I'm a South African guy currently living and working in Moscow, Russia - and I thought it might be interesting to give you an idea of what the city is like. Moscow is a HUGE city - not so much in actual footprint size (although it's no slouch in that department either), but more so in the sheer number of people living here, registered and visiting (yep, it's years after communism got the boot, but Big Brother's still watching you...). At any given time there are between 19 - 20 million people in the city.
A sea of apartment buildings with no private dwellings in the city, Moscow does have some beauty in that there are several sprawling parks (that are lush green in summer) that provide a retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life. The most beautiful season to me here is late autumn, when the leaves everywhere are bright yellow, brown and red.
And when I say hustle and bustle, you'd better believe it! You haven't lived until you've been on the Moscow Metro (subway) at peak time, either morning or afternoon, and more specifically the brown (or circle) line around the city centre. To get the picture, open a new can of sardines and then squash a few more in there...
Having said that, I must confess that the metro is an absolute Godsent for this city. Trains run on average every 2 minutes during off-peak times and every 90 seconds during peak hours! The metro has 282.5 km of route length, 12 lines and 173 stations (actually more now, a couple of new stations opened recently), and moves around 9 million people every day. Although the metro bypasses (underpasses?) the infamous Moscow traffic jams, it nevertheless usually takes me anywhere between 1 and 2 hours to get where I'm going.
Speaking of those traffic jams - I find it hard to bend my mind around the scenario that would have prevailed if the metro didn't exist... ;-)
Of course Moscow is well known for her famous landmarks like Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral (Intercession Catheral), the Kremlin, Manyesh Square, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Bolshoi (Big) Theatre, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Moscow River (on which you could take several boat trips - in the city or all the way up to St. Petersburg in the north), the Pushkin Meuseum of Fine Arts, Park Pobedy (Victory Park), the Moscow State University, the Moscow Circuses, the Metro stations with their intricate and artful decoration (mainly the stations in the centre of the city), the Moscow monorail and many, many other places and things to see an try.
I live on the outskirts of the city in a region called Novokosino, in the east about 15 - 20 minutes drive from the nearest metro. They reckon a metro station should open near us around 2011.
Anyway - there's a lot more to be said about this beautiful city... Here are a few sites you could visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow
http://www.moscowcity.com/
http://www.geographia.com/moscow/
http://www.moscow-taxi.com/index.asp
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe/russia/moscow
http://www.mdmbank.com/webcam
http://www.earthcam.com/russia/moscow/
And many more - just Google Moscow, Russia.
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Contributor's Note
Seriously, if you've never been to Moscow, put the place on your list of travel destinations. You won't be sorry!
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