There is no need for an alarm clock in
Moscow – the sound of early-morning
street cleaners scraping snow off
the pavements is the wake-up call in
this cold, ancient city. Luckily, there
are chapkas
(fur hats with ears) and
cabbage rolls to keep residents warm
through the icy winters. And when
summer arrives, Moscow rushes out
to enjoy the eco-friendly paths and
playgrounds of Gorky Park.
KNOCKERS
AND SPITTERS
Muscovites are a
superstitious lot –
there’s no shaking
hands across the
threshold and
definitely no offering
bunches of flowers
containing an even
number of blooms
(that’s only for
funerals and dead
people). To ward off
bad luck, city dwellers
knock on unpolished
wood or – watch out –
spit over their shoulder
three times.
WEDDING CAKES
After World War Two, Soviet dictator and leader
Joseph Stalin ordered the construction of seven
skyscrapers. The skyscrapers were designed to
help make Moscow appear
just as modern as cities in the
United States of America.
The tiered buildings, with
their wide bases and central
spires, were nicknamed
the ‘Seven Sisters’. They
looked just like traditional
wedding cakes.
BILLIONAIRE CAPITAL
More billionaires live in Moscow than any
other city in the world. Many hang out in
Moscow City, the city’s financial district.
Futuristic high-rises loom over the men
and women below. At 339m (1,112ft), the
Mercury City Tower is the tallest skyscraper
in Europe. After dark, Moscow’s elite go to
see the Bolshoi ballet or dine at Turandot, an
opera-themed restaurant which cost millions
of rubles to furnish and decorate.
NUTS ABOUT SQUIRRELS
Keeping a squirrel as a household pet is
the latest craze to hit the capital. Poachers
steal Siberian red squirrels away from city
parks where they live thanks to feeders
fixed on trees and filled with nuts, fruit and
other food. Once trapped, the bushy-tailed
rodents are sold on as pets. Bagging one
is not to be advised – the fine for stealing a
squirrel is 20,000 Russian rubles.
MOSCOW METRO
Moscow’s metro system is vast and
often very beautiful. Stations like
Komsomolskaya are decorated with
painted friezes, arching columns and
chandeliers. Some nine million people
use the metro every day, which is the
equivalent of the entire population of
Sweden hopping aboard! It can be tricky
for foreigners to find their way around
– the names of its 196 stations are only
signposted in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Metro 2
No one really knows if
the Metro 2 exists or not. The
mysterious subway system is said
to run underneath the regular metro.
It was apparently built for Stalin,
connecting the Russian leader’s house
with a secret underground ‘city’ in
southwest Moscow, complete with
a nuclear bombproof bunker for
15,000 people.
TRANS-SIBERIA
Only in Moscow can you hop aboard
a train and stay on it for 10,214km
(6,346mi). The trip from Moscow
to Pyongyang in North Korea is
the world’s longest single train
ride – the record-breaking,
Trans-Siberian journey
takes 7 days, 20 hours
and 25 minutes.
DOGS IN SPACE
Moscow’s Monument to the Conquerors of Space – a
soaring rocket-shaped monument celebrating Russia’s
amazing space programme – is just like a matryoshka
(Russian doll). A cosmonautics museum is tucked
inside the monument. Inside that are two very special
dogs, preserved in glass cases. Belka and Strelka were
the first animals to go to space and return alive. They
made their historic voyage in the spacecraft Sputnik 5
on 19 August, 1960 with one rabbit, two rats, forty-two
mice, several insects and some plants.
