Mysteriously fascinating. Mesmerizingly majestic. Truly, madly, deeply Russian. Bloody expensive. And extremely cold. That’s about how I would sum up the Moscow I’d been through during an unreal, memorable fortnight.

Like a déjà vu from Paris where the fist place I went was Le Bon Marché, I started exploring Moscow at the world-renowned ГУМ (GUM). Extensively borders the whole eastern side of the Red Square with its then-fashionable Russian-Revival style, this gigantic glass-roofed shopping arcade is nothing short of breathtaking elegance. On its first floor were lines of specialty shops selling shockingly expensive Russian fur hat (shapka). In front of its delicatessen on the ground floor, Gastronom No.1, is my favourite ice-cream stall where I would buy a cone of caramel flavour and finish it while strolling in the majestically illuminated Red Square next door too many nights. What a simple pleasure! I ended up, sinfully, having my first dinner in Moscow at an Italian resto, Mi Piace, after so much efforts to find a Russian one at 23h00. For antipasti I had horseradish-dominated ovoshchnoy salad. Then a secondi, I had a very juicy and tender chunk of rare rib-eye steak that went so well with glasses of Nero d’Avola 2004. A very delicious welcome!

As much as a Tōkyōite sunday is fixed for Harajuku 原宿, I spent my first Muscovite sunday at the most popular and reasonably priced weekend market for souvenirs--Vernisazh. But before that, becoz of my inexperience with Moscow métro, I accidentally went to an adjacent, dreamily beautiful Izmaylovo park and lingeringly appreciated my first snow scenery for a really long while. The market itself was interesting, zigzagging through lines of stalls and you’ll come across every typical Russian souvenirs imaginable-- matryoshkas of various size and colour, shapkas made by every kind of fur (PETA wouldn’t like this, but who cares), and array of Soviet memorabilias (you can imagine I couldn’t help getting totally fascinated). Trying to dress as much possible like a local, I bought a new pair of black pointed shoes with warm fur inside and a classical looking shapka before having some sizzling lamb shashlyks as my first lunch.

Despite a freezing windy weather which would, later in the course of my trip, halt many of my planned daily itineraries, I continued strolling aimlessly through the heart of Barrikadnaya. Inadvertently, and amazingly, I found myself in front of my favourite Seven Sister (as the seven Stalinist-Gothic skyscrapers are usually referred to)-- Министерство Иностранных дел Российской Федерации (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Grandly illuminated and heavily adorned with stars, sickles and hammers-- some familiar symbols from the recent regime-- it stands just adjacent to the much-praised, much-written and much-sung about shopping street of Улица Арбат (old Arbat street) which reminded me a lot of Váci utca in Budapest. I walked through this star-paved, fast-food and souvenir shops-lined charming pedestrianized street before surrendering to the cold and ended up in one of its cheap eateries, Ëлки-Палки, as my hands and feet were painfully frozen. A very pleasant stroll, but not as much as I’d expected partly because it was way too cold to appreciate anything.

My first monday, a frustrating day for making plan in any trip anywhere, was luckily an Orthodox Christmas, and that meant a mandatory visit to Moscow’s controversially rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Blown up on Stalin’s order in 1931, it now once again glitters with its gigantic golden onion domes on the bank over the frozen river Moskva after a decision to rebuild by the popular Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov (Denis, my hostel guy, doesn’t like him, though). Inside the cathedral was very crowded as it was Christmas, and I felt a little out of place. I lingered shortly to observe the crowd lit up candles, prayed, and kissed the much revered iconostasis, the pillar of Orthodox Christianity as it seems to me, before escaped such religious scene (so un-me) and walked for some fresh air on the bridge over the picturesque frozen river Moskva, with the spectacular view of the Kremlin, the Monument of Tsar Peter the Great and the factory of the ever-popular Krasny Oktyabr chocolate.

I spent all that afternoon strolling once again in Arbat street, had some борщ (Russian beetroot soup, arguably the most popular soup in Russia) and filling, creamy пельмени (pelmeni, Russian dumpling) in yet another cheap eatery, Му-Му. I then hopped from one métro station, Маяковская, with brightly lit mosaics in its beautiful recessed ceiling, to another, Киевская, by far and most my favourite station in Moscow with ostentatious huge mosaics adorning its wall in depiction of friendship between Russia and Ukraine. Stunningly elegant. I walked along the Savvinskaya embankment in a windy snowfall. With the moist from the ice brink over the river Moskva making the minus-something temperature felt even much much much colder, the beautiful snowfall wasn’t romantic or dreamy anymore. With severe struggling against the shivering cold, I kept walking and walking like a masochist. Finally I surrendered, I found an expensive-looking restaurant in the dark, and by that point extreme cold and hunger combined proved too much to overcome. Once inside, I found it very kitschy yet pleasantly atmospheric with ornate chandeliers, tiered curtains and apparently the ‘New Russians’ clientele. Non-hesitantly I started with few shots of Русский Стандарт platinum vodka that sent a warm flush through my nearly frozen body. So nice I totally forgot how it was in the snowfall out there few minutes before (I could understand very well why Russian men are alcoholic, I definitely would, no doubt). I’d only back it up with few more glasses of la Secreta red wine to accompany creamy slices of foie gras, risotto with mushroom, osso buco-looking steak, and bocconcino dai-dai for dessert. Prohibitively expensive that even me felt really guilty-- for few days!

Another shopping place worth mentioning is the underground elegance of Okhotnyi Ryad. Brightly goldenly lit, colourful decorations hanging down from its no less colourful domes and illuminated huge fountain on its ground, this one offered a Galerie Lafayette-wannabe shelter from cold many times after a stroll in the Red Square. Its stained-glass domes are impressive both from inside and from the ground above. Its food court, Кафе Солоха, is mysteriously crowded as I found hideously overpriced (never before I ate lunch on plastic plates which costs 1 053руб ≈ 31€!)

Just above the Okotnyi Ryad is the recently renovated Manezhnaya square that runs along my favourite garden, the Alexandrovskiy garden. Perfectly fitted my imaginary winter scene, that very morning it was covered with beautifully white snow, complemented with leafless tree and bathed with golden sunlight. Virtually unable to put down in words. This beautiful garden would run along red bricks of the Kremlin wall to end by the side of the huge exhibition hall, the Manège, where President Krushchëv famously condemned his eventual tombstone designer. At the opposite end is the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier which was guarded by, well, two very Russian-looking soldiers. And you know, a ablond slavic soldier in a winter coat, a fur hat, and boots is nothing short of wildest sexual fantasy to me, lol.

From Manezhnaya square I walked passed by the Central Lenin Museum, Russian folk fun fair and fake fortress in the Ploshchad Revolyutsii to reach the Teatralnaya square. Inexplicably I felt really cold, maybe it was the high humidity in the air, that I had to peek in the elegant style-moderne Hotel Metropol. And I headed straight to its Metropol Zal restaurant to witness with my own eyes its wrought-iron balconies, superb painted glass roof and charming ‘Cupid At Play’ fountain in the centre. So elegant. And since it was very cold outside why shouldn’t I sit back and drink some coffee with, err, vodka! Just very justifiable! hahaha. Recuperated all my energy and warmth, I continued my walk passed by Karl Marx statue to the chic ЦУМ (TsUM, literally ‘Central Department Store) with its rather snobbish atmosphere. All the hi-end international brands have their shops here. I secretly planned to do a serious shopping there on my very last days, as there was a tempting 50% sale, but that outrageous plan was never realized as I’d unscrupulously blow my credit card well before those very last days would come. Damn! Never mind, I then walked along Okotnyi Ryad street passing by interesting façades of the Dom Soyuzov, the state Duma and the Soviet mosaic-adorn style-moderne Hotel National.

What could be a better way to escape cold dark afternoon than to plunge myself in a gallery? And this one, the Tretyakov Gallery has the largest collection of Russian art in the world. Seemed many Muscovites and visitors alike thought the same, so we had to queued up in a windy, cold street for a while before allowed to get in past its unique Russian-Revival style frieze. Really interesting collections that time flew so fast and I stayed there until it closed. My favourite painting was ‘Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on 16 November, 1581’ by Ilya Repin which vividly emotionally depicts the insane Ivan after he killed his own son in anger. For dinner I went to, Kamergerskiy pereulok, a quiet pedestrianized lane just off Tverskaya street, for some cheap Салат Оливье (moyonaise salad), Холодец (beef jelly), Гороха (fish soup), and the creamiest Бефстроганов (beef stroganov) ...mmm!

Okay I admit, I missed a kabuki at the Kabuki-za in Tōkyō and a Chinese opera at the Hongloujuchang 紅樓劇場 theatre in Taipei, but to miss a ballet at the Bolshoy is only unaffordable to me. So I found my way to buy a matinée ticket online from the Russian-only official Bolshoy website (thanx Denis, you rock!), dressed up in a nicest blazer I had, grabbed a cup of delicious Spanish-thick hot chocolate at КофеХауз and there I was-- the famous Bolshoy theatre! It’s Christmas time so it only fitted to see Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker on the stage of its première in 1892. Amazing performance. They moved, glided, whirled, jumped effortlessly gracefully and fluidly in harmony with the magnificent orchestra. Exceptional elegance.

As much as I was very keen to go to Szoborpark in Budapest, I went to this Communist sculpture park on the bank of the river next to the monument of Peter the Great with so much enthusiasm. And how exciting it was, but not for the sculptures themselves, surprisingly. They were much smaller, though more recognizable, than those in Budapest. I wandered around for a while checking out Lenin & co. amidst blindingly white snow and wave after wave of shivering cold (it’s too much, cold mist that vaporized from the river always proved unbearable for me). I escaped into a typical Sup’s shelter: a restaurant. In that stinky cottage I had few shots of vodka to warm me up (well, I’m not alcoholic, I was just in Russia!), black rye bread, veggie soup, блины с икра красная (blinis with caviar), and a thin chunk of medallion бифстек. I wandered around a little more and then, fifteen minutes later and I realized I lost my camera!!! I ran like Forest Gump and searched for it frantically everywhere, almost about to cry as I didn’t wanna lose all my photos I’d taken the previous days. And I mean, I just bought it 10 days before I left for Moscow! My camera has an orange cover so logically it must be fairly conspicuous. Out of nowhere there were not only one but three officers in uniform came to follow me and talked to me sth in Russian I couldn’t understand and didn’t bother to care. They kept following despite my vigorous refusal to talk to them. Now that started to get scary, I just wanna find my camera and leave that place as soon as I could. In that moment of mixed desperation and fear, one of them put out a camera cover from his pocket and, for the first time, I turned around and started talking to them-- me in English, they in Russian. Then one of the guy grasped a wood stick and scribbled sth on the snowy ground. It read ‘3000руб’ (4200฿ ≈ 87€) and everything was clearly understood. I was really willing to pay that for the fact that my photos and my safety are worth more than that, but the problem is, guess what, I had a total cash of about 1800руб in my wallet (almost hated myself for eating that lunch). Sensing things were on a brink to turn nasty, I called Denis and asked for help. To make it more exciting, my cellphone battery was dying! Gosh! But Denis successfully called the chief of the park, and he came to talk to his officers and they eventually returned my camera for only 300руб. Ultimate Russian police experience!

Thursday midday, grey sky, snowfall, a tasty loaf of black rye bread and I was off to the Novodevichiy Convent where Tsar Peter the Great kept his sister-regent Sofia imprisoned. Too bad the main 15th-century Smolensk Cathedral was under renovation (like Hotel Moskva, Hotel Rossiya, House of the Romanov boyar, the Old English Court and many many places more). Nevertheless, the atmosphere was really impressive: quiet, very calm, with beautiful floating snowflakes in the air at the foreground of red bricks and golden onion domes of cathedrals, churches, palaces, gate churches, and a magnificent bell tower. I took a lot of time appreciating such tranquil beauty before moving to the famous cemetery next door-- the Novodevichiy Cemetery where the likes of Nikita Krushchëv, Raisa Gorbachev, Vladimir Mayakovskiy, Nadezhda Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov were buried, among others. Kinda Père-Lachaise equivalent. I checked out all the must tombs and left after a short while as I was freezing again. It is really not easy to sightsee Moscow in winter!

After a brief escape into an interesting Lev Tolstoy House-Museum, I decided I’d tortured my body too much today and that it righteously deserved to be pampered, so I went to Tiflis, an extremely charming, intimate, and romantic Georgian restaurant which would become my favourite of all the restaurants I had visited in Moscow. Decoration aside, all the classic Georgian food were no less exquisite. For закуски (entrée) I had creamy, very delicious chicken сациви (in onion-walnut sauce) and equally appetizing бахлажаны (walnut-stuffed aubergine) complemented with their much-praised, and totally deservingly, хачапури (cheesy puff pastry). Divinely scrrrrrrrumptious! I couldn’t stop smiling with myself for such joy and happiness that a waiter came to offer to take a photo for me. lol! Maybe he thought I was insane-- but who cares! The only drawback being no Georgian wine available in their wine list! How outrageous! But that was hardly their fault, it was simply a consequence of a dispute between Russia and Georgia which resulted in all imported Georgian products were banned from Russia since March 2006! I tried my hardest to forget my disappointment on the wine and followed those zakuskis by a pair of хинкали (lamb-filled dumpling served with black peppers)-- Denis said he could eat eight of them! Capped by a Georgian dessert whose name I don’t remember and some чай (tea), I left the restaurant pleasantly full, euphoric, and ready to fall asleep as soon as I found my bed. But that’s not before Denis and I went out to have some more бочка beer!

Situated just off Лубянская Площадь (Lubyanka square) which is dominated by the spooky former KGB headquarter (also closed, like everything else in Moscow when I was there!), this maelstrom of Constructivist and Futurist models, posters, drawings, manuscripts, letters and photographs is insanely crazy. After went through an unmistakable Constructivist entrance that seemingly sinked into the ground, I followed this Avant-garde exhibition by spiralling down from its top floor, no less, and really felt ‘a slap in the face of my taste’, as the Revolutionist artist described his work. Extremely bizarre!

There is no other square like the Red Square. Neither Place des Vosges in Paris, la Grande Place in Bruxelle, Trafalgar Square in London, Hösők Tere in Budapest or even Tiananmen 天安門 in Beijing has the same magnitude of grandeur, elegance and history. Unmistakable red brick formidable wall and the splendidly beautiful Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin, together with the pyramid of red granite and black labradorite of Lenin Mausoleum, defines its west side. Marking its north end is the fantastic Russian-Revival fairy tale-lookalike State Historical Museum and the adjacent Resurrection Gate. Elegant GUM and the diminutive Kazan Cathedral bound to the east. And to the south is the magically exquisite magnificence of the world-renowned St Basil’s Cathedral. The colourful twisted onion domes, tent roofs and gables were just...unbelievably amazing. You could do nothing but transfixed right there, wondering what was in the architect’s head and keep appreciating it admiringly and insatiably. Mesmerizingly magical.

So I celebrated my renaissance with (yet) another lavish meal at this fancy restaurant in the State Historical Museum. Its menu features mouth-watering aristocratic cuisine based on recipes from 17th century. How fascinating! After quenching my thirst with two glasses of квас (kvas--a mildly alcoholic berry drink, punch equivalent), I started with a duck-breast salad with green leaves and...roquefort! Finally I can enjoy roquefort! ...mmm! Then came the highlight, apparently the most expensive закуски (entrée) of my entire trip: икра белужья (black caviar)!! Felt like a tsar, hahaha! How delicate! It was followed by a very nice warming bowl of щи (shchi--cabbage soup), of course with a dip of sour cream. Most of the time I’d intended to order a fish main, I would only be distracted with mouth-watering beef dishes in the menu. But what main course could match the caviar better than a grilled sturgeon (осетрина)! That was one of the most delicious fish main I’ve ever had. Optimally cooked with juice from the fish, a dash of cream and a tinge of basil paste. De-li-cious. That was capped 20 min later with warm and sweet вереники (cherries-filled dessert ravioli in yoghurt-like sauce). Another very nice dinner...

This Moscow trip followed many footsteps of my Budapest trip 2 years ago. 6/8 days had passed by til I went to the Budavár, Budapest’s historical, political and geographical centre. A week had passed by and I just got a chance to (finally) strolled in the Kremlin, probably most people’s first place to visit in Moscow. I entered by the Troitskaya tower, passed by the grand State Kremlin Palace which was interiorly decorated with a rather interesting Communist emblems but open only to concert ticket-holders. Never mind, the Arsenal, the Senate and the President Administration (Hi! Putin!) were all closed to public. So few moments later I found myself in front of the towering glitter onion dome of Ivan the Great Bell Tower with the Tsar’s canon and the world’s largest bell (broken though). Next up was the Cathedral square, where Russia 4 most important Orthodox churches stand. Impressive iconostasis, esp in the Uspenskiy sobor. It was getting dark and I was late (not fashionably late, just simply late as usual!) to the State Armoury so I sped up passed by the yellow-and-white façade of the Great Kremlin Palace and was luckily on time to catch the last round of entrance permission to see a vast and luxurious collections of the Russian Tsars. The crowns, the ceremonial dresses, the throne, the carriages and lots more were all very impressive, but by far and most my favourite was the Fabergé Eggs. So luxuriously decorated! One even has a miniature of the Kremlin itself under the egg! I was a little disappointed the State Diamond Fund was closed at that time (so many places, I told you!) but the view of my favourite Aleksandrovskiy garden at night after I left the Borovitskaya tower made up for it all. Breathtakingly beautiful.