Russia on The Silk Route | Moscow

Russia and The Silk Route | Moscow

21.01.12

Co-written by both Christina and Hattie

Having not long regaled you with tails of St. Petersburg, we are already bringing you the latest from Moscow, just before we hop onto the Silk Route train this evening to Kazakhstan. After travelling across the contrasting empty landmasses between Russia and Kazakhstan, the hustle and bustle of Moscow is sure to feel like a distant memory.

St. Petersburg being the European 'capital' of Russia, built by Italian architects and heavily influenced by its European brethrens has left Moscow in comparison feeling rather more... well, 'Russian'. 

  

Its beautiful grand onion domed Orthodox buildings, juxtaposing the many colder, sharper, more city like examples of breathtaking design creates a rather mixed skyline.

Our hostel here, Godzilla's, has been great. For the cheap price of 5000 roubles (about 10 pounds) per night the hostel offers fantastic modern, clean facilities - free internet, lounge room, two well equipped kitchens, plenty of showers etc. The location is great too. Only thing to watch out for is the 600 rouble registration fee (considerably higher than other hostels). 

It has been colder here than we found it in St. Petersburg, and our first day of roaming the street for a feel of our new location, found that one pair of gloves - leather with fleece lining or not - was not entirely sufficient when out for hours at a time, and that if you tried to breath into your scarf to warm your chin, it would just freeze and turn into tiny ice crystals on the surface of the wool.

A hat covering the sides of your face, as extreme as it may look, is a good idea in -12 temperatures, although the locals seem to be fine without... but they probably have the good sense to get the metro most places. Which we did the following day on our goose chase to find a Photography Gallery in our 'Top 10' Moscow book, that seemed to not actually exist - or at least not in any of the (three contradicting) places the guide book incorrectly detailed. For the correct location visit the House of Photography website. 

We did however manage to visit an artist's quarter and creative industries site (a converted/restored industrial area) that had some cute 'pop up' galleries, and interesting art works that we would recommend. The work showed only a few real gems that jumped out at us, and also seemed to comprise of trendy clothes shops and gift shops as much as anything else, but was well worth the trip and harboured some inspiration for our own project that we had not yet begun.

On our first day we headed out to the Red Square, which was stunning and without a doubt held great significance to those around us - who perhaps had more ties to its history and a better memory of The Cold War.

We also visited St. Basil's Cathedral and Gorky Park, which was a lot quieter than we had expected although it looks as though there was an exciting art market surrounding the site which we were unfortunately a little late on - however that which was being packed away was clearly works of established local artists (or simply being traded locally and sourced perhaps further afield) as it was largely impressive quality realist paintings that were paramount to some of the classic in the museums, with equally detailed but more modern works too.

Our brief time in this busy city with lots to offer has presented a different side to Russia, and surprisingly despite the less ornate feel, a more rounded view of the culture, including the small and fast developing art scene that is sprouting despite its stunted and culturally suppressed past. 

The temperature is much lower here, or at least has been over the course of our stay, and is a small exciting but slightly nerve racking glimpse of what's to come in the extreme conditions of Kazakhstan.

To see our Moscow photos visit our Travel Photos page.