I know I went on at length about how fantastic I thought the Moscow metro was while I was over there. Since I've been back in New York I've been spending a lot of time on the subway, and my feelings have only grown stronger. When you're forced to rely on public transportation to get around every day, you tend to block out as many of the bad parts as possible. Once I started paying more attention again, all the horribleness of the NYC subway came back full force - the filthiness, the horrible smells, the rats.
In an attempt to erase those horrible images and prevent nightmares, I'm going to revisit the loveliness of the Moscow metro system. Here are highlights from some of the more impressive stations.
Kievskaya: Chandeliers, mosaics and the requisite tribute to Lenin.
Ploshchad Revolyutsii: Life-size bronze statues; people rub the dogs' noses for good luck (you can see how shiny they are). This was Stalin's favorite station.
Mayakovskaya: Art deco styling with 35 ceiling mosaics depicting "24 Hours in the Land of the Soviets."
Novoslobodskaya: A gorgeous station with back-lit stained glass panels. This might be my favorite station.
Komsomolskaya: Perhaps the most ornate of all the metro stations, with soaring Baroque ceilings and gilded chandeliers.
It still amazes me that the city of Moscow manages to keep these gorgeous stations in such pristine condition, with no concerns about graffiti or vandalism. And this is just a handful of the stations. It's by no means an understatement to say that you could spend an entire day riding around and taking it all in.
Add to the gorgeousness the fact that the trains come every 2-3 minutes (at most) like clockwork and the fact that the rare construction disruption is clearly announced and marked, and the Moscow metro beats the NYC subway in every category.
With a system like this, I might actually look forward to commuting every day...
In an attempt to erase those horrible images and prevent nightmares, I'm going to revisit the loveliness of the Moscow metro system. Here are highlights from some of the more impressive stations.
Kievskaya: Chandeliers, mosaics and the requisite tribute to Lenin.
Ploshchad Revolyutsii: Life-size bronze statues; people rub the dogs' noses for good luck (you can see how shiny they are). This was Stalin's favorite station.
Mayakovskaya: Art deco styling with 35 ceiling mosaics depicting "24 Hours in the Land of the Soviets."
Novoslobodskaya: A gorgeous station with back-lit stained glass panels. This might be my favorite station.
Komsomolskaya: Perhaps the most ornate of all the metro stations, with soaring Baroque ceilings and gilded chandeliers.
It still amazes me that the city of Moscow manages to keep these gorgeous stations in such pristine condition, with no concerns about graffiti or vandalism. And this is just a handful of the stations. It's by no means an understatement to say that you could spend an entire day riding around and taking it all in.
Add to the gorgeousness the fact that the trains come every 2-3 minutes (at most) like clockwork and the fact that the rare construction disruption is clearly announced and marked, and the Moscow metro beats the NYC subway in every category.
With a system like this, I might actually look forward to commuting every day...
