I'm in Moscow.
Just in case you only ever get your updates on things from here, and not that other place (ahem... Facebook). I'm in Russia. I flew in from Dublin last night after driving part way across Ireland in a rented car (on the wrong side of the road, might I add!) and back for the wedding of a close cousin. More on that one later, since weddings are awesome and I don't usually write about them.
Today, I left the Sokolniki Holiday Inn (which took 20 years to build, and changed ownership a bazillion times during that buildup) and wandered around town. I started with Sokolniki park, which I only saw the outside of. Sokolniki is actually a nice little urban suburb of Moscow proper, since it's outside of the ring road, in the North East. The park is ancient by North American standards, and was the site of the famous "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Krushchev, during the American National Exhibition in 1959. It also used to be a falconing and hunting area for the Tsar.
After that, I got on the Metro. It's actually relatively easy to get tickets even when you don't speak the language, as long as you have a map, know where you're going and have money. The system is a bit like the London and Toronto ones, with much more grandiose, marble lined stations. Stalin, in his infinite... uh... something... built these instead of concentrating on housing, figuring that "houses of the people" were important. Say what you want about the guy (and his government), but the system works very well, and is very well used. Sokolniki was the first station to be tested when the system opened. That's where I got on.
I got off at the Red Square, but I can't actually recall the station name on the red line that I used, since the square itself is served by multiple ones. I also managed to "see" the Bolshoi theatre; it's under restoration, so I saw the area in front of it. The theatre district is not only pretty, but also a decent place to stop for lunch. So I did.
After that, I spent most of my time walking in a circle around the Red Square (which is actually rectangular, or a parallellogram), the Kremlin, and the various nearby sites. I did not find the white house in the red square, since it's both not actually white, and not actually in the red square itself.
Moscow is a very interesting city. I wish I could spend more time here.
Today, I left the Sokolniki Holiday Inn (which took 20 years to build, and changed ownership a bazillion times during that buildup) and wandered around town. I started with Sokolniki park, which I only saw the outside of. Sokolniki is actually a nice little urban suburb of Moscow proper, since it's outside of the ring road, in the North East. The park is ancient by North American standards, and was the site of the famous "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Krushchev, during the American National Exhibition in 1959. It also used to be a falconing and hunting area for the Tsar.
After that, I got on the Metro. It's actually relatively easy to get tickets even when you don't speak the language, as long as you have a map, know where you're going and have money. The system is a bit like the London and Toronto ones, with much more grandiose, marble lined stations. Stalin, in his infinite... uh... something... built these instead of concentrating on housing, figuring that "houses of the people" were important. Say what you want about the guy (and his government), but the system works very well, and is very well used. Sokolniki was the first station to be tested when the system opened. That's where I got on.
I got off at the Red Square, but I can't actually recall the station name on the red line that I used, since the square itself is served by multiple ones. I also managed to "see" the Bolshoi theatre; it's under restoration, so I saw the area in front of it. The theatre district is not only pretty, but also a decent place to stop for lunch. So I did.
After that, I spent most of my time walking in a circle around the Red Square (which is actually rectangular, or a parallellogram), the Kremlin, and the various nearby sites. I did not find the white house in the red square, since it's both not actually white, and not actually in the red square itself.
Moscow is a very interesting city. I wish I could spend more time here.