Moscow - Part 3

Thursday, 21 April 2016, 6 pm

I decided to apply Sun Tzu's the Art of War and be extra cheerful to the Russians (do the unexpected), starting with Mr. Doorman. Yesterday I boisterously wished him Good Morning, Hello and Hi every time I passed him. No response at first. Then a slight nod. I'm getting somewhere!

Exploring day. Today I had someone local to take me around The Red Square, where most of the tourist attractions are located. We took the metro. Good time for me to learn. According to the map, the station nearest to the hotel is called Belarushka (but spelt in strange alphabets) and that is on the brown line. To get to the Red Square, we have to change to the green line and get off at the Tretyakovskaya station. Sounds easy enough.

The changing of the stations is done at the Belarushka station itself. It was a series of maze and  I tried to remember the exact route but somewhere in there I was totally lost. I'm not surprised. But I must say, the metro stations in themselves are a sight to behold. The stations are really big, the buildings are pretty old, with large pillars and tiles of olden days, lighted by soft orange lights. Gives me the feeling that I'm in the 1920s boarding the Orient Express at night. Kinda cool. Kinda romantic. And the stations are pretty deep underground, and the escalators are perhaps about 200 meters down. I didn't want to think how I'd go up the escalator if it's not working.

Out of the metro station the first building we saw was the Bolshoi Theatre. This is one of the oldest theatres in Russia, mainly for ballets and operas. The famous ballet 'Swan Lake' is performed here. Russia also has one of the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world - Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera.

On the way to the Red Square we saw the State Duma - Russia's Parliament, the lower legislative house. 

The building opposite the Duma, on the corner of the street used to be a hotel but has 2 distinct designs. The myth or legend was that Stalin commissioned some of the country's best architects to design a hotel in that place. 2 were shortlisted, and when Stalin signed off on the plans, his signature fell on both plans by accident. Too scared to get clarification from Stalin,  the building was built in accordance with both plans.