Finding a bit of the U.S. in Moscow (Russia Day 19)
Dr. Marilyn M. Helms – December 01, 2002

We slept in and found a fifth-floor passageway to the other side of the massive hotel for our breakfast. Janet and I decide to tour the city and visit the two largest department stores GUM (pronounced “goom”) and TsUM. Both are now privatized with designer kiosks and high prices. GUM’s initials, in the Russian alphabet, stand for State Department Store. GUM is located on the east side of Red Square and looks like a government building rather than our idea of a department store. GUM once contained a special store for Party elite on the top floor. After perestroika, the store had an infusion of investments from Western firms and a facelift to celebrate its centenary anniversary in 1993. The small kiosks within the store were interesting and most of the clothes were very expensive items from Europe.

For lunch we decide to be American and walk to the TGI-Friday’s listed on our tourist map. It was on the third floor of a building with no elevators. The food was the typical American fare and we were glad to get iced tea. We passed the poet Pushkin’s Statue in a small park and walked by City Hall.

After lunch, we continue to check off our list of the top tourist spots in Moscow. We make the trek to the world’s largest McDonalds and take photos of the crowds and the 60 cash registers all in a row. We have always read about this restaurant in our business textbooks and are glad to finally see it in person and be able to tell our business classes about the experience.

After the McDonalds tour, we walked down several tourist streets to once again view the souvenirs and watch people. Vendors were selling the traditional crafts, military items, scarves, and dolls. Several vendors were dispensing the traditional warm fermented Russian drink called Kvass made with either bread or apples and sold from a large colorful metal barrel on wheels. I am told the taste is like a slightly weak beer. You can find a recipe at http://www.kombu.de/kwass.htm. We pass on the Russian drink but buy a warm Coke from a girl carrying them in a small tray. The Coke vendors wear a red coke apron and walk the streets with the small trays of Cokes and flavored potato chips. Russian women sell dogs and cats by the side of the street as well. The streets of Moscow are busy and lively with activity.

We decided to try to navigate the subway for the first time here in Moscow, but read the sign wrong and went two stops out of the way. We finally managed to find our way back to the hotel. It’s difficult to translate the Cyrillic signs quickly enough to locate your stop. A nice older lady on the subway tried to help us. We drop off our shopping packages at the hotel and meet our group downstairs at 6:00 p.m. for our evening at the circus.

We go en masse on the subway and change trains and lines twice before we make our way to the old Moscow Circus. The circus with the trained bears is a mandatory tourist stop, and is said to the finest circus in the world. Fantastic high wire acts, acrobats, and jugglers entertained us along with clowns, horse acts, dogs, and bears. Bears of every kind and size were riding in cars, riding on bicycles, and pushing strollers. The two acts performance left time at the intermission for buying glow-necklaces, popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream and to pay to have photos made with circus animals. Watching Russian kids laughing alongside the Japanese and American tourists was the highlight for our group.

After the circus, our group split into smaller groups at the subway station. I joined a group heading off to dinner on a restaurant row near our hotel. We again visited the Italian restaurant we liked so much and are treated like lifelong friends by the staff. Back at the hotel, Janet had made an earlier 300 ruble deposit with a downstairs clerk in a hour-long process so we now have a numeric password and instructions to dial out to America on our in-room phone. Our pushbutton phone requires you press the buttons very hard for each number to process. After several tries, we finally we reach the friendly chimes of AT&T and MCI and check in with America before we fall asleep in our respective twin beds.

Russian Trip Photos