Leaving moscow....

Here I'm again, on Moscow airport, where I arrived nearly one Week ago. now I checked it and it was the first time I let put the plastic around my coffer. Because everybody else has also done so… so I thought it would be a good idea to follow this example. I had quite a nice time, let's make a quick review:

• Weather: mostly rain, got about 3 hours sun, some more without rain
• people: a lot of nice ones, mostly french, american and even some Russians!
• wodka: a lot
• sights: too much
• costs: don't wanna calculate it
• problems: I didn't had any, some other people had
• photos: about 200
• Бодуны*: 2

So much about statistics ;).

now some hints I could give for new tourists to moscow:

• Napoleon Hostel is good, but don‘t book the 7 bed room. It costs 10€ more, but it's practically the same. You can get beer there, kitchen is well-equipped... what else?
• dont visit the All-Russian Exhibition anymore... they turned a fantastic open-air museum in and underrated basar... read about it later
• learn at least the Kyrillic letters to find your way
• don't worry about bank charges when picking up rubbels in Russia... it's far worse if you loose a lot of money (which happend to an american friend)
• Don’t visit just the center of Moscow. Use the metro and drive until the very end. Then try to find the next metro just with busses and trams and experience the look of the city outside the center!!

So let's start with my best memories...

When I have been really thirsty, after a long day with a lot of walking... free cola saved my life. I distribute this picture to Cola and the Kremlin:

Like I already described, the metro stations are really nice... here some photos:

– this picture has been taken by the one and only photo tourists – japans

And most important – the chess players

This brings me to the next topic: chess. Known to be for Russia like skiing for Austria, I haven’t found Russians playing chess. I wanted to go to the public gardens,.. but yeah, remember my statement about the weather?

Anyway, the last evening, I found a Turkish guy at the hostel, who was proud of his chess skills… yeah not for long, 2 games later, I had two beer more ;). Then happened something very strange… I started reading blogs at one o’clock in the morning. Paul Krugman about the truth of the Taylor Rule in today American economy. For the first time… Well,  it was quite interesting!

Which I also remember as a nice attraction is novodichm convent. Nice cathedrals, but more important is the graveyard to the south. A lot of important Russians are buried there (but who had been not important enough to be buried next to the Kremlin). Like Tolstoi for example:

Tolstois Gravestone

Speaking of Tolstoi, today I have been to his house/museum in Moscow. Very interesting, it’s prepared like he would have left it.

What I’m really disappointed about is the All-Russian Exhibition. My grandfather told me about it, like he had been really impressed. It’s meaning was to show the world the whole power of Russia – from politics over science and military to agriculture and society. While I know, it just sounds like a lot of Propaganda, but the build a whole park with 76 pavillons and fountains outside to present this. During the communist area, you could have found there memories of all Russian life, from Smolensk to Wolgograd. But what do find today? The same shitty small stores, like they are in every metro station. You can buy faked clocks there like on an mediteraneen beach. You just have all these dirty stores in monuments like that:

Me on the rented bike, Lenin and the Main building

When I went there, I have used busses and tram. It was really great, to be stucked in Russian streets. First, the busses are some Minibusses, with a lot of Christmas tree, which are supposed to smell good. But they just can’t battle 15 people on something like 4m². And when you are on the street, you get plenty of possibilities to see real Trabis:

Next on the train… it’s supposed to take you further, but just a few minutes later, it can’t move because of traffic jams. Thought they have their proper lines? Yes, that’s right, but the drivers here doesn’t care about something like lines ;)

What I have to check in every town: famous toilettes

This time I went to Café Pushkin in Moscow. Really famous, for that you can have a coffee here like sitting in the living room of Pushkin himself. Sounds good, right? Yeah it’s also really expensive and it has nice toilettes: (photo will be added tomorrow)

So which one do you prefere?

And what is just not allowed to be missing: going out with a lot of people from all over the world.

So I hope you got an overview about my journey here. I just don’t wanted to inform you about every step I did and bother you with stories about the everybody-know touristic stuff of Moscow, like Kremlin and everything.

In one hour, I’m leaving for Tashkent, and I’m already very curious how life will be there. In fact, I have little idea what awaits me there, I just can share as following with you: I’m arriving there 04:35 (yes in the morning), I have to phone “Zumrat” to pick me up after 30min and then I’m going to stay with a young uzbek family and a student from Swiss. At the weekend they are going to take me to Samarkand.

Well… now I will start learning some uzbek basic phrases ;)

 What I should not forget: While I was writing this, some Alban people invited me to help there with their bottle of wodka. After being sure that they are drinking it on their own, and it's not one really bad, I joined them beside writing ;). I wasn't able to talk with them, but one of the few things I unterstood: They don't like austrian foreigns policys!

so best from moscow and the next lines will contain some uzbek.