Moscow stories
I was looking out of the window. This was my first flight beyond the borders of my native India. In Russia, I was interested in absolutely everything, including how the country looks from an airplane.
We were lucky: on this day, the sky over central Russia was not covered with a dense grey veil; the clouds in the distance formed a snow-white phantasmagoric mountain ridge. What a beautiful sight!
The first place I visited in Moscow was Yelokhovo Cathedral. Its official name is the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo.
Our choice was determined by the fact that Yelokhovo Cathedral is located close to the house in which we settled with Sasha, near the Baumanskaya metro station. For Sasha, Yelokhovo Cathedral is a special temple; therefore, it was exactly where he led me first.
I always had a prejudice to public transport. I grew up in India at the end of the 20th century in a well-to-do family. I was taken to the school and back in my father’s car with a personal chauffeur.
Growing up, I travelled by taxi, as well as my friends’ cars. Public transport seemed to me to be something dirty and miserable.
The next day I met Sasha’s parents; in the evening we went for a walk around Red Square. I thought it was called Red because of the colour of the Kremlin’s walls.
It turned out that the Russian word “krasnaya”, which means “red”, is related to the word “krasivaya” meaning “beautiful”. The main square of Russia was really a very beautiful place.
In the centre of the modern metropolis is a huge medieval fortress — the Moscow Kremlin. I have never seen such a building anywhere else.
However, the strangest thing is not even that the fortress is perfectly preserved to this day but that inside it the current head of the Russian state still controls the country.
We spent two very intense days in Saint Petersburg and saw as much beauty as I had not seen in my whole life.
However, the tight schedule did not allow us to visit a single museum or art gallery from the inside; we managed to appreciate the beauty of only the external fa?ades.
Museums are really worth seeing in Russia. The largest and most interesting museum in Moscow is the Tretyakov Gallery or, as the Russians call it, the Tretyakovka.
However, if at first you visit the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, then nothing will surpass it. The Hermitage is so rich and huge that after it any other museum will seem modest.
Moscow is a unique metropolis. There are so many parks in Moscow; they occupy such a huge territory that there is a feeling that you are not in the city but in the wild.
For the first time, I met such a respect for nature in the city and such care of the authorities about the people protecting very expensive land from building.
Nearby with the Cosmos pavilion, at VDNKh, the largest in Russia aquarium called “Moskvarium” is located. We visited it shortly after opening in 2015.
“Moskvarium” is the largest aquarium in Europe. We saw many beautiful fish and even sharks there.
Next to the Cosmos pavilion, at VDNKh, there is the “Dinosaurs City”, i. e. a large exhibition of models of prehistoric dinosaurs. One day we visited it. Sasha promised to show me something very interesting; he wanted to make a surprise.
I was dressed in an elegant white suit; Sasha was also dressed in a white one. I was expecting something special.
The most interesting building at VDNKh is the Cosmos pavilion, which is one of the achievements of Soviet architecture.
It is located in the depths of the park: it takes about twenty minutes from the main entrance but it is definitely worth it.
We passed all the pavilions of VDNKh and came to a large pond, in the middle of which there was another magnificent fountain in the shape of piece of wheat. The walk finally succeeded when Sasha found his favourite caf? called “Gourmet”.
Sasha had a big story connected with this caf?; once here, together with fellow students and teachers, he celebrated graduation from the screenwriting department of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography.
Right behind VDNKh, there is the largest Botanical Garden in Europe. There are gathered over eight thousands of trees and plants from all over the world in the garden.
A significant part of the collection consists of plants from Germany. There are many trees and plants from Europe, Central Asia, the Far East, Siberia, and the Caucasus. There is even a Japanese garden here.
