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Lenin Museum, Moscow
Photo: Biennale

Anarchy rules
Nick Paton Walsh
“Moscow, how much this word means in the Russian heart, how much this word reflects,” Alexander Pushkin.

It’s dusty and grimy, but gilded and gleaming. The former seat of the Russian empire is also the home to all its untempered extremes. More billionaires than any other city in the world, but Europe’s most mind-numbing poverty; perverse anarchy where policemen turn a blind eye for a £2 bribe at the feet of a burgeoning police state. It’s the hard and fast centre of the former Soviet universe where an 80s-esque sense of boom and glitz never quite escapes the city’s enormous historical burden - Red Square, the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral.

It survived Hitler’s assault, and its residents preferred to burn their city down than let Napoleon take it. Moscow can be tough, awkward, rude, but a uniquely resilient experience. Restaurants, bars and shops are flourishing as the country begins to insist on a standard of living similar to the West. It’s easy to be lost in its size, swell and carnality, but at the end of the day even the hoards of blacked-out gangster BMWs that line the streets have to clear the way for the presidential motorcade.
Best view
Vorabyovi Gori
Or Sparrow Hills in English. Located near the State University, it’s a popular hangout because the city sprawls beneath you.

Nearest metro: Vorabyovi Gori

  1. Moscow
  2. | view
  3. | free
  4. | park

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Best thing to do for free
Stand in the middle of Red Square
As long as the Kremlin security lets you that day, otherwise stand near it. It's where it all began, ended, and will go on.

Nearest metro: Okhotny Ryad

  1. Moscow
  2. | free
  3. | culture
  4. | historic site

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Where to watch the world go by
Coffee Mania
Outside the Conservatory concert hall on Bolshaya Nikitskaya. A summer terrace and a warm, cavernous interior for the endless winter.

13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Ulitsa. Tel: 095 229 3901. Nearest metro: Okhotny Ryad

  1. Moscow
  2. | cafe
  3. | watch the world go by

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Cultural highlight
Novaya Tretyakovskaya Gallery
Twentieth-century Russian art. You will need several hours to marvel at the avant-garde and socialist realist masterpieces that bring to life what was happening on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

10 Krymsky Val; Tel: 095 951 1362; nearest metro: Park Kultury; www.tretyakovgallery.ru/english

  1. Moscow
  2. | art
  3. | culture

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Bring back
A felt banya hat
From the Sandunovskaya bath houses. 300 rubles.

  1. Moscow
  2. | shopping
  3. | souvenir

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Leave there
Matrioshki
Little wooden dolls that fit inside each other, often with the faces of leaders in descending order, Lenin last, of course.

  1. Moscow
  2. | tourist tat

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Time for love
Arkhangelskoye estate
Old tsarist manor of winding paths and shaded corners.

Phone: 095 561 9660; museum.ru/museum/archang/entere.htm

  1. Moscow
  2. | romance
  3. | park
  4. | escape
  5. | walk

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Best-kept secret (till now)
Correas' restaurant
A New York-style delicatessen. Exquisite pizzas and omelettes. Rack of the finest lamb in town. Increasingly and annoyingly popular.

Bolshaya Gruzinskaya; www.correas.ru/

  1. Moscow
  2. | secret
  3. | eating
  4. | budget

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The thing to eat
Georgian food
Sushi is all the rage, but you should try this. Grilled meat, fresh vegetables and hachipuri, bread stuffed with melted cheese - easily the most addictive substance in the former Soviet Union.

Genatsvali restaurant on Ostozhenka, 12/1 (nearest metro: Park Kultury) is not the cheapest, but perhaps the best.

  1. Moscow
  2. | eating

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Green space
Patriach's Pond
The spiritual home of Bulgakov's masterpiece and Moscow's soul. A park in the city centre.

Nearest metro: Mayakovskaya

  1. Moscow
  2. | park
  3. | free

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Best ride
River ferry
Take a boat on the river, past the Novodevichy monastery, Gorky Park and the Kremlin. They leave every 20 minutes between 12 pm and 8 pm from the pier at Kiev Station

  1. Moscow
  2. | ride
  3. | view
  4. | transport

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Keep the kids happy
The circus
Check local guides for performances. The traditional Russian family treat. But bear in mind, this is not really a city for kids.

  1. Moscow
  2. | family

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Escape the crowds
Sandunovskaya Banya
Traditional Russian baths from the 18th century. Wrap yourself in nothing but a sheet, sit in the hot, purging steam and then jump into a freezing cold-water pool. A perfect hangover cure that, worryingly, leaves you wanting a cold beer (also on offer). Expect to pay around £20 a head for the whole experience.

14 Neglinniy Pereulok; tel: 095 925 4631

  1. Moscow
  2. | culture
  3. | escape
  4. | relax

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The film to see before I go
Burnt by the Sun
Nikita Mikhailkov’s epic about the 30s purges, which of course culminates in an apartment just off Red Square.

  1. Moscow
  2. | film
  3. | film location

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... and the novel to read
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
The definitive Moscow novel.

  1. Moscow
  2. | books

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Where to eat (budget)
Petrovich
Apparently an exclusive club-restaurant, but they let anyone in who asks nicely (in Russian). Traditional Russian food, ice cold vodka, and bizarre caricature busts of everyone from Lady Di to Dostoyevski. £15 a head for vodka and food.

24 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa (in a courtyard away from the street); Tel: 095 923 0082; nearest metro: Christiye Prudy

  1. Moscow
  2. | eating
  3. | budget
  4. | club

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Where to eat (moderate)
Karetnyi Dvor
Azerbaijani food (a little like Georgian, but with more herbs and less melted cheese). Kebabs, pickled vegetable stuffed in previously unimaginable ways. Try the kutab with pumpkin (kutab s tykvy). Drink Georgian Saperavi wine. A drunken feast for about £30 a head.

52 Povarskaya Ulitsa; Tel: 291 6376; nearest metro: Barrikadnaya

  1. Moscow
  2. | eating

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Where to eat (posh)
Pushkin Cafe
A tourist hang-out, but also the preferred eaterie of the well-heeled. High-end Russian cuisine where smoked meat meets pickled fish. Expect to pay at least £50 a head.

26a Tverskoi Bulvar; tel: 095 229 5590; nearest metro: Tverskaya

  1. Moscow
  2. | eating
  3. | posh

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Where to stay (budget)
Hotel Ukraine
Enormous Stalinesque building where you'll have to immerse yourself in the sense of history to ignore the lack of any extras. Around €70 a night for a double.

2/1 Kutuzovsky Prospekt; Tel: 095 933 5656

  1. Moscow
  2. | accommodation
  3. | budget

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Where to stay (moderate)
Hotel Budapest
A few minutes walk from the Bolshoi and the centre. Doubles start at £125.

2/18 Petrovskaya Liniya; Tel: 095 921 1060; http:// www.hotel-budapest.ru/

  1. Moscow
  2. | accommodation

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Where to stay (posh)
The Hyatt
Unspeakable prices - $500 plus a night. Strictly for those who don't look at the numbers on the end of the bill.

4 Neglinnaya Ulitsa; tel: 095 783 1234; moscow.park.hyatt.com/

  1. Moscow
  2. | accommodation
  3. | posh

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Find out what's on
The Moscow Times
Afisha and Bolshoi Gorod are in Russian, but are the definitive guides. The Moscow Times is the city’s English language bible, with Go magazine as its entertainment guide (go-magazine.ru).

  1. Moscow
  2. | events

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Get there from the airport
Airport transfer: Taxi
The awkwardness of the various other modes of transport from Sheremetyevo means that taxis are the most viable option. Join the queue for fixed-rate taxis and under no circumstances accept offers from unlicensed drivers inside the terminal.

www.sheremetyevo-airport.ru

  1. Moscow
  2. | transport

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