Chapter 3 - Five days in Moscow

In 2018, we embarked on an ambitious journey to go from Europe to Asia mostly by land. It was a fantastic trip, and I shared the highlights of this trip on a now-defunct blog. I'm republishing these travel stories here, for myself, to share with family and friends, and hopefully to inspire some strangers.

This article was originally written and published on August 28, 2018

Read Chapter 2 - First days in St Petersburg, Russia here

Day 1: arriving in Moscow and setting up the nest in the capsule hotel

We took the fast train to cover the 600km between SPB and Moscow in 4 hours. We were sharing our compartment with a Chinese family from Chengdu (the Panda place, as they told us). They were lovely and the dad tried all his best English on us, then tried to make his teenage daughter speak English to no avail. We understood that she spoke pretty good English when she translated “Thank you we cannot eat this pork sandwich we are vegetarian” to her dad. Their 4-year-old son was also really keen on shouting English words from his English book that he suddenly decided to read.

We arrived and Moscow and noticed the change from Saint Petersburg: It is an imposing capital, and there is weight and authority in Soviet Architecture.

We took the metro and walked to our Capsule hotel. It was cheap and had good reviews, so we thought it would be a good idea. We were welcomed by an English-speaking friendly guy, who asked for our passport and registration card from our previous place. He told us the place with Satan’s light in SPB had forgotten to register us for our last day. I don’t really know what are the consequences of this, but I doubt we can do much about it. They registered us for free at their place for our time in Moscow. We then set up our capsule, which as you can expect, is quite narrow. Knackered from the travel and the previous day, we decided to do some grocery shopping and relax in the hotel.

Day 2: St Basil cathedral, anti-cafe, and meeting Daria

We decided to go check out Red Square and St Basil Cathedral ( the famous colorful cathedral with the pointy domes). We were quite excited but ended up slightly disappointed as the view from Red Square looking towards St Basil cathedral was obstructed by the scaffolding in preparation for the Spasskaya tower Festival (more on that later). Nonetheless, it was really impressive to walk around, and we decided to visit the interior of St Basil Cathedral.

I don’t know if we have been spoiled by SPB or if we are getting some travel fatigue already but we found it a bit underwhelming. I got the feeling that the building is better looking from the outside than from the inside. It was packed with hordes of bussed-around tourists and a bit stuffy. The inside is made of brick and painted beautifully, but there is just so much religious painting you can see until you do not care anymore. On a good note, we randomly met our Chinese buddies in the Church.

We had lunch at Avocado, a fancy veggie place in central Moscow. We were really happy to have a meal containing fiber and fresh vegetables!

We then headed to an anti-cafe. Beejal had spotted quite a few in central Moscow and was really really keen on visiting one. Anti-cafes are places where you pay for your time, not for your beverages. Coffee, tea, and pastries are free, they provide fast internet, and they were apparently really popular in former Soviet countries. Today they welcome a range of patrons from upper-class moms with their kids to tech-savvy Russian using the place as a co-working space.

The anti-cafe was located in a residential building on a street parallel to the main avenue. The atmosphere immediately struck me as cool and homely. The furniture, the quietness, the high-quality free coffee, we loved it all. We spend the best part of 2 hours there, relaxing and taking-in the atmosphere. It was the perfect place to hang out. We normally try to have a break in the afternoon and our place was too far, so this was the perfect setting.

Later that day, Beejal had arranged to meet up with Daria, a Russian girl keen to practice her English with us whom she met through Couchsurfing. We met not far from Red Square. Daria was really lovely and quite nervous about meeting us at first. She gave us a tour of the Kitay-Gorod neighborhood and the gorgeous Zaryadye Park, recently built for the World Cup. The park is located between the Moskva river and St Basil cathedral. A new fancy futurist theatre/concert hall has been built in the middle, as well as a sort of platform overlooking the river and giving you a grandiose view of the river.

We then went to a language meet-up and chatted with friendly Russian people for 2 hours. We were obviously the only foreigners there, and we felt like our presence was really welcomed, especially Beejal with her British accent!

Day 3: Gorki park shenanigans, Gum Gallery

Following the internet and Daria’s advice, we headed to Gorki park for the day. I think we were both looking forward to some nature. Gorki park is relatively big and really enjoyable. We walked around until we finally found a booth that rents scooters (trottinettes, en francais), longboards, and bicycles. As some of you may be aware, we rented some scooters and had an absolute blast!

We chilled out and scooted around most of the day, then we walked along the embankment toward the statue of Peter the Great, an almost 100m tall statue on a small island surrounded by the Moskva river.

We walked back to Red square and went to check out GUM gallery, an immense shopping area with early XX century architecture. We then headed home for dinner and rest.

Day 4: The Kremlin and Spasskaya tower festival

Thursday was our last full day in Moscow. We planned to go visit the famous Kremlin in the morning, have an afternoon break and go to the Spasskaya Tower festival in the evening.

We headed to the Kremlin, where we followed some clever Reddit advice and got our ticket from the machine, avoiding a few hours of queueing. (The ticketing system we have seen everywhere in Russia is a bit confusing.) As with everything we’ve seen in Moscow so far, it is big. There is a mix of the modern Soviet-looking government building and a complex of half a dozen cathedrals. Like St Basil cathedral, we felt that the cathedrals were much more interesting to look at than to visit. It was also packed with people. I guess we have reached cathedral and museum fatigue!

We then spent time enjoying the beautiful garden and then headed to Fresh, a quite fancy veg restaurant in central Moscow. One of the pleasure of the low roubles (for us) is that you can enjoy some great food at reasonable Western European prices.

After lunch, it was time to buy groceries in preparation for the train and to get ready for the Spasskaya Tower festival. Spasskaya Tower festival is a military music festival where military bands from all around the world come to Moscow to play on the Red Square in front of Spasskaya Tower, part of the Kremlin Fortress. Again, like most good things in my life, Beejal is the one who found out about it.

We went there around 20:00 when things just started. The setting is phenomenal: you are sat in some sort of amphitheater on the Red Square, surrounded by an all-lights and sounds show, with troops in uniform playing military music; behind you there is the beautiful Spasskaya Tower and St Basil cathedral is overlooking the place. And let's be honest, military parades on Moscow Red Square ticks a lot of boxes.

For the finale, all the bands filled up Red Square and played all together, in the biggest live orchestra I have ever seen. Then they shot the canons on top of Spasskaya Tower and started a massive firework over the Moskva River! The perfect finale for our time in Moscow!

Day 5: off to Siberia!

Woke up early, got ready, and headed to Moscow Kazansky station. We are going to Siberia!