic!) only cost 3 rubles which is 30 cents or less. As the metro stations were built to double as bomb shelters, some are very deep. The escalators are *Very* fast so you get down quickly. The metro stations are very nice. The photo above shows stained glass depiction of some type of worker. These are on the subway platform! I can't imagine that lasting for 5 minutes in New York City!!!

Barry and Lee were staying with a friend of theirs who was setting up more tours for them for the next day. They invited me to come along and the next day we went to Victory Park which is a memorial to World War 2. There were many monuments to the victims, the "hero" cities, a museum that depicted the story of Russian in WW2, tanks, planes etc. used in the wars.

That night Rick and I went to the Bolshoi Ballet where we saw the ballet "Raimonda". Bolshoi means "big" so the theater is really called the Big Theater (see Photo). I learned what Bolshoi meant when I heard an American ordering a "bolshoi" coke at McDonalds. Anyway, we had 6th row center orchestra seats. They were pricey at $55 a piece (much like the prices in New York City). I wonder how much the tickets in the 5th balcony were? One thing that was different is that they like to clap for the principal ballerina's and ballet guy (is there a name for that) after each solo. Also, they would come out for applause at the end of each act instead of at the end of the whole performance only.

Thursday I went with Barry and Lee and it turns out with the same tour guide, Lena, (that had come with us the previous day to Victory Park) to the KGB museum. It is a pretty small museum (4 rooms). I now know about all of the KGB leaders that there ever were! But they did have some neat spy gadgets (pen guns, telephones with electrified mini-harpoons, etc.) and they showed how spies would do drop off of secret
messages and stuff. They also had some devices that they discovered the American's had put on trans-pacific cables that would eavesdrop on telephone communications.

Before I met up with them I went to see Lenin's Tomb. They used to have an honor guard there with a '"changing of the guard" ceremony, but now it is just some policeman. No one is really sure if he is real or wax. You can't get too good a look because you have to keep moving. Outside of the mausoleum and near the Kremlin wall other leaders (Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov, etc) are buried.