Jaunted

I was living in Riga, Latvia at the time, working for an English-language newspaper called The Baltic Observer. My friend Dave and I had attended a New Year's Eve party in Vilnius, Lithuania which involved fireworks, Abba, a nighttime trip to Gediminas Castle, minor physical injuries, and a lost glove. The next afternoon, New Year's Day, 1993, we boarded an overnight train to Moscow, hung over and reeling from the previous evening. Arriving in Moscow the following morning, it quickly dawned on me that we had no idea what we were doing. We had no map, no visitors guide, no Russian language skills, and very little money. Yet Dave, bless him, wasted not a moment in pantomiming to anyone who would make eye contact our need to find a bus to Red Square. Before long, we found a friendly Russian scholar who was going in the same direction, and he helped us out. Stepping foot in Red Square and surveying the Kremlin, Lenin's Tomb, and St. Basil's Cathedral, I felt at once bigger and smaller than I'd ever felt in my life.

This wasn't only because I was a 22-year-old dumbass on a real trip for the first time, it's because Moscow is a tremendously intense city, at once challenging and uplifting visitors with its imposing buildings, austere institutions, and air of barely-contained chaos. I was reminded of this today as I read a fascinating article on Moscow in the travel section of the Financial Times. In it, writer Paul Gould goes on a quest to find the "real" Russia amid the many new skyscrapers, shopping centers, "no-limits" nightclubs, and other temples to the city's nouveau riche that have transformed Moscow in the nearly two decades since the fall of communism.

Gould finds what he's looking for in the city's more quotidian locations. For example, the many onion-domed Russian orthodox churches still throng with the faithful who "kiss the icons, light candles and pray with such fervour that you cannot doubt their belief in something higher." And the Tretyakov Gallery teems with historic items dating back to the city's feudal days. And then there are the famous Moscow Metro stations, which are essentially underground art galleries filled with sculptures, murals, and even chandeliers. It says something about a society when such importance is placed on making its public transit system a thing of beauty.

Gould, an Englishman, is a friend of mine from Latvia, and he knows Moscow about as well as anybody can, having spent several years living and working there and in other Russian cities. He also just finished translating a book entitled "Russia and the Arabs" by former Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov. So if you find yourself on route to Moscow this year, do yourself a favor and stuff a printout of his story in your carry-on. You might just find your own transcendent moment in the Russian capital.

[Photo: TrekEarth]

Related Stories:
· Finding the Real Russia in Moscow [Financial Times]
· Russian Travel [Jaunted]