russia: moscow with a visitor

I like having visitors, particularly those who are already independent travelers in their own right. This is important because visitors need to be able to entertain themselves during the day while I'm at work.

Sometime in early summer my friend Rachel messaged me asking about potentially coming to Russia. She'd found dates with cheap flights, and was keen to come. I was thrilled, as Rachel has lived in numerous countries as well, as well as having done lots of other international traveler.

It wasn't hard to get the paperwork she needed for her visa, and we got the dates set, and life was good. Rachel's flight arrived Monday evening, it was easy for me to meet her at the airport after school finished for the day.

The next morning Rachel slept in a bit while I worked, then met met at lunch. We had lunch with a couple other teachers, everyone got along well. After lunch we walked to Red Square. I've been there plenty of times, but I'm always willing to go back.

Every visitor to Moscow should see Red Square, it's one of the iconic spots in the city. It seems to me that many international media broadcasts about Russia are done from in or near Red Square. The photos of St Basil's cathedral at one end are well known, everyone takes one.

We also checked out GUM, the state department store on one side of the square. The mall is always decorated for the season or holiday, I like seeing what the current decorations look like.

After GUM we walked to Zaryadye Park, one of the newest parks in the city. Fun to wander around, partly to people watch and partly just to walk. Much of the park is carefully landscaped, and there are regular decorations put in, so it's always interesting to see.

After leaving the park we walked toward Christ the Saviour Cathedral, which is big and has gold domes on top. It's a fairly new church, though there is a long religious history in the actual location. I don't know why, but the doors were locked when we got there, argh. Oh well.

The next day Rachel did a bike tour around the city while I worked all day. Thursday night we had drinks at a bar near work, then went to a diner for dinner. Yum.

That weekend we took the train up to St Petersburg, arriving back in Moscow Monday morning. Dinner Monday night was at Cafe Soup. This place does have 'real' food on the menu, but the focus is the 44 different types of soup. They even have the option of a 'soup flight' like you can get a beer flight at a brewery.

I'm happy to admit I liked my dessert soup even more than my main course soup, which was already pretty good.Tuesday I did my normal teaching in the morning, then met Rachel again for lunch. We went to an Asian restaurant I like, enjoying huge bowls of pho.

From there we hopped back on the metro, going out to Izmailovo. I've been there enough times that I'm not a huge fan anymore, but I do think it's a neat place for visitors to explore. Izmailovo has a great market for souvenirs, though since the weather wasn't great while we were there, and it was low season, there weren't as many vendors as usual.

Far better than the market area is the park, which is basically across the road. (Thought you have to go a long way around to get into the property.) It was still raining, but I Rachel was okay with walking in the rain if I was, and I didn't want to hold her back on her last day in Russia.

We walked around the island in the middle of Izmailovo park, and ended up with a decent sunset looking back over Izmailovo market.

From there we went to another great dinner at a place called Lepim i Varim. Rachel loves researching places to eat when she travels, while I don't give it as much thought. Since the soup place had been so awesome I had no trouble following her to what she'd picked out for this last dinner.

Lepim i Varim specializes in pelmeni, basically Russian dumplings. I'm not a huge fan, because most of those I've had in Russia have been from a place where the smell is always slightly off. Going to this restaurant totally changed my mind.

Both of us ordered two main course bowls of pelmeni, and a dessert bowl of pelmeni. YUM. (And Instagram worthy, hee hee.)

The next morning I was sad to put Rachel in a taxi to the airport. Since her visa is good for three years, I hope to see her again in Russia before I move out of the country.

russia: moscow: a festival, a park, a food court, and another park

This post will actually be a combination of two days.

The first was my first Wednesday afternoon of the new school year. I have the same schedule as I did last year, meaning I have Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons off. I hope I continue to explore Moscow on Wednesday afternoons.

My goal this Wednesday afternoon was to see an exhibit of Bansky works in a museum. Unfortunately, when I got there they told me the exhibit had already finished. I was gutted, as I'm not likely to be able to see Bansky works anytime soon.

Since the weather was really nice, I decided to keep walking. For the first time ever, I found the pedestrian bridge near Christ the Saviour Cathedral. I'm not sure why it took me so long to find the bridge, as it is well known, and regularly featured on social media. I crossed the bridge, but didn't go in the church, as I've seen it previously and didn't need to repeat it that day.

The other day I'm writing about was the following Sunday. After a good day trip on Saturday we all had a lay in on Sunday, not meeting up until 1100 at a metro station. We walked from Kurskaya metro station to a former warehouse district that has been redeveloped as a hip place.

This district seems to host various festivals, I'd heard about one this weekend called Delhi Bazaar. It was supposed to be all things Indian, but it wasn't very exciting at all. We found a booth with "Indian" flavoured ice creams, which wasn't bad. Sadly, that was the highlight of the festival.

After the lameness of the festival, we took the metro over to a station called Oktyabrskaya. This was the Sunday of the city's birthday weekend, so there were special decorations and events all over Moscow.

There was a small kite festival taking place near the metro station, all around the Lenin statue that stands not far from one of the exits. I'm used to seeing Lenin statues around Russia, but I'm not used to seeing daily life continuing around them. I imagine that used to be different, but Lenin usually looks rather lonely these days.

We walked down the street to Gorky Park, which was full of people. Great weather and a birthday weekend meant we were sharing Moscow with every resident. Claire and I both told Angela we weren't fans of Gorky Park, but both felt as though there must be something we were missing, as it is quite popular. 

After this walk through, our opinions hadn't changed, we still didn't know why the park is so popular.

We hopped back on the metro, riding north to get to a food court I'd heard about. Last weekend Claire and I had joined Jeff at an upmarket Indian restaurant, now we wanted to try a cheaper place in this food court. The place was super busy, and it took us a while to find the place we wanted, but it was worth it.

Finding seating was definitely the most difficult part of that meal, the food was great.

After eating we opted to go see one more thing. More metro riding took us out to Izmailovo Park. It is close to where Angela is living, and though it is near Izmailovo market, I hadn't seen it previously. There is a body of water around an 'island,' and I got lucky with a photo that had a nice reflection.

The island itself had a church, a statue, a museum of some kind, and a lovely path along the water. We followed the path all the way to the other end of the island, really enjoying the sunset behind Izmailovo market. Now I know why people come out here :)

From there Angela decided to walk home, while Claire and I hopped back on the metro to go to our homes. A great first weekend back in Moscow!