Moscow, Russia – 09/08 New Friends

(Michelle) We had tried using couchsurfing again in Moscow. We got in touch with a girl named Lydia who was busy on Friday night but invited us out to her house on Saturday night. It was difficult to communicate because we had to call from Skype, so we needed an internet connection in order to call her and there was no way she could call us since we didn’t have a phone. Long story short, we didn’t head out there until 9pm. She told us the train stop and some vague directions from there to her house and we hoped we would be able to find it.

Sitting on the metro train, I saw a guy holding my new favorite canned beverage (there were of course many people holding canned beverages if you know what I mean). On the can in English, block letters, no design or anything else on it, the can said “GIN AND TONIC”. So we knew what he was drinking. We were of course getting some stares as well because we had all our stuff with us, so I’m sure they were all wondering where we were going so far from downtown. .

After about 45 minutes, I noticed that the train was going to a stop that shouldn’t have been on our line. ?? The train line splits and while the picture had indicated we should stay on our train, really we were supposed to switch. So we get off at the next stop, switch, come back, switch, wait for the other train.

When we finally get off at our stop, it’s dark, there are no people around and it had just started raining. The area behind the train station looked like a deserted county fair, which was really creepy and seemingly out of place. We knew that her apartment was supposed to be a straight walk from the train, but we were a little turned around on which direction to start that straight walk from. Finally eagle eye TJ sees a street sign and it just so happens to be the one we are looking for. So we start walking along. On the opposite side of the road, there are open fields; on our side there are huge prison looking apartment buildings with a lot of space in between each one. (See attached picture from – the view from their apt the next day of the open field across the street). The further we walked, the more convinced we were that we had made a big mistake coming out here. Finally, we see a massive building with the matching number, but there are three entrances and none of them seem to have a thing to put in a number code to get in. There are three rather shady looking men hanging out in the back, but fortunately for us, they helped us into the right entrance. Finally! Lydia was very worried about us because obviously we had no way to call each other, so she didn’t know what had happened to us.

Lydia and her husband Yan immediately tried to feed us. Yan would not take no for an answer on any of it. He is a very excited person and quite hilarious. The snacks included a really fatty mooshy salty pork product (a little nasty), dried tomatoes in oil (good), and a plate of pickles and onions. What were the plate of the pickles and onions for? Oh, that is the traditional vodka shot chaser. That shot almost came right back up, but not from the vodka… that would be the pickles. Gross.

(TJ) I have just a few short comments on this little adventure. The Moscow metro is absolutely massive. We probably rode a distance of 40-50 miles on the subway only having to transfer once outside of downtown Moscow. Not only this but some of the stations are incredibly well decorated, with communist era art from the 1930’s and 1940’s. Some stations are dedicated to infantry, farmers, fighter pilots, factory workers, tanks etc. I wish we would have had time to take a tour of some of the famous subway stations, truly a very cool thing to see. The attached photo is the train station at Orekhovo Stop, which is the stop Lydia and Yan lived at.

Despite the rain and distance it was very interesting to see the outskirts of Moscow. I was a little surprised on seeing how spread out the apartment blocks were in the area that we visited. There were probably 10 of the same concrete towers lined up on the street we were walking down and each one sat on 6 acres roughly. They definitely were not looking for population density when planning this area. The towers themselves definitely came from the communist school of architecture-boring concrete blocks. I learned later from Yan and Lydia that some of the housing associations are fixing up their towers exteriors and interiors and the owners are able to sell for a pretty healthy profit.

I’d recommend that you eat the pork fat when a Russian offers you it as a chaser for Vodka, its tasty - don’t let the looks deceive you. The pickles and onion I’m not so sure about, but your last few shots of the night should probably be some mouthwash.