Romantic places of Moscow

It often happens that you want to invite you girl (or boy) friend somewhere where you may enjoy beautiful views and romantic atmosphere... where you want to be with others but still feel unique...

Moscow Explorers suggest the following romantic places for walking and visiting!

1) Bolotnaya Naverezhnaya (Bolotnaya Quay, Bolotnaya means marsh) - which starts between the Moskva-river and the Vodootvodniy Channel. \Walking down the quay you'll come across the Bolotnaya Square. There is a monument to Ilya Repin, a Russian famous painter, there. In 2001 a new monument "Children are the Victims of Adult Vices" was erected here to call on adults to think over their actions.

2) Krymsky Bridge is a bridge over the Moskva river, is considered to be one of the most significant in Moscow as it carries the Garden Ring across the river. The closest stations are Park Kultury (we've discussed it previously) and Oktabrskaya. If you cross the Bridge from the side of Park Kultury you'll find Gorky Park, which is one of the most famous places of recreation nowadays. Lots of people visit this park everyday in cold or hot weather.

3) Park of Art "Muzeon" is an ideal place for art lovers. The park provides exhibitions of craftsmen from different spheres. Besides, the Tretyakovskaya gallery is nearby.
The park is situated exactly opposite Gorky Park, just cross the street.

4) Arbat Street is considered to be one of the most famous and romantic..
The information is here http://exploringmoscow.blogspot.ru/2013/04/arbat-street.html

5) Tverskoy Boulevard is one of the busiest streets in central Moscow.
Metro station is Tvesrkaya (green line of the metro)

Parks in Moscow. Sokolniki.

At last summer has come to Moscow!
The weather is wonderful!

The 1st of June is a traditional Day of Children!
On the 1st of June we went to one of the Moscow Parks - Park SOKOLNIKI.
Every year people celebrate here the DAY of ICE-CREAM.
People can buy here all kinds of ice-cream of the most famous companies..take part in competitions, sing songs..
On the 1st of June we saw how old Moscovites spend their leisure time: one of the cafes was full of people from 40 to 70 years, listening to old songs and dancing from their hearts..Dozens of people were simply standing there watching them.

Park Sokolniki is one of the most famous parks of Moscow. Here you can not only simply walk eating ice-cream, but rent a bicycle or organise a picnic because the park is an area full of green trees.

The address is: metro station Sokolniki (red line). Go out from the metro, dong cross any road, but turn to the alley which will lead you directly to the parkю

On the official website you can find all the necessary information about the park and the events organised there. Besides, there is a page on the Facebook devoted to the park.

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.

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.

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. 

Gogolevskiy Boulevard

Kropotkinskaya station resembles the sun with its rays which can lead you to beautiful and exciting places of interest. Directly in front of it is the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. If we go to the left we'll see the famous Pushkin museum... and if we walk behind the station we'll find ourselves in Gogolevsky Boulevard.

Gogolevsky Boulevard is one of the tenth Boulevards of Moscow which form the famous Garden Ring (Sadovoe Koltso), or Boulevard Ring.
Gogolevsky Boulevard is one of the most beautiful historical places of Moscow. The Boulevard was opened in 1909, but had another name "Prechistinskiy". The name originated from the word "Chistiy" meaning "clean". But in 1924 it was renamed into Gogolevskiy in honour of the famous  Russian writer Nikolay Gogol. At the end of the Boulevard there is a grand monument in his honour.

Another monument is devoted to another Russian writer , Mikhail Sholokhov, and his novel "Tihiy Don" (Still Don).

The Boulevard has a so called three-level structure as once there used to be a river with the banks of different level. That is why the eminence of the boulevard varies.

The architecture of this place is worth seeing. It presents buildings which survived the Great Fire of 1812. More to it, different merchants and famous people like Pushkin or Turgenev of the 19th century.

Nowadays you can be lucky to find there exhibited photos. Sometimes even artists exhibit and sell their works of art there. You can buy anything you like, or just enjoy.

It's especially good there in summer. When it's warm and you can enjoy a beautiful day and trees around you    sitting on a bench...with an ice-cream... )