See What Tim Is Doing: From Russia with love...Moscow (July 15-18)

St Petersburg surprised me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Moscow. Was it going to be the same as St Petersburg, or was I in for a completely different kind of city?

We left St Petersburg which we had all fallen in love with and boarded our overnight train to Moscow. We had a little trouble when buying our tickets, but again we had a visit from a travel fairy and she saved the day and us make our purchase. So we had our tickets, found our big, soviet looking train, located our carriage and got on board. We all had small beds that were not long enough to lay to full extent, it was 28 degrees with no air conditioning or windows and we were the only foreigners on the train. Sounds bad? Well to be fair once we got going it wasn’t to bad, had an amazing sunset out the windows (at about 1230am) and then slept and woke up in Moscow.

Arrival in Moscow and we were all wondering what is it going to be like. Wishing for something like St Petersburg but at the same time hoping for a new city for adventures. Upon exiting the train station we were greeted with the city that is Moscow. Big, loud, grey and intimidating, not quite the same as St Petersburg. So we got a cab, paid way too much but we got to our hostel safe and sound.

Over the days we were here, we literally did the same thing, walk for hours, look at amazing sites and take in the city. Although it wasn’t the same as St Petersburg, it was still just as fun.

We saw Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and it was stunning, ventured to a park that was home to a bunch of old, abandoned carnival rides, wandered through random streets, saw the Kremlin, Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral which were all just as amazing as the pictures in books, and rode the extremely confusing metro. Also we were lucky enough to get into Lennin’s tomb and see his body, which was creepy, but cool. And nearly forgot we also went to Izmaylovo Market, which are the biggest open air markets in Europe. They sold everything there, Russian matryoshka/babushk dolls, fur hats, wolf skin (complete with head and feet), old postcards and money, army helmets, soviet style cameras, war memorabilia and every kind of tourist trinket ever made. Then a separate section of the market was a giant flea market and the crap people were selling was mind-boggling. I don’t know how they think that someone might want to buy their old handkerchief or placemat, but they do and they literally will try to sell anything. But what they lack for in their products, they make up for with their character. Some friendly, smiling and posing for the camera, while others have faces that tell a story of a hard life and hide at first sign of a camera. The markets we definitely worth the visit!

Although the city itself may not of been as pretty as St Petersburg, it still had its charms, beautiful attractions and Red Square is amazing (especially at 2am when there is no one there!).

After abusing my body (and bank balance) for majority of my trip so far, I decided Moscow was going to be a bit quieter and I would only go out once, so I avoided heading out until Saturday night, which we had planned to be a decent night out, and that it was. The night kicked off at a bar near our hostel where we got 3.3l tubes of beer and got to work on them, as well a sheesha (which the guy asked if we wanted anything special in there to make us feel funny and dizzy, but for our safety we declined). The crew started with 5, and soon became 10, with a decent mix of nationalities; Australian, Danish, Irish, German, Brazilian and French. The night was going fast and before we knew it, it was midnight and we had heard that getting into clubs after midnight could be a problem, but we thought give it a try and see what happens. Luckily we got there and had no problem getting in, as well as the midnight lock outs they also have ‘face control’ which literally means if they don’t like the look of you or how you are dressed then you wont get in.

We enter Propaganda to be greeted with loud music, crazy lights and hundred of people partying. The night was a typical night of dancing, drinking etc but the one highlight for me was waiting at the bar with Tom (Danish guy) and a big, bald Russian coming up and putting me under his arm around me and telling me we must have a drink together. So me, Tom, Divok (not sure if that was his name but its what it sounded like) and two of his girlfriends lined up some vodka, threw them back and got our beers and were about to leave. Then he was like 'no you can’t leave, not yet' and we thought sh*t, have we got ourselves into a situation now, is this guy a pimp and now he wants us to take his girls, or is he going to rack up a massive bill and then leave it with us? Luckily our quick panic was washed down with another shot and we realised that Divok was just a nice guy, interested in us (as he had never met either an Australian or Dane) and wanted to show us a good night in Moscow, oh and the girls weren’t hookers, it was his girlfriend and his sister. We drank with him for a substantial amount of time and had more vodka then I care to remember, and when we decided to call it a night, we asked him how much we owed him for our share of the bill, and his reply “nothing, you paid for it with your company. I have a lot of money and I had a lot of fun, so you not pay me, your money is no good here” so we hugged it out said our goodbyes, scraped Ben (one of the other guys in the group) off the ground and got into a cab home, feeling already worse for wear. So jumped into bed around 430-5am and fell asleep instantly, unlike Tom who apparently got naked in his room, did some sort of dance around the room and then took a pee on someones bag and fell asleep, and had no recollection of it the next morning.

So Russia is now over, which is sad but at the same time exciting as tomorrow I will be in Beijing, a city I expect to be the polar opposite of Russia. Russia has been amazing. After hearing horror stories of people getting mugged, police pulling them up and wanting bribes, border crossing nightmares, getting ripped off and all the kind of jazz, I was half expecting at least something bad to happen, but it didn’t. I felt just as safe as any other city I have been to. If anyone is considering going to Russia, do it. Don’t be put off by these stories, the cities are amazing, the people are lovely (although knowing a little Russian definitely helped) and it is just an amazing place! I love Russia!

Things learnt in Moscow, Russia:

• Russians still believe heavily in chivalry. Girls expect doors to be opened for
them, be allowed in first to places, chairs pulled out etc.

• Moscow was not always the capital of Russia, it was, then it was moved to St
Petersburg and then back to Moscow in 1918.

• The metro is not the easiest to navigate

• Moscow has more billionaires living in its streets than any other city on earth