Into the City

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THE RECEPTION area in the hotel was very crowded with mostly Chinese tour groups meeting some for today’s tours, and others leaving Moscow to head towards their next destination on their journeys around the world.

Izmaylovo Metro Station

It was time for me to meet my guide. I had no idea who he or she would be. The only information I had was my guide was meeting me here in this reception area 9:00. Somehow, we will have to find each other in this sea of people. Thankfully though, he quickly found me.

Pavel had quite a large balding egg-shaped head, with short hair. He seemed very friendly, explaining he was from Murmansk, a city about 1900 kilometres to the north by road, at the edge of the Arctic Ocean two degrees north of the Arctic Circle. For me coming from the subtropics this was a very cold day, colder than any in Brisbane since perhaps the middle of the last ice age. For Pavel, this was pretty warm, with the temperature expected to just reach double figures later today.

Izmaylovo Metro Station

We left the chaos of the hotel reception area and passed a couple of small shops entering a glassy building descending an escalator into the metro system. Izmaylovo Station was quite impressive, with numerous people on the platforms (though rush hour would be over well by now). Several train lines were serviced by a couple of platforms. The ceiling was flat and held up with square pillars lined with laminated granite. The occasional pillar had a larger than life statue of some Soviet figure. The steps we had just climbed down had an enormous Soviet plaque at the top.

On train with Pavel

Pavel led me to one of the platforms as a train was arriving. It was a rather boxy metro train. It stopped, the doors opened with lots of people filing out. When they were out we followed the tide of people heading into the carriage. All the seats were taken, as was much of the standing room.

Standing as the train lurched forward into the dark tunnels of the subway Pavel took my camera and took a selfie of us as the train continued lurching through the dark tunnel. Some of the other passengers gave us a funny look – tourist alert!

Another Station

At one point Pavel signalled me we were getting off at the next station. Not having any idea where I was I trusted him. We got out at the rather crowded Trubnaya Station with its arched ceiling and decorated columns. I followed Pavel to the end of the platform and headed down a fairly short escalator to another level where we caught another dark green subway train. Again, this one was crowded so we remained standing until he directed me to get off as it pulled into another station.

Catching another train

Heading out of Trubnaya Station we passed some very European looking stained glass windows in the otherwise fairly drab station with arched roof. We took an escalator a long way up to the surface. The angled tunnel was rather drab with florescent lights rising out of the surface between the escalators. There was no advertising or decoration in the tunnel, just the concrete walls.

Trubnaya Station

We reached the surface passing through the station entrance out to the outside, under the heavy overcast sky. The two to three storey buildings and paving were all grey as well. All the colour had completely gone from the cityscape. Perhaps it was because I had become so accustomed to the village near the hotel and had spent three days travelling through the brilliant autumn colours of the forests across Siberia.

The buildings here were all old. Pavel led me about a block to some government area where a very stern guard was preventing access. Pavel need to quickly call into one of the buildings to pick up my ticket to St Petersburg tomorrow night. He told me to wait as he disappeared past the guarded line and into one of the buildings. The guard initially looked me over sternly, but seeing I wasn’t going to do anything, he just left me alone.

Trubnaya Station

Pavel returned a few minutes later with my ticket. That was one less thing to worry about. With my ticket, he led me through the wide paved streets through the small government buildings all very well decorated from pre-soviet times but all looking stern with high wrought iron gates outside them. Many had pillars either side of their entrances with spectacular decorating of carved people and patterns in the stonework. That would have kept someone very busy.

Escalator to the surface

We reached a small mall alley with four-metre-high deciduous trees bright orange with autumn colours. These were the first colours I had seen since the subway. The mall had quite a lot of people walking through it, all wearing long dark coats.

Stone pre-Soviet architecture

As we walked along the mall as the buildings on either side became higher. Then the lane ended in a much wider mall the width of two lanes. The buildings around here were pastel coloured, mostly peach coloured. In the middle of the junction was a large sign three metres high decorated in vegetation saying Moscow (written in Cyrillic with the lettering looking more like Mockba). Pavel explained this was the two-week autumn festival where harvests are celebrated and a lot of performances are done.

KGB Headquarters

Passing the sign we entered another narrow mall. Lights were hung up over the mall, but weren’t on as it was day time. Along the mall were several stalls made of dark timber. They were decorated with the oranges, yellows and reds of autumn vegetables, fruit and leaves. Each stall was selling something harvested out in farmland somewhere away from the city. People were walking up and down the mall all going somewhere, but few were at the stalls. Occasionally we would pass a cart with hay bales and vegetables.

Bolshoi Theatre

Heading further along the mall, we turned into a wider road sized mall walking along it. At the end of the mall was an orange building angled diagonal to the street. It stood about eight levels high. Pavel mentioned this was the Lubyanka Building, the home of the KGB headquarters. The KGB is an initialism for Komitet Gosudarsvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security). It was the main security agency for the Soviet Union between its formation in 1954 to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. It had the motto “Loyalty to the party – Loyalty to the motherland”.

Bougainvillia arch

Upon reaching the KGB, the road angled onto a new wider road with cars roaring along it. We followed the road passing a couple of very soviet looking boxy concrete buildings. After crossing one precarious road, we reached a large sandstone coloured building with nine white columns in front holding up a gable with a spectacular full sized copper chariot with four horses raised on their back legs and a rider. This was the Bolshoi Theatre.

Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is the main building holding Russian ballet and opera performances. It has by far the largest ballet company with more than two hundred dancers. The current theatre was reconstructed in 1883. The original company was founded in 1776, holding performances in a private home before moving to the Pretorovka Theatre in 1780. The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1805, then again by fire during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812. The original version of the current theatre was built between 1821 and 1824 before it was largely damaged by fire again and the current building constructed.

Fountain outside Bolshoi Theatre

As we approached it, we walked through a tunnel of bougainvillea set up for the harvest festival. Once through the short tunnel we reached a large bronze fountain outside the building.

Metropol Hotel

Across the road was one of the inner-city hotels, the Metropol. mainly for people conducting business in Moscow, remembering all the tourists stay out of town in the Izmaylovo complex (plus this hotel is expensive at over $200 per night). Pavel mentioned there was writing on the wall on the hotel about socialism being the way and capitalism was evil. It was ironic that is was written on a hotel that hosts the wealthy business people who come to Moscow of all places.