Journey to the (North) East… Of Europe (III)

Days 3-5: Москва́ (Moscow) , Россия (Russia)
2-4 May 2008

by David Ho

kinda long, but really interesting, i promise...

The cabin was silent. Well, as silent as it could get at least. All that could be heard were the bumps as the train rolled across the small gaps in the tracks. The glare of the sun was coming in through the window, and the carriage was rocking gently from side to side. I sat up on my bed with the realization that today we were arriving in a place that was completely new, completely different, and most definitely unique. Today we arrived in Moscow.

I honestly can’t remember what the view outside looked like. Probably country-side-ish. I guess we were all preoccupied with getting ready for the day we had ahead of us. We arrived at the train station really early in the morning, and it was slowly coming to life. The shops were opening and more people were starting to walk about as we waited for the tour guide to come get us. Looking back on photographs really does not do justice to the way the station made me feel. In the photos the train station just looks like the interior of any other building, and I can’t help but wonder why it was that while I was there, I was really conscious of the fact that I was in a strange and foreign place. I just felt so cautious, and have no doubt that my sense of awareness was heightened. I remember us trying to draw lots of money because we were supposed to share with some of the others, but the ATMs had a pretty low cap, so we actually tried most of the ATMs in the station. Well, enough said about the first hour in Moscow, I think I’ve said too much!

The tour guide eventually came and led us onto our bus. This tour guide deserves a special mention. She was so boring! She just kept telling us what this building was, or what that building was, when they were built etc. There was very little mention about the history or the motivations behind the buildings, which is really the most fascinating part of travelling. I’m glad Carol and I share this view. Oh, and I’m really certain this tour guide got some of her facts wrong, in fact, some of the things I thought she said were completely absurd! For instance, she’d tell us that such and such building was “yay” high, and “yay” would be physically impossible.

Anyway, our first stop was Red Square! It is considered to be THE central square in Moscow and perhaps all of Russia. This square was used as a market place, for coronations, and parades. Parades are still held there, and at the time we were there, they were preparing for the Victory Day (day commemorating the defeat over Nazi Germany) parade which was to occur later that month (May). That parade was also to be the first one since the collapse of the USSR that military vehicles were paraded. The bus parked across a road on the far south eastern side of the square, and we had to walk a bit to get to the square itself. No one minded though, because all along the way we got to feast our eyes upon the intricately designed St.Basil’s Cathedral. I think it is almost a curse to view such marvelous buildings, because from then onwards, few buildings can measure up to awe and wonder that such buildings inspire. Legend (and Wikipedia) has it that Ivan the Terrible had the architect’s eyes put out to prevent him from building anything that would rival the cathedral’s beauty; However, I think the architect did design other structures after this one…

After walking around the cathedral (we didn’t get to go in) we arrived at the square itself, where our tour guide blabbered on about more things that might not have been very factual. Heh heh. We were also waiting to enter the G.U.M shopping mall (built by merchants) because it was that early in the morning. From where we stood we had a good view of the State Museum and the Kremlin Wall. When G.U.M finally opened its revolving doors there was another (Chinese?) tourist group waiting outside as well. I’ll always remember what happened next: People started rushing through the doors, which wasn’t very smart because each revolving partition could only take 3-4 people. It was probably bad judgment on this particular guy’s part, because he was like the 6^th person to squeeze into the partition and it looked like an unpleasant few moments for that group of people as they went through the doors…

After breakfast at G.U.M came the bus tour, in which made up “facts” and “figures” were forced down our throats. We did stop by here and there to take some photos of this and that though, including a bridge with metallic structures where newly-married couples lock padlocks onto them and throw away the key. A Japanese whirlwind tour (with made up facts) later, it was about lunch time and we headed down the main shopping street… Which shopping street was this? What did we find? Where else would we be going next? The day is only half done folks, there is much to write about, but I bet at this point you’re really bored… Till next time!

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After a long hiatus, this post continues. Even though, to all those who are reading this, it would seem as if it was all written at one go, in fact, this post has stretched over a couple of months, maybe slightly longer.

So anyway, where I left of, our brains had just received an (faulty) information overload, and we were deposited at the hotel (near Izmailovosky Park and Narodnyi Prospekt Metro Station). After checking in, we went to the nearby bazaar to shop for souvenirs and look around. They sold all the usual things a tourist would buy; Russian (matrioshka) dolls, Soviet-themed magnets, and fake branded goods. The shopkeepers were basically friendly and were open to the bargaining. When we took photos of their goods they’d joke about having to pay them a fee. After quite a bit of bargain hunting, we left with a few trinkets. Back at the hotel Carol and I arranged to meet with Yock Song and a couple of others later that evening in the main shopping area of Arbatskaja. There was another group (including Debbie, Jia Min and Anson) that went to watch Swan Lake, and though it was not at the Bolshoi, I’m sure it was an unforgettable once in a life-time thing. Then again, you can say that for the whole exchange.

Carol and I went there first in the hopes of having a typical Russian meal. We spent an hour or more walking almost the whole stretch of Old Arbat in search of “Mu Mu”, which was supposed to be a budget sort of place. We couldn’t find it and landed up eating Kebabs. We walked back to the station to meet Yock Song, Jen and Stephanie, as time was getting on. The metro stations are all quite beautifully decorated, with soviet themed statues, art, and tiled murals on the walls and ceilings, we felt as if we stepped back into the Soviet era. Taking the metro is an experience worth mentioning. First of all, it is dirt cheap. Anywhere you want to go along its 292.2km of route length, 12 lines and 177 stations will cost you approximately one Singapore dollar, or 17 rubles. Even then we still saw many people climbing over barriers to avoid paying. Second, all the station names are written with the Cyrillic alphabet, which, Assyia won’t let us forget, the Russians adopted from Bulgaria. The problem, as you would surmise, is that we didn’t read Cyrillic. We only got by thanks to some of us being a little bit clever, or having taken New Testament Greek. Third and probably most frustrating, is that very few of the locals speak much english. The ticket lady certainly didn’t. That’s when numbers become so beautiful and useful, because no matter what language you use, signalling for 10 tokens worth 150 rubles result in us getting 10 token by paying 150 rubles.

We all headed Eastwards back to the Red Square. We spent quite a bit of time taking photos of this and that, since we couldn’t really get into anything as it was early evening.

One of the nicest night shots we have is of the back-side of the State Museum. There were other fantastic night shots including one of Carol and I with the lighted St.Basil’s in the background, but it was taken with Yock Song’s camera, which was pick-pocketed from him in St.Petersburg a few days later…

Of great curiosity to me was the double headed eagle, which seems to pop up all over Europe. It’s actually the emblem of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, with the dual heads representing the Emperor’s sovereignty over both religious and secular matters. Of course I found this out much later, and only thanks to wikipedia. At that point of time I tried to smoke Yock Song with some fictitious reasoning and history but he didn’t buy it. Carol would’ve though. Starting out at the red square, we then walked the entire parameter of the Kremlin on the outside because somehow Carol thought it’d be nearer to the metro station. I thought it was a silly idea. Maybe she did too, but secretly wanted to see if she could make the walls of the Kremlin fall down. Well, she couldn’t. She only succeeded in making all of us tired and me crabby. Oh well, honest mistake.

By the time we got back to the hotel, some metro stops away, it was quite late, and we prepared to go to bed. I think we went back even later than the Swan Lake people. Anyway, after a quick discussion about what time to meet to go to the Kremlin, we turned in for the night.

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The Kremlin: Once the home of kings, this sprawling complex is now the current seat of the Russian Government and is also the resting place to many prominent figures of the Soviet Era. Steeped in history that spans a millennium, this, would be our first stop on our second day in Moscow.

The buffet breakfast was a little strange. The best way to describe it is as a Russian interpretation of a Continental Buffet. We theorized that everything was manufactured from nuclear power plants or derived from enriched uranium- Supposedly natural products didn’t taste very natural to us. We ate anyway, and took more food for lunch. Standard Operating Procedure… I guess we’d only start worrying if we started glowing in the dark. The thing that was pretty amusing to me was the food labels. Everything had the definitive article added to it! The labels would read “The Meatballs”, “The Sausages”, “The Pancakes” and so on. Heh. We didn’t reach the Kremlin early enough, and a long queue had formed outside. There were queues to buy tickets and to get in. The group of us split up to queue for both at the same time. Half an hour and an unpleasant episode with a local-tour-guide-queue-cutter later, we were on the other side of the wall.

Whenever I think of Russia and religion, I think of communism and get the impression that the country has always been largely atheist. The Kremlin proved me wrong. (The majority of the population is Orthodox Christian.) In the heart of the Kremlin lies 7 cathedrals (http://www.moscow.info/kremlin/churches/index.aspx), all distinctly Russian Orthodox with their gold-colored domes. I shan’t go into the details of what lies in the different cathedrals (nor can I really without relying on wikipedia), it would suffice to say that they have been turned into tourist attractions and were a little bit too crowded to spend time taking in the history, significance or iconostases of the various cathedrals. Sadly, we were caught up in a traveler’s greatest natural disaster, the Japanese Whirlwind.

Fortunately, we have our correspondents (us back in May) who can provide coverage live from the Kremlin:

Beside this square of cathedrals are the world’s largest cannon and the world’s largest bell, the Tsar Cannon, and the Tsar Bell. The Tsar Bell has a large crack in it due to a fire, and the subsequent rapid cooling when water was used to extinguish the fire. The bell is covered in relief work depicting Christ, Mary, John the Baptist and the Russian Rulers. I honestly don’t remember much of it, all I remember is that it was nearly impossible to get our picture taken with either attraction; there were just too many people! We somehow managed anyway. We had a nicer time walking around the rest of the grounds, because it wasn’t as crowded. The gardens were exceptionally beautiful with all the flowers in full bloom. We left the grounds soon after and had a little picnic just outside the walls.

I guess this is getting too long, we'll continue again soon!