Moscow train trip

Hi Friends,

In an earlier post (http://expectmeagain.blogspot.com/2014/03/flying-off-into-space-for-moment.html), I mentioned my trip to Baikonur in Kazahkstan.

What I did not mention was an obligatory 6 hour layover at Domodedovo International, Moscow on the return flight to Dubai and eventually Cape Town. Domodedovo is one of three commercial international airports servicing Moscow, the others being  Sheremetyevo (where Andrew Snowdon holed up) and Vnukovo (infamous for being the site where a passenger jet flew into a highway in 2012). 

I decided that an unenforced lounging at an airport was not what I had pictured myself doing in Russia. On our inbound journey, I had no time to buy my good wife her set of wooden Russian dolls and I did not anticipate a calm return home were I to arrive empty-handed.

Options were: Take a bus, taxi or a train  for the approximately 50km journey.into the centre of Moscow. I heard many stories of Russian taxi rip-offs, so I marked that course of action as undesireable. The buses I saw were marked only in Russian and I found the language impenetrable. This left me with the train option and I was hugely encouraged at the airport because most of the signage were bilingual Russian and English. Somehow I imagined it would be the same for the rest of the journey.

I got myself a ticket on the airport express train from Domodedovskaya train station. It was to bring me to the outer ring of the Moscow metro, from here I was to make my way to the inner Moscow metro network.

My initial bravado vanished like mist before the African sun when I got off at the outer ring station Pavaletskaya and all the signs were only in Russian.

I had with me  a pamphlet with the train service layout and with this instrument, I managed to figure out how to get to the station closest to Red Square and to buy a ticket to get there. I needed to get to Polschcad Revolutsii, two stations away on the green line. The names look very different in Cyrillic though.

The first thing I had to figure out was in which direction my train was leaving the platform at Pavaletskaya. The platforms cater for trains leaving in both directions. I decided to jump on the first train irrespective of direction. I made up my mid to look for the Polschad Revolutsii (in Cyrillic) two stations hence, if that name was not reflected, I had clearly gone in the wrong direction, which meant that three stations from that point, in the opposite direction, I would find my correct station. Good logic, I thought at the time!

I was blessed with my choice. I got to Polschad Revolutsii at my first attempt and proceeded through the lines of flea market stalls to the Red Square (see pics)

Russian policeman at the Red Square stalls

In front of St Basils on Red Square

So I achieved success in my mission and bought the Matruschka for the good wife! At the time it was nearing 18:00 and I saw young female Russian workers returning home walking in 6-inch highs on the cobble stone surface. I was amazed at how steadily and quickly they progressed over the cobblestoned red square. Is Russia not the country where models run a 100 metres race in very high heels annually? Having seen this sort of walking on Red Square, I can quite believe it!!!

Just off red square, I also visited a most expensive underground mall! I got out of there as soon as I could, since spending that kind of money in such places is not what I call sport! Call me stingy but I have to draw the line somewhere!!!

Matruschka set bought for good wife at RedSquare stall

I then had to get back to Domodedovo for my outbound flight. For some unknown reason I thought that getting back would be easier. It was not!!! At Polschad Revolutsii, I easily bought a ticket to Pavaletskaya from a vending machine but, for the life of me, I couldn't find the right platform!!! Since I came up from the bowels of the earth via one set of escalators, I presumed to go back down the same way ... and it simply refused to conform to my logic. What I did not realize at the time was that on the way back I had chosen a different set of escalators that only went 3/4 of the way down. I must have looked very strange riding the same set escalators up and down continuously .. I certainly felt very uncomfortable doing so. One thing I had undertaken NOT TO DO even before I landed in foreign places was to ask the locals for help ... to my suspicious mind, it is the quickest way to be tagged as a potential robbery target.

Eventually, I tried walking further down the platform, found some staircases leading further down and landed on the right platform. Here I decided to use the same station-numbering logic and again I was blessed to get to Pavaletskaya at the first attempt. Once there, I had no trouble finding the express train to Domodedovskaya and I arrived in good time for my flight.

One of the other reasons for my decision not to stay at Domodedovo International was the lack of English reading material at the newsstands. I found exactly zero english papers or magazines, which I found weird at an international airport.

I had not other issues at the airport and made my way to Cape Town via Dubai without trouble.

I would like to tell you next about my 39-hour oddessy  from Denpassar Airport in Bali to Cape Town.

If you like this posting and find it ok, I promise to write the 39-hour one, If the readership does not justify more air travel postings, I'll probably revert to writing about the windy Argus bicycle race  in 2010.

Until next time,
Salani kahle, stay well, до свидания