6.38 p.m. Leningradski Prospekt
"Grand" - huge Cyrillic letters advertise a shopping centre halfway between the airport and the centre, but it could refer to the city itself: enormous buildings, multiple-lane roads, which, as if in a film, cross each other on incredibly many levels, mega stores overflowing with goods, as can be seen from the outside, and also the taxi driver who is making his way on the busy, wet highway at a speed of 120 km/h. In the dark the car headlights appear like an unbroken garland and in the distance Moscow can already be seen - the lights of a metropolis.
7.42 a.m. Nikitski Avenue
The city is waking. Those who have already left home all seem to be aiming for business on Nikitski Avenue - or it is only me who thinks that, as I peer at the enormous cars proceeding slowly along the double-seven-lane thoroughfare. "Well, that's Moscow," smiles Vera who drives us around the city manoeuvring skilfully. Well, yes, that's Moscow: fast, in a hurry and energetic. It empties somewhat only at weekends - the city-dwellers usually leave for their dachas, which are still very fashionable, or in the winter they go skiing in the nearby hills. Tourists arrive to replace them. Many, not only foreigners but also Russians, come to admire Moscow, decorated and floodlit. A huge ornate Christmas tree with enormous decorations, lanterns and garlands of lights stands at nearly every street corner. They come to admire the capital which, according to many, is not Russia but an independent entity, with a multitude of sights and a pace of life incomparable with other Russian cities. That's Moscow.
11.32 a.m. Nouveau Café
It is rather early for lunch, but if you are near the Zoo it is worth dropping in to the Nouveau for a tuna salad, or a cream of mushroom soup - perhaps for both. In Moscow coffee house culture is palpably on a high: a couple of good places where it feels good to sit can be found at almost every street corner. Café chains are spreading all over and Muscovites gratefully pay tribute to coffee drinking and spending time in coffee houses. This one is teaming with people. The new arrivals bring the cold from outside on their coats then sit down, stir their coffee amidst the blue and red flashing Christmas lights, and through their glasses, which have slipped on their noses, they browse the internet or peruse the small ads in the newspaper. Then they fold the paper, gulp down the last sip from the rounded green mugs and pull the hoods on their heads before venturing out into the January cold.
1.12 p.m. Bagration Bridge
Like most metropolises, Moscow also has a 'City within the city'. The new business quarter, with its hypermodern skyscrapers and enormous glass surfaces, has already turned into a separate district which has its own underground station, though construction is still continuing. Office space commands sky-high prices, but all the signs indicate that there is the demand. The City being built on the bank of the Moscow River connects with the opposite side via a tube-like pedestrian bridge, a 21st-century 'Bridge of Sighs' with elegant shops and cafes. Together with freshly squeezed fruit juice you also get the Moscow panorama: in the distance the Russian 'White House' and the building of the Ukraina Hotel, a 'Gothic' Stalinist tower built in the 1950s. Below there is the river, its embankment piers frozen solid - well, it is January.
3.21 p.m. The Kremlin
True, it is only open for another half an hour, and although days would be needed to fully explore its 28 hectares, the Kremlin cannot be missed. Enclosed within its walls, the citadel represents a time travel and the best type at that - no wonder it was first in Russia to be included on the World Heritage List. Its magnificent ensemble of palaces and cathedrals enthrals tourists. Visitors get themselves photographed in front of the Tsar Cannon. Inside the onion domed churches there are heartbreakingly beautiful icons, and when the five-men choir begins to sing in the Cathedral of the Archangel it really feels as if an angel were flying over.
5.24 p.m. Tverskaya Boulevard
I have never seen so many shoe shops next to each other! Of course, there are all sorts of other shops, too. Tverskaya is the street of shops, a shopping street, a street of good life. I observe with envy girls who might have walked off the front pages of magazines suitably clothed for all manner of fashion mags as they hurry along extremely elegantly on high heels and in light coats, even in the cold winter. Coffee houses and restaurants are interspersed between the elegant shops. The door of one opens and the strains of Strangers in the Night float out into the street. Further on, there is Yeliseyev's food emporium - a store from Fairyland. Yeliseyev's - called simply Gastronomy Shop No.1 in Soviet times - is the fusion of a ballroom and a lavish market, with its huge sides of Iberian ham, innumerable types of cheese, fish and crab, chocolate, fruits and green vegetables, and bottles of Fabergé vodka worth a small fortune. Moscow's legendary GUM Department Store is a stone's throw from Tverskaya. Only its name survives from its previous life, since now the splendidly decorated and illuminated GUM could easily be in Paris or New York. Strolling among the international labels and luxury items we listen to some good jazz - an orchestra dressed in blue Father Christmas clothing creates the atmosphere. The only thing betraying that we are in Moscow is a small refrigerator van with Cyrillic letters on its side: 'morozhenoye' мороженое - ice cream.
9.24 p.m. Red Square
In the day time Red Square is frequented mostly by tourists. They stop by the Historical Museum and throw a coin over their shoulder - it is supposed to bring luck. They gaze at the small groups turning up in front of the square and try to recognise the flags and decipher the slogans. They enter the Lenin Mausoleum and, somewhat alarmed by its atmosphere, hurry along past the soldiers on guard, not stopping to look around, since even a short pause results in the guards impatiently signalling you must carry on. They admire St. Basil's Cathedral, which comprises nine different churches in one building.
Red Square in the evening, however, is different. For years a skating rink has been established, attracting Muscovites who repossess the square at this time. Music blasts out and by the fenced-off rink there is a café called 'Shocoladnica' where different types of delicious coffee is made. People change their shoes, venture onto the absolutely smooth ice and begin skating to the sound of music. Around us the square is brilliantly illuminated in truly Christmas lights. The multitude of small bulbs appear like a waterfall on the walls of GUM and it cannot be so cold as not to feel that this season also has its own beauty. The Muscovites are gazing proudly around the square. No wonder - it is their square, their Moscow and, amidst the Christmas lights, they resolutely make one circle after another on the ice.
Anna Nagy