We were in Moscow in June 1975 so we were interested to see how things had changed since then.
We checked into a hotel that was organised by the travel company. It was a long way from the city centre and we had to learn about the Russian metro system to get to the city sights. All the station signs were in Cyrillic and as we have had a lot of practice with foreign languages now, we did not find it so difficult. A peculiarity of the Russian metro system is that when 2 or 3 different lines meet at a station then each line has its own name even though they are at the one station. This took a little getting used to.
Some of the changes we noticed were~
the number of private cars on the road: lots of BMW, Mercedes Benz, and brightly coloured sports cars
the number of carparks and petrol stations
the number of drivers sitting in cars waiting for their bosses
many cranes dotting the skyline
lots of renovating of buildings around Red Square
less uniformed police on the streets (probably fewer plain clothed ones too!)
brides arriving at war memorials by stretch limousines to lay down flowers
more advertising on shops
no queues except at tourist venues
no one wanting to buy jeans, T-shirts, stockings, or trade plastic shopping bags and chewing gum for Soviet badges
people of all ages and income groups drinking beer from bottles on the street as freely as we would drink a soft drink
more people smoking especially young girls
lots of elderly beggars of both sexes and buskers
the number of privately owned street stalls selling souvenirs
the Russian dolls now feature Western celebrities
the street performers
the signs in English and the fast food chains
the fashion bunnies both male and female
the high heels
Gum store no longer sells army belts and uniforms but Dior and Gucci and no one was queueing here
no local home made ice cream but Nestles ice creams
lots of people freely worshipping in the churches
loads of graffiti
portable toilets in the streets
loads of foreign and local tourists groups
expensive international food of dubious standard
" first world prices for third world food" and best of all we didn´t have to have a guide follow us around 24 hours a day giving us the party line on everything!
Lovers inscribe these padlocks and put them on the bridges on their wedding day.We did several walking tours of the central city area and visited places where the local Russians hangout in the cafes in the pedestrian streets.
We also did a tour of the beautiful metro stations that have the world´s deepest lines and longest escalators that travel extremely fast. There were stations with stained glass, mosaics, chandeliers and statues.
We caught the metro to a large park outside Moscow to enjoy the beautiful sunny day we had. The cotton wood trees were full of seeds that blew around like snow.
