Annie Walker: The Very Heart of Moscow!

June, 2009

Russia – Moscow

The Very Heart of Moscow!

Welcome to the capital of the Russian Federation!

Moscow, the largest city of Russia! Moscow is a major economic centre and is home to one of the largest numbers of billionaires in the world! And, Moscow was named the world’s most expensive city for foreign employees for the third year in a row in 2008. Indeed, the living costs in Moscow could reach to the highest! I could tell from my expenses spending on food during my stay! The weather in Moscow is rather unstable, and the weather forecast service is the most common object for jokes. Winter kills! Imagine minus 36 degree celsius... No joke! Thanks god, good weather throughout my stay!

I was blessed for having Ferrinna, a Malaysian. I’ve got to know her sister Priscilla, who is currently studying and doing her seventh year of medication studies at Moscow. They brought Sarah and I to a walk at Red Square. We then met up with a Russian, Lily, a student of Priscillia as she gives English lessons to some locals at Moscow as her part time job. Lily is a nice and sweet Russian girl I would say. She patiently explained and told us about the history and the culture of Russia. Priscilla and Lily then brought us to a Russian Café as well. What a good experience we had at Moscow!

Red Square

Moscow's oldest and most famous square and the home of the city's best known landmarks - the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral and Lenin's Mausoleum.

State Historical Museum

Museum charting the development of Russian civilization from Kievan Rus to the present day, housed in a magnificent dark redbrick building covered in ornate turrets and pinnacles, which was built in the 1870s and officially opened by Tsar Alexander III.

State Historical Museum

GUM Department Store

Elegant turn-of-the century shopping mall, combining elements of Russian medieval ecclesiastical architecture and an elegant steel framework and glass roof, and today filled with elegant boutiques and designer stores aimed at Moscow's nouveau riches.

GUM

Lenin’s Mausoleum

Still the resting place of the embalmed body of the founder of Soviet Communism some 76 years after his death, housed in a futuristic granite-cube building designed by Shchusev that stands on Red Square next to the Kremlin walls.