It seems like the other side of the river is a posh area of Moscow. I based my guess on the continental cars parked by the side of the road, and the breed of dogs the tai-tais were walking, and how no one seems to be getting on or off the bus-stops on this stretch of road. Also, the ground floor of a few of these buildings were selling what seems to be expensive home furnishing: all stainless steel kitchen furniture and leather sofas. I didn't take long before I was back at where I have started, near the Park Kultury station, but it was still too early to get back to the hostel. I decided to follow the river and see if there's any surprises in store.
It didn't take too long before something interesting appeared on the bank. It was a hugh statue, and my guess was it was one of Peter the Great. It turns out my guess was right. At the time, I felt it stuck out from its surrounding, kind of out of place. Later in October that year, news came out of Moscow that this statue may not be there by the river much longer.
According a BBC report, it was: Yuri Luzhkov who commissioned the statue in the 1990s. Mr Luzhkov used to be one of Russia's most powerful politicians. He was Moscow mayor for 18 years until he fell out with the Kremlin. In September, President Dmitry Medvedev sacked him. And that's when Tsar Peter came under attack. Acting mayor, Vladimir Resin hinted that the infamous statue should be moved. Curiously, Peter the Great hated Moscow - and Muscovites seem to feel the same way about this statue. "That's the ugliest statue of the end of the 20th Century," says Vladimir, who lives in an apartment block opposite the large tsar. A passers-by what they think of the oversized tsar. "It's disgusting!" one man tells me. "It's awful," says a woman, "It's just too huge. Big doesn't mean beautiful!"
Looks like I am not the only one who found the statue odd.Leaving the statue, I start to find the buildings ahead familiar, it didn't take long before the towers of the Kremlin appeared in the distant.
It was almost 8pm, so it's time to cross the road and get to a metro station. This seems to be rush hour, and it took almost 15 minutes before the traffic light turn green for the pedestrians.
Having been in Moscow for three days, I find it comfortable enough to take some pictures of the metro. This is no longer the police state we make it out to be. While there are security personnel walking the platform in groups, most of them have this look like they would rather be somewhere else. I doubt any of the Muscovites would give me problem either. So far, no sign of racism. On at least one occasion, one stop to hold the heavy metro door for me.
I took the metro to Arbat station. It is right at one end of the touristy Arbat street. The other end of the street is about 5 blocks from the hostel.
The is also a 24hr MacDonbald's at the other end, so this is a good place to while away a couple of hours. I make a note of the sourvenir available here, so that I could come back later to buy them. The was one guy who was running a game of luck/skill bordering on a scam. He had a bicycle which looked pretty normal. The guy would demostrate by riding the bike pass a few distant marking draw on the road with chalk. Those looking on can pay him a fee to get on the bike, and stand a chance to make some prize money, the value of which depend on the distant travelled on the bike. He made it so simple that a few looker-ons decided to try. But somehow, once someone else got on the bike, it seemed to get rickety, and none manage to travel the minimum distant to win any prize money. Of course, no one got their 'initial investment' back.
By the time I was done with dinner at the Mac, it was past 10pm. It's time to collect my backpack at the hostel and head down to the train station.
I have an overnight train to catch to get to St Peterburg's. But not before the reception gave me a scare. She had abandon her station and left with the key to the locker where my laptop is. The cleaning lady, who speak no English, was standing in for her and kept holding out her palm to tell me to wait. The cleaning lady has a central-asian (almost Chinese) look, I was hoping she could speak Chinese, but no luck here. Luckily the recep was back in about 20 minutes time.
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