See you later, Winter!
It seems that everyone is tired of such a prolonged winter which occurred this year. Though I do agree that it’s quite strange to watch a heavy snowfall in the last days of March or the 1st days of April, on the whole every time winter comes to the end there is a strong feeling that smth grand is over…
There will be no need to dig your car out of snow, no need to put on additional tons of clothes, no fear to slip on the ice and fall down ungracefully…
But speaking about ice - at the same time there will be no opportunity to suggest suddenly on a frosty, sunny week-end afternoon: “Why don’t we go to Artplay to skate?”
The choice of skating-rinks is quite large in Moscow, there is smth for any taste. Are you fond of speed and large scale? You’d better head for Park Cultury. The feeling of driving a car on the Moscow Ring Road is guaranteed here especially at the week-end. Are you looking for smth expensive and beautifully surrounded? Red Square with the view over the Kremlin, St.Basil’s Cathedral and GUM will certainly do! There are a lot of, let’s say, democratic places like Park Sokolniky or Luzhniki. The thing which unites almost all of them are crowds of people and clear understanding of how to reach these places. From this point of view the skating-rink on the 5th floor of the British higher school of art & design on the territory of Artplay is quite a remarkable destination. No, I’m not going to describe now how my friend A. and me arm in arm wandered about the territory of this labyrinth-like area one Sunday afternoon, bravely entering from time to time wrong doors, trying to figure out what is going on behind some half-transparent windows and eyeing with interest various signboards, windows of small stores and studios and their contents.
Your way will be twisty, but not insuperable, you’ll find the right pass, the lift will bring you up, then two flights of stairs on foot and finally you’ll step out on the roof. Congratulations! There’s a cozy tent in the corner with a café and skates renting inside. Enjoy fresh air, the view over the monastery, city landscape, railways and trains passing by at a distance below. What a contemporary mishmash!
It’s a peculiar place; I advise you to go there at least once in case you like to skate and haven’t been there yet. There is only one obstacle for now: the winter is over…
