This post is brought to you by the word путешествие (poot-ee-SHESS-vee-eh), meaning “travel.”
Three months ago, I had never been outside of the U.S. Now, I have been to four countries and have delightful visa stampage to prove it. My latest excursions have been to Warsaw, Poland and Vienna, Austria. Before my travel week, however, I spent a few nights in Moscow. Thus begins my breakdown of each city:
Quick Stats: MOSCOW
(Russian: Москва)
Capital of Russia.
Population: About 12 million people.
Most famous sights (достопримечательности): Kremlin, Lenin’s Mausoleum, St. Basil’s Cathedral ( = Red Square).
Opinion of sights: Cool.
Opinion of city as a whole: ...It’s nice. To visit. If you aren’t going to St. Petersburg.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been living in Piter for three months (there is a rivalry between the two cities), but Moscow is not better than St. Petersburg, in my opinion. Red Square was definitely cool, as was Arbat, a street quite unlike any other I’ve seen (think a ton of cool shops, street performers, curious attractions and art displays crammed into a tiny space), but other than that and a far superior metro system, Moscow doesn’t have much on Piter. The city sprawls out very far, so while there is a lot to do, you have to go a ways in order to do it. In Piter, everything is within a 10 minute walk from Nevksy Prospekt. That being said, Moscow, though it has twice as many people in it, does not feel as crowded as Piter does. Personally, though, I prefer cramming a lot of cool architecture, museums, attractions, stores and people into a smaller place. It makes everything more accessible. Also, Moscow does not have as many Teremoks as does Piter. This is a travesty. In addition, Moscow is the most expensive city in Europe. And it’s dirty. And Muscovites have funny accents. And it’s not PITER! Having been to a Piter-Moscow hockey game, my loyalty is forever set with СКА (pronounced “Ska”) – ТОЛЬКО СКА И ТОЛЬКО ПОБЕДА! *ahem*
I definitely enjoyed my time in Moscow, though. I was saddened to learn that Lenin’s Mausoleum was closed while I was there (they do that every once in a while to fix Lenin’s face…his corpse is about 90, so he can be rather high maintenance), but other than that, nothing was particularly disappointing. My favorite part was walking along Staryi Arbat and listening to all the guitarists. Actually, I bought two CDs from street musicians. One was playing a sitar. Very Middle Eastern sounding instrument. I like his music, and he was nice. I spoke with him in Russian, of course, and received the compliment of my dreams: “Where are you from? Oh, America? Your Russian is good; you sound like a Latvian.”
Favorite picture of trip: Orthodox church bathed in heavenly light.
I wish more Americans could/would travel, even within our own country. I wish I travel to other countries again, but finances aren't what they once were. It drives me nuts when I hear other Americans talking about the world and their entire first hand knowledge of it stops at their city or state line. And what makes it worse is it seems the ones with the most extreme views also never even read about other cultures or history because after all, they all want to be like us (to them anyway).
ReplyDeleteI don't want to rant on your page, but it is refreshing to read someone's experiences in exploring new places and seeing some of the world.