Moscow Diaries: Not Another Manic Monday
This is a city that always offers a surprise or two, even for hardcore locals, and that's what makes Moscow so much fun.
A few weeks ago when the Moscow City Government sent a delegation to Bombay for a travel trade exhibition, a senior member of the city’s tourism bureau spoke about how safe the city was. He mentioned that there were cameras everywhere and that the police could track down any criminal within minutes.
Even without these cameras I have always felt safe in this city, especially since I started coming here regularly from 2012. This morning when I sat at a cafe near my hotel in what seemed like an uneventful Monday morning, I noticed a man, presumably in his 30s, filming me and then giggling and saying something to himself. He then filmed himself and then the staff at the cafe and finally walked out.
One waitress then approached me to ask if I had any idea who he was. I joked and said he must be from some ‘agency,’ to which she laughed loudly. “I thought he was a friend of yours, who was happy to see you,” she replied. “No, I do know many people in Moscow but he’s not one of them.”
We then chose to agree that he was just someone who wasn’t right in the head.
I did walk around quite a bit today in the sun. Even in -10 degree-weather, the strong northern sun can warm up the face- the only part of the body that can’t be covered up while outdoors.
At the end of the working day, a friend who is a resident of northern Moscow turned up for an evening stroll. This person who was raised in this metropolis insisted that I knew the city centre in intricate detail and wanted to walk with me. The sun had set by then and the unforgiving late winter breeze began to blow heavily. The twilight, though, with its gorgeous colours made for a beautiful sight.
Seven Sisters
This was an evening where I would show the local friend five of the so-called Seven Sisters, skyscrapers built in Stalinist style between 1947 and 1953.
We walked down the Bolshaya Sadovaya (Big Garden) Street from the 1949-built Hotel Peking, passing the US embassy (and the nice ‘decorations’ supporting the Russian army in Ukraine in front of it) and onwards towards the Kudrinskaya Square Building and then touching New Arbat and seeing the Russian Foreign Ministry, before heading towards the Hotel Ukraina and crossing the Moskva River one of many bridges over it, and getting a glimpse of the Moscow State University.
Our final destination was a nice Central Asian restaurant near the Kievsky Railway Station.
The northern Moscow resident, who avoids driving into the city centre as navigation devices don’t work properly there, said I had every right to claim to be a proper Muscovite, given how well I knew the city. This walk can be absolutely glorious in the summer, especially at the end of June when the sun sets really late at night. Then a sweatshirt is more than enough.
After 20,000 steps today I realised how lucky Moscow residents are to live in a megapolis that is so pedestrian-friendly. This is truly one of the world’s greatest cities.
The food at the restaurant, featuring flavours from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, did not disappoint one bit and made the long walk on such a cold evening feel worthwhile.
