A day in Moscow

Subway Surfing

After landing at Sheremetyevo Airport, I quickly passed customs and followed the signs to the 'Aeroexpress' a train that would take me into the heart of Moscow. At least, partially. From Belaruskiy train station I would follow the directions provided to me by the hostel. The site through which I had booked the hostel however, had done the courtesy of providing a very bad dutch translation of these directions. The only parts I could really make sense of where the Metro stations I would have to travel through.

Armed with a subway card and some basic knowledge of the cyrillic alphabet, I eventually managed to make my way through the richly decorated catacombs that are Moscow's subway system, and reached my hostel at around 7 in the evening.

Miles in Moscow

In the hostel, I was quickly assigned a bed and I met Philip, a Swede who got here by boat and train from Stockholm. After I got some cash we were joimed by a girl from argentina who was on her way to spain, and went for dinner in Miles' Cafe - a place where Philip had already become a regular despite only arriving in Moscow 2 days earlier. When we got back to the hostel we called it a day.

We started the next day with breakfast in Miles' Cafe, and headed for the Red Square. Unfortunately, the Kremlin and Lenin's mausoleum were closed to the public, so we had to make do with just St. Basil's cathedral and GUM, two very impressive pieces of architecture. Later we split up to pick up our respective train tickets. Philip will be heading south first, and we discovered that I will always be one or two days ahead of him, departing just when he arrives. Perhaps we'll meet up again in Beijing.

The roof of Yaraslovskaya station, my departure point

Having become an avid subway surfer, I headed to the station I would depart from later that night to exchange my printed reservation for a real ticket. After asking at wrong desks and some finger pointing, the fourth time turned out to be the charm and I finally got the elusive train ticket to Irkutsk. Now all I had to do was kill the time untill midnight by strolling around through Moscow.