Hotels and Hostels in Moscow. Arbatskaya and Smolenskaya

Stariy Arbat is almost the heart of Moscow. That is why it would be convenient for a tourist, as we think, to live in this region as all the most famous sightseeings of Moscow are situated not far from the street.

This site provides with a list of hotels on this street: http://en.moscow.hottel.ru/hotels.html?place_id=2581

However, there are also many hostels near. There is a list of some of them:

1st Arbat Hostel  

Bear-Hostel 

Hostel in Moscow

Sweet Moscow

Home from Home

Arbat street

If you walk along the Gogolevskiy Boulevard, at the end of it you'll come across an interesting street. It is Stariy Arbat, one of the oldest and most famous streets of Moscow ("stariy" means old).

 The street was mentioned in the XV century for the first time. The length of the street is about 1 km.
Once it used to be a roadway, however, the modern Arbat is a pedestrian zone which attracts a lot of tourists every day.

Arbat is full of sightseeings: houses of landlords, there are many houses where famous Russian poets and writers lives such as A.S. Pushkin (we have already spoken about him before), M. Lermontov, M. Tsvetaeva. In front of Pushkin's house there is a sculpture dedicated to him and his wife Natalya Goncharova. A famous theatre of Vakhtangova is also situated here, a "golden" fountain is nearby.

The street is also famous for the wall of memory of Victor Tsoy. a Russian rock-musician, who, unfortunately, died in a car accident in 1990. The admirers of his work could not believe his death and built this wall, full of notes "Tsoy is alive". Even nowadays you can find there a candle burning in his honour.

Today you can find here a lot of artists selling their works or ready to draw a portrait of any interested. You can meet musicians who sing songs or anyone else entertaining the public. There are a lot of shops here where you can buy Russian souvenirs.

So to say, Arbat is a beautiful place with its own festive atmosphere, especially on a sunny day.

What is more interesting, there is a street running parallel to Stariy Arbat, but is named "Noviy Arbat" ("noviy" means new). It is absolutely different as there are modern buildings, sky scrapes, modern shops there.

The nearest metro srations are Arbat, Smolenskaya, Kropotkinskaya.

Cafe in Moscow

In this post we will tell you about an interesting type of cafes that gain popularity in Moscow.

They are called time-cafe or co-working or anti-cafe.

The idea is the following: anyone comes to the cafe and pays for the minutes he or she spends there. 

What is more important, you can eat everything you can find in the cafe, usually these are different cookies, fruit, tea or coffee etc. You may bring even your own food. However, in most cafes alcohol is a taboo.

In the places like these you may work in silence because during the day there are not so many people there;

you may invite friends just to talk or to play table games which are provided by any cafe.

Moreover, many of these cafes organise various events: concerts, workshops, meeting with famous people... 

Besides, if you have anything to tell the people, you can present a lecture or sing for people, you may do it in one of the cafes. Everyone is welcomed!

Average cost is about 2 rub per minute. So, if you spend there an hour it will be 120 rub, about 4 dollars or 3 euros. 

Here are some of the most popular anti-cafes in Moscow

Good Republic - m. Chistie Prudy, Myasnitskaya street 13

Start Hub - m. Dmitrovskaya, Bolshaya Novodmitrovskaya 36/12

Flacon Coworking - the same address as Start Hub - m. Dmitrovskaya, Bolshaya Novodmitrovskaya 36/12

To-Do-Club - m. Kropotkinskaya, the opposite bank of the river, Bersenevskaya Naberezhnaya 6 (for working is perfect)

Pushkin Museum

One of the great Russian world-known writers and poets is Aleksandr Pushkin (1799 -1837).

Moscow provides a few museums named after A. Pushkin, however, even not all the citizens of the city are aware of them.
The biggest and the most famous is the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
Even the building of the museum itself is worthy seeing as it is decorated with beautiful columns and statues of ancient heroes or philosophers.
The museum exhibits impressive collections of statues, figures which reflect culture of ancient cultures. Besides, there are a number of halls devoted to paintings of various artists.
The museum holds different exclusive exhibitions. For example, last year work by Salvador Dali were exhibited there.

Address: m. Kropotkiskaya, Volkhonka St 12,
Opening Hours: daily from 10 am to 7 pm. Closed on Monday.
Official website: http://www.arts-museum.ru/index.php?lang=en

Another museum named after Pushkin is also situated near the metro station Kropotkinskaya, but on the opposite side.

Pushkin State museum 
The museums provides with regular exhibitions "Pushkin and his Epoch", "Pushkin's fairy tales", There are a few concert and confereтсу halls where various events take place.

Address: m. Kropotkinskaya, Street Prechistenka 12/2
Opening hours: daily from 10am to 6pm. Closed on Monday and last Friday of the month.
Official website: http://www.pushkinmuseum.ru/

Another place devoted to the personality of Pushkin is his flat the so called "Memorial flat" on the street "Arbat" which vividly exhibits the way he lived. There is also a monument depicting him with his wife Natalya Goncharova on this street.

Address: m. Smolenskaya, St. Atbat 53
Opening hours: daily from 10am to 6pm. Closed on Monday, Tuesday, and last Friday of the month.

Fountains in Moscow start working on 30, April, 2013

There are so many fountains, about 700, in Moscow: big and small, old and new, in the buildings and in the street...
First fountains were built only in the 30s of the XX century! to decorate the city.

These are fountains which usually attract a lot of tourists and are beloved by city inhabitants:

In the center:

• in the Gorky Park - m. Park Kultury. This one is musical and at night is shimmering with beautiful colours.
•  on Arbat Street in front of the theatre. - m. Arbatskaya. 
• There are 12 fountains on the Manezhnaya Square. One of them is devoted to fairy-tales. m. Okhotniy Ryad or Novokuznetskaya.
• The famous ZUM (ЦУМ - Central Department Store of Moscow) in the Red Square also has a fountain. These store is a monument of architecture now, but once, in the Soviet Times, it was the place where everyone came to buy food and clothes of high quality. - m. Okhotniy Ryad or Novokuznetskaya.
• fountain on the Pushin Square, a famous places for dates. - m. Pushkinskaya

Not in the Center:

• A number of fountains in the park "Park Pobedy" (the Park of Victory). -  m. Park Pobedy. 
• A fountain of "Friendship between nations" in the All-Russian Exhibition Center. - m. VDNH. Nowadays  the All-Russian Exhibition Center is a place with many centers (building) where different exhibitions or events take place from time to time. 
• Fountain in the park "Tsaritsino" (Царицыно) is also musical at colourful at night.

This years all the fountains start working on April, 30 at the same time till late October.
At night they are usually turned off.

Charity in Moscow. Charity Shop

Nowadays charity has become very popular in Moscow.

One of the places is the Charity Shop "Lavka radostey" (The store of pleasures) near the Red Square.

The idea of the shop is the following: anyone interested may come to the shop and buy anything they like. They pay as much as they think the thing should cost. There are no prices there.
All the things sold there are gifts of different people, organisations, designers.
Remember that the shop rents a room in the gallery of dolls. To enter the gallery you should pay 150 rub. Then you save the ticket and may come to the shop any time you want without payment.
Moreover, if you come to bring things in a good condition to sell, you should not pat anything for entrance.

It is the first shop like this in Moscow.

Address: Vetoshniy Pereulok, 13. Floor 4.
The shop works from 13.00 till 20.30 daily, except for Monday and Thursday/

Observations...

6.04.13.

Weather. Moscow is still covered with deep snow. Snowdrifts are still as high as a human. 

But there is spring in the air. a bit of it. Birds start singing which is a good sign of the coming spring. 

However, weather forecasters predict there will be no spring, just summer after winter. 

We'll see. 

Metro. As we have noticed it's rather difficult to get into a metro carriage, especially during rush-hours. Too many people and almost each of the desires to get a seat. Sometimes you fail to get into a carriage because there are too many people willing to do the same.. or you are brought in the carriage as if you are surfing a big wave..because again there are too many people.. Nobody wants to let people go out from the carriage to get in there then.

To lessen the pressure in the metro, to make it easier to find the right place on the platform to enter the doors of the carriage when the train comes the Moscow government decides to draw yellow lines on the floor which are to show the position of doors. Hope, it will help.

If you are attentive you will surely notice that voices that declare metro stations differ. If you go to the center these are women voices, if you go from the center - a man declares stations. This is made to help blind people.

Streets. It is also interesting that almost on every door in Moscow, either of any shop or a cafe, there is a yellow circle. The Muscovites asked themselves what for there are so many yellow circles.. The answer is the following: these measures have been taken to help people who have a bad eyesight to orientate themselves in the streets. As doctors say, the yellow colour is best seen by such people. As far as the form is concerned, I suppose, the round form is chosen as it resembles the eye, or the pupil of the eye. 

Hotels and Hostels in Moscow. Park Kultury. Kropotkinskaya.

If you are exploring the central district of Mosow "Hamovniki", it would be very convenient to live somewhere here. Because it's almost the center of the city and you can easily reach any sightseeing in the center, on your feet!

There is a list of hotels and hostels near the metro stations Park Kultury and Kropotkinskaya.

Hotels:

Grosshotel - a min hotel providing 29 rooms for any taste.
Address: m. Park Kulruty or Kropotkinskaya. Prechistenskaya nab 15, building1

Cost: varies from 3200 rub to 6800 rub per day...

Official website: http://en.deluxehotel.ru/

NB: calls are free. 

Versal in Ostozhenka - a mini hotel.

Address: m. Park Kultury; Str. Ostozhenka 7, apt. 54

Cost: from 2900 per night.

Official website: http://en.gmhotel.ru/

Bagration - a big hotel with 46 rooms.

Address: m. Park Kultury. Sechenovskiy Pereulok 7a

Cost: from 2000 rub per night

Official website: http://bagrationhotel.ru/

NB: the site is in Russian only. It's better to write a letter to book a room and ask all the necessary questions.

Hostels:

Kolumb - a hostel providing 4 rooms for 12 and 8 people.

Address: m. Park Kultury, Zubovskiy Boulevard, 35/ 1, apt. 1.

Cost: 500 rub for one night. If you are going to stay there longer, it'll be 400 rub per night.

Official website: http://kolumb-hostel.com/

NB: the site is in Russian. 

Fabrika - a hostel and a gallery at the same time.

Address: m. Kropotkinskaya (the opposite bank of the river). Bersenevskiy Pereulok 5 bld .3/

Cost: 550 rub per night

Official website: http://fabrika-hostel.ru/

If you need any help, be free to ask Explorer.

All the information is provided by the hotels ans hostels mentioned above.

April Fool's Day in Moscow

This year mother-nature has decided to mock at Muscovites.
The winter has been "occupying" the city for 4 months already and does not seem to leave it.
Today the weather is at its best. In the morning it was snowing, which caused traffic jams.
Now (12.12 pm) it is RAINING.

Rainy-snowy Moscow.

"Weather forecasters predict there will be less snow in summer "

1. The picture # 1 is taken from the site http://svo2.ru/
2. The photo # 2 is taken from the site http://www.vluki.ru/news/2013/03/31/219060.html .