I was going to try and play catch up with some trip reports from last summer, but thinking it might be better to just ditch them since a. it's ages ago b. the next one would've been Gronalund and someone just did one (which, predictably, has gone largely ignored) and c. there are other people going to Russia this summer and this might be helpful or at least get a slight bit of interest, which it wouldn't otherwise
The whole trip started by heading straight to Manchester after work to see Lana Del Rey (quickly christened Lana Del FAB) with Ed. She was really good. I remember there was some big thing about her being **** based on a SNL performance a year or so ago, but she was excellent. Quick picture courtesy of Ed's Facebook:
My flight was from Manchester first thing on Sunday morning, so it wasn't worth going home just to come back. I stayed at one of the airport hotels on Saturday. Nothing to report there. It was as gray and soulless as it sounds.
The flight was fine. Four hours with Easyjet is never going to be the height of luxury travel, but at least it wasn't Ryanair. A big part of the reason I ended up taking this trip was because Easyjet opened a Manchester to Moscow route. Not only is it now cheap, there's no need with the extra hassle of heading down to a London airport, which would've been the only option previously.
Getting into Moscow was easy and hassle free, and then I got the metro to the area I was staying in. The Moscow Metro is famous for being amazingly over-the-top thanks to Stalin. It's also incredibly busy (third busiest in the world after Tokyo and Seoul), but very, very efficient. I never waited more than a minute for a train the whole time I was there. It's really cheap as well: about 75p for one ride, regardless of distance.
It also takes a lot more getting used to than other subway systems I've used. There are maps in English in the stations and on the trains, but that's it. None of the signs to direct you to the lines are in English, and once you're on the platforms, you're **** ed. Luckily, I'm not an idiot, so I'd printed a metro map in both English and Russian, which I stronglyrecommend doing before you go. I'm sure you could pick one up at tourist information at the airport though.
I found the place I was staying easily enough. Well, I found the right place, but there were no actual signs anywhere to say there was an actual hostel there. It was a bit worrying at first as I thought I must be in the wrong place, but I phoned them and they told me how to get in. Basically, it was just a converted apartment building; why they couldn't stick a sign up is beyond me.
I was thinking about heading to a couple of the parks, but by this point it was coming up to about 5 o'clock, I had no idea about park opening hours since there's no information on them, so I decided to leave it. Instead, I just walked down to Red Square, which was only a 15 minute walk away, and had a wander around there. The old English courthouse was on the way:
Have some pictures of the area around Red Square, including Saint Basil's Cathedral, which was gaudy and amazing:
This shopping mall was huge and gorgeous. I had a quick look around to see if there might have been a kiddy cred to be had since apparently there are a few in some random shopping malls in Moscow. This one was way too classy though, so I just something to eat instead.
Lenin's mausoleum is also here. It was closed at the time I was here, but I went in a couple of days later. You can't take pictures of the corpse inside, so you'll have to make do of a couple of the outside.
The red walls and towers are the walls of The Kremlin, which is massive and there'll be more of later; I know you can't wait!
Just on the other side of Red Square was a really nice garden area with fountains and ****.
There's also some eternal-flame-tomb-of-unknown-soldier type thing.
After wandering about a bit, I headed back to my room and chilled out with a few beers for a couple of hours before getting ready and heading out clubbing. I went to a club called Propaganda, which was really fun after I managed to get in. It was "preevet parrrrrty" at first, according to the first bouncer. It wasn't, obviously, but because it was gay night (not normally a gay club) they're careful of letting people in that they don't recognise, what with Russia being notorious for queer-bashing and stuff.
I spoke to a second guy who just typed something into his phone to translate and showed me the result: "It is gay night. Why not go gay?" After telling them that I was in fact actually gay, and no pretense would be necessary, I was let into the "preevet parrrrty". I'll obviously have to stop being so butch in order to avoid any future problems of this nature.
Anyway, the club was fun, I left at about five in the morning. And that was my first day/night in Russia.
Whoops, no coaster photos yet. Tough s**t.
The whole trip started by heading straight to Manchester after work to see Lana Del Rey (quickly christened Lana Del FAB) with Ed. She was really good. I remember there was some big thing about her being **** based on a SNL performance a year or so ago, but she was excellent. Quick picture courtesy of Ed's Facebook:
My flight was from Manchester first thing on Sunday morning, so it wasn't worth going home just to come back. I stayed at one of the airport hotels on Saturday. Nothing to report there. It was as gray and soulless as it sounds.
The flight was fine. Four hours with Easyjet is never going to be the height of luxury travel, but at least it wasn't Ryanair. A big part of the reason I ended up taking this trip was because Easyjet opened a Manchester to Moscow route. Not only is it now cheap, there's no need with the extra hassle of heading down to a London airport, which would've been the only option previously.
Getting into Moscow was easy and hassle free, and then I got the metro to the area I was staying in. The Moscow Metro is famous for being amazingly over-the-top thanks to Stalin. It's also incredibly busy (third busiest in the world after Tokyo and Seoul), but very, very efficient. I never waited more than a minute for a train the whole time I was there. It's really cheap as well: about 75p for one ride, regardless of distance.
It also takes a lot more getting used to than other subway systems I've used. There are maps in English in the stations and on the trains, but that's it. None of the signs to direct you to the lines are in English, and once you're on the platforms, you're **** ed. Luckily, I'm not an idiot, so I'd printed a metro map in both English and Russian, which I stronglyrecommend doing before you go. I'm sure you could pick one up at tourist information at the airport though.
I found the place I was staying easily enough. Well, I found the right place, but there were no actual signs anywhere to say there was an actual hostel there. It was a bit worrying at first as I thought I must be in the wrong place, but I phoned them and they told me how to get in. Basically, it was just a converted apartment building; why they couldn't stick a sign up is beyond me.
I was thinking about heading to a couple of the parks, but by this point it was coming up to about 5 o'clock, I had no idea about park opening hours since there's no information on them, so I decided to leave it. Instead, I just walked down to Red Square, which was only a 15 minute walk away, and had a wander around there. The old English courthouse was on the way:
Have some pictures of the area around Red Square, including Saint Basil's Cathedral, which was gaudy and amazing:
This shopping mall was huge and gorgeous. I had a quick look around to see if there might have been a kiddy cred to be had since apparently there are a few in some random shopping malls in Moscow. This one was way too classy though, so I just something to eat instead.
Lenin's mausoleum is also here. It was closed at the time I was here, but I went in a couple of days later. You can't take pictures of the corpse inside, so you'll have to make do of a couple of the outside.
The red walls and towers are the walls of The Kremlin, which is massive and there'll be more of later; I know you can't wait!
Just on the other side of Red Square was a really nice garden area with fountains and ****.
There's also some eternal-flame-tomb-of-unknown-soldier type thing.
After wandering about a bit, I headed back to my room and chilled out with a few beers for a couple of hours before getting ready and heading out clubbing. I went to a club called Propaganda, which was really fun after I managed to get in. It was "preevet parrrrrty" at first, according to the first bouncer. It wasn't, obviously, but because it was gay night (not normally a gay club) they're careful of letting people in that they don't recognise, what with Russia being notorious for queer-bashing and stuff.
I spoke to a second guy who just typed something into his phone to translate and showed me the result: "It is gay night. Why not go gay?" After telling them that I was in fact actually gay, and no pretense would be necessary, I was let into the "preevet parrrrty". I'll obviously have to stop being so butch in order to avoid any future problems of this nature.
Anyway, the club was fun, I left at about five in the morning. And that was my first day/night in Russia.
Whoops, no coaster photos yet. Tough s**t.
