From Russia With Love

I had initially planned to do more posts from Moscow as I went along, but as it turns out I was either too busy or too tired to keep the blog updated. So, breaking the pattern I set on my other trips, I’ll do some more specific posts after I get back and keep my thoughts general for now, throwing in some pictures here and there. Because, honestly, there is way too much to say about this city to cram into one post.

Fall has set in here and you can tell that winter isn’t far behind. Most of my days here have been cold and wet. Ironically, rain is the one weather word I couldn’t remember when I got here. If it was going to be sunny, cloudy, hot, warm, cold, windy, even snowy, I was set. But not rainy. Now I’m quite familiar with the word. Yet, while it would have been nice to have blue skies in my pictures, the weather hasn’t bothered me much at all. Aside from one day of soaked feet and one instance of crawling on my knees in the mud to avoid plummeting down a hillside (long story), the rain really didn’t faze me. I think I was just too happy to be here to care.

I still love it here. I loved it 13 years ago and I probably always will. I forgot how much walking there is here. I thought I walked a lot in New York, but my routine there is nothing compared to here. My feet are sore, which might be the only reason I’m ready for things to come to an end. I’m pretty much exhausted. When I lived here, I made a point of trying to see one thing a day and that was tiring enough. Running around and fitting a bunch of sights into a day is completely draining (but worth it).

There is just too much to see in five and half days, but I gave it a good run. On the train ride through Siberia I made a plan of what I wanted to see on what days, and then promptly abandoned it due to weather, opening hours and other impediments. Yet I still managed to hit almost everything on my list. Anything I didn’t get to will just have to wait till next time.

A lot of this visit was a big trip down memory lane. Nostalgia hit me hardest when I visited the university and a few other haunts where I spent a lot of my time when I was here. Most things were exactly like I remember them. I can’t claim to have remembered the whole city, but plop me down either in Red Square or at the University metro stop and I can find my way around like no time has passed. I also quickly found myself unintentionally slipping back into student mode, often foregoing sit-down meals in favor of eating on the run by grabbing  delicious bread products from babushka stands whenever I spotted them.

It’s hard to explain why this is my favorite place. It’s certainly not perfect. For starters, it’s far too smoky – everyone smokes everywhere, all the time. It can also be a huge pain just to get across Moscow’s massive streets, often having to cross underground. But even with those things, and the rain on top of it, I still don’t want to go home.

A few things are perfect, however. The first is the Moscow metro. It is beautiful and clean and well-marked and utterly efficient. In essence, it is everything that the New York subway is not. Provided that you can read Russian (which is the obvious catch), it is the easiest thing in the world to use. The trains all go where they are supposed to go when they are supposed to go there. It is hands down the best subway system I have seen in the world, and it has been running this way for decades. The fact that many of the metro stations are architectural masterpieces is really just the icing on the cake.

The other thing that is perfect is Red Square, or more specifically St. Basil’s Cathedral. I can literally sit and stare at it for hours and never get tired of it. Every time I catch a glimpse of it I’m still transfixed. I will also take countless pictures of it, even if I’ve taken 100 already. I’m fairly certain it’s my favorite structure I’ve ever seen. Last night, under an unusually clear sky with the moon shining down, I think it looked the most beautiful I’ve seen it yet.

But alas, my time here has come to an end yet again. My visa runs out tomorrow so I pretty much have no choice but to leave. Once again, this city has gotten under my skin. I can’t help but think that this visit won’t be my last. Moscow and I have a future together, I can feel it.

But now, as I prepare to head to the airport at an ungodly hour to start the trip home, I bid you all farewell.

From Russia With Love,

Steph