Love at first sight: City Center.
Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Nabokov, Pasternak, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, Putin.
That's all the Russian I know. Also, das vedanya (which I've since learned should be do svidaniya anyway) and cpacibo. So, everything here is new and exciting!
At the Kremlin, honor guard shoe inspection.
Reaching out to someone on high, the Cathedral of St Basil is certain to catch somebody's attention.
Kitsch and patriots, blinis and caviar at Doctor Zhivago Café.
Camp Russian socialist decor in grand white on white space with bright red accents. Perfect venue for our first outing in Moscow, great introduction to genuine local fare.
At Bolshoi's Le Nozze di Figaro. Brilliant! Most enjoyable opera ever!
LavkaLavka Farmer's Market Restaurant.
A foodie mecca - love it! Attractive, cozy space, looks like a barn conversion, consistent with avowed farm-to-table ethos.
Food is tasty, simple, unpretentious, inventive, and fiercely local. Service is friendly, attentive, informed.
The menu names the farm where the particular food was sourced. Lots of game, big and small: lamb, mutton, deer, chicken, duck, goose, and fish like wild halibut, cod, and pike perch. I have yet to discover exactly what "of careful preparation" actually means. This description occurs every so often in some menus.
Wines are Russian or regional. We tried the Crimean wines. Our waiter Sergei brought me a shot of polugar to taste. This is a kind of bread wine- distilled to 38.5% from grains- which he proudly declared to be the elegant "real vodka of Russia," not the rough vodkas most people are familiar with.
Gorky Park.
A real people's park: not grand, human in scale, planned for humans not commerce, usable, enjoyable. Lawns for idling under shade trees, a popular walk-in splash fountain, gardens, paintings, sculptures, and even club music for dancing in the daylight surrounded by friendly graffiti.
Just off the park is a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church set in a garden, an oasis of calm and serenity. My hotel concierge tells me it's the Church of St Nicolas.
A group of ladies, heads covered with scarves, tidied up a lovely flower garden as they hurried to the church door. I followed them in and caught part of a religious service. There were hardly more than a dozen in attendance, a priest and a deacon and two ladies at the organ, intoning responses in soft high-pitched voices. There were curious glances but they didn't seem to mind Stuart and me being there.
We can't keep away; we even do take-out! Seriously good everyday food, friendly staff, chic young crowd.
There's an extraordinary cutout mural by a local street artist. Downstairs is a secret bar behind a door with a STAFF ONLY sign.
At the fabulous Moscow Metro.
My TROIKA card, key to Moscow's underground palaces for the people.
Prospect Mira Station.
Escalators are so long and steep with the deepest station going down almost 280 feet underground.
Novoslobodskaya station.
The Moscow Metro is not just beautiful to look at. Trains are 99.99% on time and go every two minutes at peak times.
So why don't we ask our hardworking Philippine Congress to donate their pay and pork and spend it all on a Manila Metro?
Bolshoi Restaurant.
Beautiful space, grownup decor: chandeliers, high ceilings, Corinthian columns, classic black and white hung with contemporary art, impeccably dressed service staff. A cinema-worthy pastry table stands front and center, glorious and decadent, in the main hall.
Delicious food, staunchly European, good efficient service, live jazzy piano music.
Surprisingly casual crowd for the lavish interior- there were shorts and jeans, mine included, among the evening dresses. Same-day Bolshoi Theatre tickets entitle you to a 5% discount.
White Rabbit Restaurant
A total waste of time. Don't even bother. Save your 400 ruble taxi fare.
The first review I saw on the internet said: "One word: terrible." But the second one said nice things: "...excellent food, good service, etc, etc..." So, we went.
I should've listened to the first one.
Food quality ranged from forgettable to no good. My salad had too much dressing; my main course had too much sauce.
Service was poor. We had to ask for proper dinner napkins. We felt we deserved at least that. A stack of paper serviettes in a tin holder was a bit mean, we thought.
This restaurant is rated 23rd on a list of 50 best restaurants of the world in 2017. Go figure!
At the Bolshoi's Main Hall.
Alas, not the Bolshoi Ballet!
Sigh...
