From Russia with Love! (First Part)

Due my work I went to Moscow on November 2005. Was my first time in Russia and I should be there from Sunday 20th. (arriving almost at midnight), to Sunday 26th. (the departure was at 8.00 hrs.). As far as it was a business travel, I went alone and my time for doing tourism was so short and during night… because I had to work from Monday to Friday till 18.00 and Saturday´s morning! :( and as far as it was winter there, the sun light was over at 16.00… and the temperatures were lower than -15 C degrees… :( Even the landing was while snowing! (In Madrid they close the airport for few snow flakes...) And I´m afraid they lost my luggage! So, my first contact with Russians was trying to rescue my bag… not really nice story! I had to be very rude to finally make someone to attend me… and I had my bag with me just 2 days later gggggggrrrrr!





My work was to give training to the new staff of the company in Moscow. I have done things alike during 4 years, usually travelling alone, so, to go by my own to discover the place wasn’t new… but! talking about Moscow everybody that new about my travel was telling me to be careful, to not to go out of the hotel at night, to not to take a taxi by my own, etc., etc, etc. Well. For once in my life I had the chance to visit a bit of Moscow… should I stay inside the hotel the whole week till finally have few hours to watch something on Saturday? So, I´d ask the hotel staff and to my trainees and they all were agree about going by subway and just going to touristic places won´t be a problem at all, just in case I take a taxi, to ask the hotel or the place I would be, to call one for me.

During the weekdays I visited several times the Red Square and it surroundings, which simply captivated me!

















Definitely is no possible to have an idea of how big it is but being there. Was also a shocking experience to see that now it´s actually a so capitalist icon! No matter if there´s still the Zhukov equestrian statue with his horse squashing the Nazi´s eagle and Lenin is still at his mausoleum. Walking from the metro station to the Red Square the first shop you see is a Zara´s one, exactly at the Red Square´s side of the GUM.

In front of the Zhukov´s statue, at Okhotny Ryad shopping mall that is under the Manezhnaya Square (that has a precious glass dome, btw), do you imagine what was there? Come on! Think a bit! What would be the most American´s capitalism symbol that would be the worst nightmare for Lenin? (I can even imagine him convulsing at his mausoleum while it´s opening)… got it? A MCDONALD´S RESTAURANT!!!!



Moscow is a quite expensive city. Shopping there wasn´t an option for me. Even going to eat something was a bit difficult sometimes. I usually try to go to an emblematic place while travelling, to at least drink a coffee there… so, I tried to do that as well at the side that is in front of Red Square, at the GUM, in an Italian cafe: Cafe Bosco well, at the guides, they said it was not really expensive for being a Cafe in Moscow… and maybe they were right, just that sometimes there are prices I wouldn´t ever pay for a coffee or a coke, no matter how emblematic the place could be… but yes, the place seemed to be good.



Some pics of the GUM (from the Red Square):









My very favorite place at the Red Square was the St. Basil´s Cathedral.






Yeap, that one there, under thousands kilos of warm cloth, is me!) ;)

One day my trainees invited me to lunch at an American place, Starlite Diner (no idea why to an American place, but was nice). The nice part about business travelling is that you can learn more about the place you are visiting and it´s people than if you would do just as a normal tourist. (Well, ok, the greatest part is that you are not the one paying the bills!). At that lunch we were talking a lot about Russians. One of my trainees had been living in USA, so she knew what points of Russian culture would wonder me. For example that Russians from other locations need a special authorization (they said it was something alike a visa) for travelling to Moscow. This is due there are already an incredible quantity of people, but the sad part of this, was that then what it means in real life is… more work for the mafia! (Faking documents). I also asked them how Russians living in Moscow can afford the expenses there when for me was so obvious that their salaries didn´t match with the prices I saw. The explanation was that they just don´t spend their money in Moscow, but in their original locations or even they go to other locations around Moscow just for shopping. That means long travels, but also that confirms that for every one terms as “long” or “short” are so subjectives.



I also went to several metro stations, some of them are truly like museums! Just the problem there is all is written in Cyrillic and well, that wouldn´t be a real problem when you know perfectly the name of the places you want to go to (written in Cyrillic, of course), but even then, time to time you discover that it was a word very alike the one you were searching, with just a small change on the direction of one of the lines of one letter… that btw means that´s a completely other name instead the one you were searching… and then try to ask someone where you are or what you should do! Ok, I started it asking to young people the typical “do you speak English?” and when finally someone answered me “yes”, I´d show him the map and the place where I would like to go, asking how to go there… and he gave me the direction, in a pretty kind way, smiling and even gesticulating the directions with his hand… but in a perfect Russian! :S Well, I just went back the whole way and started from the beginning again… (I would lie if I say I´d did it at the second try!).








For that Saturday I booked a City Tour. We were more or less 15 people, I was the only one female of the group! :S We were going by bus to the most important touristic places, but also with time to go down the bus to take pics and even to buy some souvenirs. Was really nice how kind almost all of them were with me. Always allowing me to be the first one to get on the bus, asking me if I would like them to take me the pic… yeap, sometimes is nice to be the only one female of a group! :P








A German guy was the one that more tried to talk to me and even got a sit close to mine at the bus. Once we were at the Red Square, the guide asked us to place in circle for the last explanation, the German guy was at my side. Surprisingly in a moment the Guide said that would be the end of the tour, we shouldn´t go back to the Travel Agency. Due the conversation we had during the tour, I was imaging the German guy would invite me to drink a coffee after the tour, but the point was that in the moment the Guide said bye, a French guy that was at the opposite side of me at the circle (and that I hadn´t noticed about his existence during the tour!), literally jumped immediately in front of me, asking me if I would like a coffee. I was so surprised, and also the German guy. I just wait few seconds before answering, trying to give a chance to the German guy to say something (we could go all together, for example), but he was just watching me without reacting and the French guy insisted… (To be continued on next Saturday)