Happy Birthday Moscow! – 9/10/17

This year Moscow celebrated its 870th birthday with a ten day celebration ending today. There were so many festivities and events to choose from I had a hard time deciding what to do. I ended up going to Tverskaya street, which was a pedestrian street for the day. The street was divided into seven main themes, including a sports zone, a theater area, and a scientific section.

I’m not a lover of playing sports, but I sure do enjoy watching them. In the sports zone there was everything from a mini skateboarding park where kids could give it a try to boxing and BMX biker professional competitions. There was also flowboarding and bodyboarding areas where anyone could give it a try. It was quite amusing watching people’s attempts.

My other favorite area was the culture/arts area with mini performances going on. There was a ballet classroom set up that had professionals doing a class and then later in the day let little ballerinas try on tutus and dance around. There were also several theater shows and concerts. They were interesting to watch, but of course I couldn’t understand a word.

Oh the crowds though! I think it was worse than Times Square in areas. I left the street in the evening to explore the nearby streets. After popping into a few places with only Russian menus and no-one available to translate I found a little Asian restaurant that had a picture of noodles and beef. I figured worst case scenario I could just get the option in the picture. Luckily I got an English speaker and I could order what I wanted, almost. There is always an almost. I haven’t met anyone outside of my school who speaks fluent English.

After dinner I considered going home by way of a new metro stop. In the end I decided to play it safe and backtrack through the main city center and Tverskaya street area to the metro stop I was familiar with. I figured I might see some interesting stuff on my way. I made it all the way back to the beginning of Tverskaya street, right outside of the Red Square. There were some sort of armed guards standing side by side linking arms and not letting anyone pass, a true human fence. So I tried to go out the side and there were actual fences set up there, along with more guards. So me and a hundred other people were trying to turn around and find a way out. I headed back towards the side street entrance I had just entered in from only 5 minutes ago or so. That was closed off too! After every block there were guards and fences. We were trapped! It was the strangest thing, they were letting people in, but not out. I still can’t figure out the sense in that.

I ended up having to walk another 5 blocks or so and by that point I was way far away from the station I was intending to go to and quite a distance from my second option. So lucky me I had to go in search of another station and got to have my first transferring experience! It involved my handy Russian translator helping me figure out the names of stops and which directions to go in. But I can tick that adventure off the list.
In the end the only bad part was not being able to check out all the other events and places for Moscow Day that I had heard about. Maybe next year!