russia: I'm back in Moscow

My motivation to explore Moscow during my first full week back in the city was fantastic, so I took advantage. Ever since I'd known I would be returning for another school year I'd been keeping a list of random things and places to see around the city. 

This year is going to have a bunch of posts combining random places and things I've seen in Moscow. In September the days were still fairly long, which also helped, as I had time after work each day to go see something. 

My new flat is close to the purple metro line, so it seemed like a good idea to see the northern half of the stations on that line. (I visited the southern half last year.)

Metro trains in Moscow run every few minutes, and even more often during rush hour, so it doesn't take as long as you'd think to visit every station on a line.

Another day I took a few hours to visit the new section of the pink line, way over on the east/southeast side of the city.

It had just opened, and I was keen to see what kind of design had been chosen for each of the stations.

Each station had a different colour scheme, but none of them were outstanding. At the same time, they were all nice, and clean. Anyone living near these stations is probably thrilled they've finally opened, as transport by metro is really convenient around the city.

It's definitely a lot more convenient than going by buses, which often get stuck in traffic. And I don't like buses as much because they sometimes give me motion sickness. Ugh.

From time to time I wonder if native born Muscovites appreciate the metro system as much as foreigners do. Do they see how beautiful the stations are? Do they appreciate how clean they are? Do they appreciate how cheap the system is for riders?

On Tuesday afternoon the weather was amazing, and I had the afternoon off, so I went to see a couple places I'd seen on social media, a small park with sculptures of the zodiac symbols, and a so-called gymnastics palace.

Finding the zodiac park on the map was harder than getting there. Once I knew where to go it was just a matter of finding the closest metro station, then walking a little bit. 

Each sculpture was quite bit, and easily identifiable. I walked around and took photos of most of the sculptures, but everyone else in the park was just hanging out. Talking to each other, sitting on benches and relaxing, that sort of thing. 

I figured the building itself wouldn't be open, but that didn't matter because it was the outside of the building that interested me.The roof of this 'palace' could be described as a gold wave. If you're standing in the right place, the 'wave' reflects on the front windows, which is a pretty cool photo.

Getting to and from this palace involved riding on the red metro line, and since I hadn't seen the stations on the southern half of that line, this seemed like a perfectly good time to do so.

As expected, each station was different, some with more colour than others. One of the stations (the one closest to the gymnastics palace,) was actually over the middle of a river!

When you exit the station you decide which side of the river you'll walk to.

Thursday evening I left school and rode the metro to an area not far from where I lived last year. I'd seen a sculpture on social media, the sculpture was in an apartment complex. I had hopes of seeing it for myself, but after trying to see a crying Lady Liberty last year and being rebuffed because it was inside a courtyard of a closed apartment complex, I didn't let my hopes get too high.

This time I got lucky. The sculpture is of giant red hands making symbols. I have no idea if the symbols actually mean anything, or if they're just what the sculptor wanted to do.

Moscow has soooo many quirky things and places to see. The rest of this year is going to be fun!