Hello Moscow!!!

Welcome to the Red Square!
Sonia Rykiel...yup, Moscow is pretty ritzy and wealthy!
my hotel


Sept 23, 2005
Room 517, Hotel Pekin
1/5 Bolshaya Sadovaya ul., Moscow, 103001
20:30

Im writing a day late. Anyway, I arrived here in Moscow 3 days ago, on a Tuesday. It seems time flew so fast and I am already checking out of the hotel tomorrow. I haven’t even had a real rest ever since I arrived here.

The following day right after I arrived, I had to go to bank Intensa in kitaj gorod to pay for my visa processing fee. I had to navigate the Moscow metro for the first time. It was no joke since I had the worst stomach problem that day when I woke up. It was so bad I had to stay in bed until 12pm and take two tablets of Diatabs. I was so dehydrated. Anyway, I seem to have a natural talent in navigating metro systems in any country in the world and even the elaborate and tomb-like network of the Moscow subway was a quick study for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still carry my metro map with me all the time, but with everything stops listed together and not grouped into a specific metro station, and everything written in Cyrillic alphabet, it would be a challenge to any newcomer, much more, a foreigner who doesn’t speak Russian, not to get lost in the Moscow metro .

The metro network is interesting because it reminds me of an apartment of tombs with different levels. One subway line is built under another, and since there are around 11 lines, this means that the metro has to be dug so deep underground to create a network of 11 subway lines on top of one another. I have to admit, the first time I went down the Mayakovskaya metro station near my hotel, I had a few minutes of panic, feeling as if I was being buried alive. I was staring at the faces of the people and was fascinated that they looked so normal when they all just emerged from a tunnel so deep, it felt like being in a subterranean city. The Washington DC metro is the closest thing I can liken to the Moscow Metro in terms of how deep it goes. Anyway, I am now the queen of worldwide metro systems. I don’t think I ever really got lost in any metro system that I’ve ever been in. I’ve ridden Bangkok, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Novosibirsk(oh my gosh, they only have 2 lines anyway) in the past 5 years, and now I have conquered Moscow. What could be more complicated than that?

Seeing the Red Square and Kremlin for the first time

Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life. There have been a lot of really bad days since I arrived here in Russia, but yesterday could even be classified as worse than the day I was assaulted by a bunch of hooligans in the Novosibirsk Richnoi Vakzal metro.

Yesterday I applied for my Italian tourist visa. First of all, the lady at the counter could not speak English and she was obviously resentful of me for putting the inadequacy into light. Initially, she already wanted to deny me the chance to apply. Because of the language barrier, it seemed that I was going home straight from Russia, but after someone who spoke English was called, I was back to eligibility again. But even this woman who spoke English was very sarcastic and mean, obviously going into a power trip. I couldn’t even get mad at them because one of my most important documents did not have the signature of my sister. My sister, it seems, got too used of the European slacker lifestyle that even her invitation to me was half done. I came as prepared as I could be, but it seemed I was still not prepared enough. So I was at the embassy at 9am, I left running at 10 and made calls to Italy and to Novosibirsk to send the rest of the documents here in Moscow. By 1pm, without eating lunch, I had almost everything ready except for a glitch in the document emailed by LBL Siberia. By 14.00 I was back at the embassy with all the documents. This time, they wanted me to Xerox copy all the documents before they could finally process them. So I run out of the embassy again, and searched for a copying center. I found one 10 minutes from the embassy and paid my last 100 roubles in my wallet for the Xerox service. By this time, I was running on empty since I’ve been awake since 7.30am and I haven’t eaten lunch or stopped running since I arrived at the embassy at 9am. When the woman finally accepted my documents, she tells me that I am applying for student’s visa. I couldn’t understand what made her think so when I already explained that my sister is the student and I wanted to visit her in Italy before flying back to Manila. Since my application paper says “Tourist Visa,” I didn’t argue with her anymore since she couldn’t understand my English and I don’t speak Russian. I leave the proper processing to the one who reads the document. Anyway, she seemed to want to have nothing to do with me as soon as possible, so we finished our business finally at 15.00. I have to say, by this time I was hungry, tired and thirsty. I also did not even have enough money for a metro fare. Thankfully, there was a bank beside the embassy and I was able to withdraw 200roubles, enough for food and a metro fare back home.

Since it was early, I decided to go the Red Square instead of straight to the hotel. I had lunch at the Kremlin.

Let me tell you about the Kremlin and Red Square.

The first time I saw both, I was speechless and felt goosebumps on my arms. I mean, I only saw these structures on TV or books or magazines, and I always associated these buildings to the former Soviet Union, a communist country that democratic countries like the Philippines would only look from afar with both fascination and anxiety. And now I was in the middle of the Red Square. It felt so surreal, like I was the first Filipino to ever come here. I know I am not, but I was thousands of miles from home, in a country so alien, in a culture so different, in a language so guttural, and I was alone. I had only myself to really rely on since I arrived here in Russia. And I was in the heart of the former Soviet Union—the standing symbol of her power before the fall. Nothing can ever duplicate the feeling. I didn’t have my digital camera yesterday and I was able to just walk around, savoring the sights and smell and the feeling of being in the Red Square and the Kremlin for the first time.

When I got home, the nightmare continued. I realized I left my Xerox copy of the documents somewhere. I am quite sure I left it in the embassy when I went to the first floor and sat on the benches for a few minutes to rest after such a taxing day. I know I took my documents to check, but I probably forgot to put them back because I was out of my sane mind by that time.

It began the most awful day of my stay here in Moscow. How can I ever be at peace knowing somewhere out there, my personal documents is in the hands of some Russian, in a country known for its mob business, and in the center of the mob business no less!