Another 3 Days in Moscow

On another 3 days in Moscow, we had done some ‘not so touristy’ things… such as tour around some unknown churches, watch street performers, get lost in Moscow’s metro system, and even visit Moscow’s metro museum. Since we had spent our first three days visiting the highlights of Moscow… the Kremlin, the Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral, we decided to take it easy, not plan too much and just tour around the city for our remaining time in Moscow.

One of the first things we did was just get lost within Moscow’s famed metro system. For anyone that’s been to Moscow before, you know that getting lost in there is not a very difficult thing to do! The Moscow metro there can be a challenge. However, the metro there is also very famous. It was built back in 1935 and is known to have the most beautiful metro stations in all the world. Within each of Moscow’s 188 of stations, every single one of them was built different with each having its own design and architecture. They are a sight to see and with Moscow being the largest, most heavily populated city in all of Europe, you could literally spend most of your day trying to see them all.

Some amazing architecture on the ceilings and throughout – In the Moscow Metro

Well for us, about 2-3 hours was enough though it was fun to travel around not having much to do other than hop from one to the next. And if you have ever ridden the escalators in one of them, you know that you can spend nearly 2 or 3 minutes riding from top to bottom as you leave ground level and travel down into the network of tunnels. The reason some were designed so deep underground was to act as a bomb shelter should a nuclear war ever break out during the cold war era. Pretty impressive to say the least and if you get the chance, spend some time doing some exploring…You can also visit Moscow’s metro museum. It was interesting but definitely not what we were expecting. It was free and we spent a little bit of time there but I remember leaving from there thinking it was time for them to do some renovation and updates. Maybe it was also the fact that it was all in Russian too which can make it less of an experience for a foreign traveler that speaks little Russian!

Anyway, we were staying with a friend of a friend through Couchsurfing. About two months previous to our visit to Moscow, we had a friend we’d met while in China that had told us to stay with this person when in Moscow. If you ever have the chance to get a recommendation from a fellow traveler on someone who they had stayed with in a previous country via Couchsurfing, it can be a great way to plan your stay when you finally reach your destination since you can contact them well in advance and sort things out before your arrival.

The girl we ended up staying with lived very far from the more touristy section of Moscow around the Kurskaya metro station stop which was on the western end of the city. However, I think that is what made my experience there in Moscow that much more unique and authentic. Instead of staying in a hostel or planning a visit in a hotel, etc. as you would when taking typical cheap holidays, we stayed with a local that treated us like a couple of friends from out-of-town. She showed us around her neighborhood, told us some unique places to visit that most tourists wouldn’t even know about and even cooked dinner for us while we stayed there 4 nights (although we did return the favor on one of those nights).

When did Subway start serving beer? I ordered two…

Since she had to work most of the time we were there, we decided to venture out on our own and see some parts of the city neither of us had ever visited. And since my friend was Russian, I can tell you my experience this time around in Moscow was A LOT different since things were far less challenging than they’d been on my first visit to Moscow due to the language barrier. True, I could speak a bit of Russian to get by but it was nowhere near a level to be able to travel around without difficulty and frustration.

On one afternoon, we thought we would just walk the streets and see what we would come across. On some of the more popular streets, we came across street performers as well as those street vendors you’ll often find in just about every major city in the world selling art and food to those trying to sell the most ridiculous things for tourists you could ever imagine.

Of course, Russian dolls are very popular but I don’t’ think that these were what most tourists had in mind for design although I’d seen a lot worse. We also stopped in a few churches and museums along the way. The one pictured below was one made up of several dozen sculptures and statues of which all seemed to have similar design but we couldn’t really figure out the theme behind them. But when you’re in a foreign country, I guess anything can be seen as interesting…

While we were there, we also did a bit of shopping around the city… well we did more window shopping than we did actually buying anything. Since we were staying at a friend’s place that had a kitchen, we took advantage of that fact and did some grocery shopping as well. I’ll never forget one of the supermarkets we had gone in while in Moscow. It might as well have been a museum or royal palace from the style and architecture that was present inside. Just take a look at this photo below and look at the level of intricate detail on the walls and ceilings… and this was a grocery store! I definitely got some stares when I was taking pictures all around me instead of ordering a block of cheese at the counter but I’m sure I wasn’t the first!

Definitely the most ‘royal’ supermarket I’d ever been in…

Overall, we had a great time with these last 3 days in Moscow and even though it’s a fairly expensive city on a backpackers budget, there is still plenty to do and see at a cost that can be next to nothing. Especially if you appreciate and experience all the small things Moscow has to offer instead of just the ‘major sights and attractions’. Of course, if you have money to burn, there is a whole host of things to do but just walking around the city can be quite an experience and with a week spent here, there was still plenty more to see and I’m sure I’ll be back soon. It was now off to the airport for the next venture…

Another cloudy day at the Red Square