Moscow’s Magnificent Metro -why you should spend time underground

 

Alphabet challenge on the Moscow Metro!

I was a little bit perplexed to find ‘Moscow Metro Tour’ as an inclusion on my Traveltalk ‘Highlights of Russia’ trip. I kind of shrugged my shoulders, thought ‘oh well’, and didn’t think anything more about it until the tour guide announced we would be going on the Moscow Metro that afternoon.

I thought at least this excursion should help me to get a handle on how to use the Metro. Previously I’ve used the New York subway, the Paris Metro, as well as the one on Barcelona. Obviously I use the London Underground a lot too. The hardest part for me has always been the initial establishing and following the ticketing system, and this is always harder when its a different language and even more when its a different alphabet – hence I didn’t attempt to use use public transport in Beijing when I was there earlier this year.

So that is how I came to find myself being handed two tickets and sticking to my tour guide like glue as my biggest fear at this stage was being left behind – either on a station platform or a train. I was really worried as we had yet to check into our hotel so I wouldn’t know where to head and this would be compounded by the unfamiliarity of the station names and the strange alphabet, all of which would mean I would be very, very, hopelessly lost.

It was as we gathered in the ticket hall at our first Metro station that I began to realise that there might be something different about the Moscow metro – we were in a massive marble/granite foyer with a memorial to the 1917 Revolution, and not only was it expansive, it was also very clean – no litter, no grime. The same was the case for the escalator, it was light, wide and spacious, and had art-deco era lights that lit the way. Once we got to the bottom we were greeted by a great cavernous space decorated with large bronze statues celebrating, what was at the time this particular station was opened (1954), Soviet socialist life and all that it brought to the Russian people.

This station was Ploschat Revolutsii, it was underneath Revolution Square and as it was opened at the heart of the Stalin era, its design and decoration definitely reflected this.

The Moscow Metro was opened in 1935 and at that time it consisted of 1 line and 13 stations. Fast forward to 2017 and there are 229 stations and 14 lines, and it’s used on average by just under seven million people each day.  At the time it was opened it was celebrated as a technological and ideological victory for communism and by association for Stalin. This is somewhat ironic as while the Soviets did the labour and the art work, the main engineering designs and plans were handled by engineers who had previously worked on the London Underground.

The different stations have particular themes – thus you have the station dominated by chandeliers, and that feels like you are in a palace rather than a metro station.

Another station was decorated to celebrate the ties between Russia and the Ukraine -this too was a station built in the 50s when the Soviet world was very different, as the relationship between the two countries is a little different now. The stations make use of different art forms from plastering to mosaics to stain glass windows.

So how easy is it to use the Moscow Metro? Well considering the language difficulties it was surprisingly easy. The Metro map is very similar to the London one with its lines being colour coded and numbered. On most of the trains I used the next station was announced in English and in Russian, and so as long as you knew the name of your station you were likely to get off at the right place. The trains also had maps of the lines with both English and Russian on display, and as an added bonus the next stop was lit up on this map (one line we went on didn’t have this). The stations had helpful directions on the floor which helped to ensure you were travelling in the right direction. Unlike the London Underground the Moscow Metro has Wifi and the trains run like clockwork – I experienced no delays. Tickets cost 55 rubles per ride, and you can load more than one ride on your ticket, and go as far, and change lines as many times as you like for your ride.

On the last day I needed to get to the airport and it would have cost me 55€, which was a bit steep for me so I set myself the challenge of getting there by public transport. The first hiccup I struck was finding out that I had run out of journeys on my ticket, necessitating the loading of another journey onto it. Language was a bit difficult at the ticket office, but with some sign language I got  what I wanted across, and as I only had 40 rubles left I was lucky that I was able to pay by card. From here it was one change, to the circle line at Kurskaya, and then to Paveletskaya, where I would catch the airport express train. The only real difficulty was finding the station for the airport train that was, as it turned out, diagonally across the Square from the Metro – but I suspect I missed a sign, because while I was waiting for the train I noticed what I think was a sign pointing directly to the Underground.

Looking relieved having made it safely to the airport express train

Writing this, it makes my journey to the airport sound oh so easy, but it required a lot of concentration, and dealing with feelings of fear and tension, but I’m glad I did it. As I go forward on my travels I intend to challenge myself like this more often. How about you, how have you found using public transport in strange places? I’d love it if you left me a comment below about your experiences.

Reflections on Russia

This blog is intended to provide a summary of my perceptions of Russia and  how I felt about my time there, rather than a travel blog about the places I visited and my recommendations of what to see and do in Russia. I started writing this piece at Domdedovo airport as I tried to make sense of my Russian experience and how I found Russia as a country – it was just so unexpected and full of surprises.

I was supposed to go to Russia in 2014, but circumstances intervened and I never got there, but the desire to travel to Russia remained. I didn’t want to travel to Russia as an independent traveller on my own – I thought it would be too much hard work navigating my way around with a completely different alphabet, and the difficulty of getting a visa. It all seemed a bit complicated without the support of a tour company I thought.  So I kept an eye out for Russian trips, and several months ago I found one that fitted my criteria – cheap, not too long (around 6-7 days) and one that visited both St Petersburg and Moscow. As with my Morocco trip, the one I found was operated by TravelTalk.  As I had yet to go on the Morocco tour at that point,  I thought I should wait, my reasoning being that I should try the Morocco tour before I bought another with the same company. However I quickly reassessed my plan when I went to a Traveltalk evening in Fulham a couple of months back, and they were offering a substantial discount if you booked on the night and paid a £10 deposit that was subtracted off the already discounted price. I signed up immediately!

I grew up in the latter part of the Soviet era  and I’m sure this coloured what I was expecting to see find and feel in Russia, I was expecting it to be utilitarian, grey, secretive, very cold and slightly scary. I knew intellectually that Russia had changed … I knew of St Petersburg and its beautiful wide streets, canals and its stunning architecture, but this was underpinned by what I knew from what I had read – the hardship of its severe winters, the Revolution of 1917, the Second World War, Stalin, the KGB, and Siberia etc. I knew also of perestroika, glasnost and the changes instigated in the Gorbachev era, but also of Putin who is often portrayed in the West as a tough guy more concerned with his photographic image, than as a loved leader of his country, which is how the Russians I spoke with saw him (although they have an ironic enjoyment of the tough guy image too – there were Tshirts, hip flasks Russian Dolls for sale, all with his image).

The Russia of today, or at least the parts I visited, is not any of that – its a modern, vibrant, and colourful country, but to be fair at the time of year I visited it was indeed very cold, and it was not yet full on winter. The people were friendly and helpful, and mostly spoke good English, even though this was always prefaced by “I speak only a very little”.

In St Petersburg I visited beautifully restored palaces and churches, as well as trendy bars and eateries, but also had plenty of opportunity to try the more traditional offerings – I sampled borscht and traditional Russian salads, stroganoff and dumplings as well as delicious cakes and pastries.

Moscow completely blew me away with its beauty, the weather was cold, and the skies so milky – snow skies with no sunlight, but a very soft grey light. There were many impressive buildings, and the traffic mainly consisted of European brands such Mercedes, Audis, Volkswagons and the like. In my entire time there I only saw one Lada and one Skoda. I wasn’t expecting this.

I had always thought of the Kremlin as the heart of the Soviet government, which it still is, but didn’t realise it is also home to the most magnificent gold orbed churches, cathedrals and bell towers. It was quite beautiful. The only evidence of government buildings of the type I was expecting to see was a large utilitarian building built in the 1950-60s originally for the Soviet senate and that now  houses the Federal Assembly, and adjacent to the river Putin’s helicopter pad. Apparently he travels by helicopter, while the next level of political leaders, and visiting dignatories and diplomats travel by escorted motorcades. We witnessed first-hand, and in fact were part of, the effects (traffic being brought to a standstill) of shutting the streets for one of these motorcades.

It was the same with Red Square – we did experience the soviet era when we got to see Lenin in his glass casket guarded by soldiers, but Red Square is dominated by the colourful onion shaped domes of St Basils Cathedral. Indeed, given the Soviet attitude towards religion, I was surprised how dominant Russian Orthodoxy was, services were not just for Sundays, and in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, many people were praying to the various shrines to saints that were spread through two levels of this church.

Deciding what to wear when visiting Russia at this time of year (November) was quite a problem for me. The travel books advised that people dressed practically for the weather, and that dressing up wasn’t an issue – you didn’t need to dress for the ballet – you could wear typical tourist day attire and you wouldn’t be out of place. I can verify that this is case – through circumstances beyond my control I ended up at the Ballet in the Hermitage Theatre in St Petersburg in my walking pants and shoes and didn’t really feel out of place.

However, younger women in particular, were beautifully made up and fashionably dressed. Often they were wearing sheer pantyhose and high stiletto heels – I’m not sure how they could do this because I was wearing leggings, and thick woollen socks and practical shoes to handle the slick wet pavements. Older women, including women of my own age, appeared to be less concerned with fashion.  I did see fashionably dressed older women, but this was not so evident – practical, dark and warm clothing (boots, fur hats, scarves and puffer coats) were the order of the day.

I went to Russia on the back of an amazing experience in Morroco, and so Russia had stiff competition. Compounding this, at the time of year I visited  there were no blue skies and barely any sunlight. Initially Russia suffered in comparison, but the longer I was there the more it grew on me, until by the time we headed by overnight train to Moscow I was enamoured.

If you have been thinking about visiting Russia, I would urge you to go no matter what the time of year, it will surprise and delight you – I’m sure of that!

If you have been to Russia I would love to hear how you found it – just comment below.