MOSCOW

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VISÃO GERAL ATRAÇÕESTRANSPORTE COMPRAS ONDE FICAR ONDE COMEROVERVIEW ATTRACTIONSTRANSPORTATION SHOPPINGWHERE TO STAY WHERE TO EAT

OVERVIEW

Moscow is the capital of Russia and the biggest city in the country. It is the most populous metropolis of Europe, with around 12,2 million inhabitants. The city is full of contradictions. All the cities around the world are different but some of them are more different than others. It is, at the same time ugly, with many horrible buildings, as well as attractive ones, with some of the most fascinating constructions of all Europe. It is quite gray in the architecture, red in the Kremlin green in the parks, white in the winter and colored in the churches. It is miserable with the babushkas that beg in the streets, and rich with the rich women circulating in their limousines along the wide avenues.

Even the virtues of this great city implicate in shock of opinions. The subway is majestic, but you most probably will be completely lost, even with a map in your hand. But if you are clever, however, you can benefit from it, noticing the richness of details and the images in the stations that show the world of many years ago. The museums are tremendous but almost all with information exclusively in Russian. If you broaden your perception you may enjoy it as much.

In Moscow, the symbolic dimension very often exceeds the reality. The mere mention of its name evokes something bigger than a simple capital, so much for the Russians

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as much to the foreigners. Object of desire of enemy, wrapped in mystery for the ones who come from the outside; for its residents, it is the place of the purity of the blood and of the ground of Russia. Besides being the political center of the country, Moscow is the city where resides the center of the Orthodox Russian Church. It is known worldwide by its monuments, such as the Kremlin and the Saint Basil’s Cathedral, by the great quantity of shops and commercial centers and by the great cultural inheritance.

Like no another place, the city reflects the ambiguities of the country, where brutality and delicacy are inseparable. Able to produce atomic arms and steps of ballet, it is responsible for one of the biggest cultural legacy of the humanity. To know Moscow is not only an experience of visual delight. It revises political and aesthetic concepts, demands constantly an interpretation of the history itself, built by an incredible human capacity of transformation.

The nightlife, the fabulous theatres, the dance shows, the parks that become rings of skating for Christmas are an invitation to the amusement. However, with one condition: you must be full of dollars - or rubles, which is definitely the local coin. Moscow is an expensive city in all the senses, perhaps the biggest of all the paradoxes.

TRANSPORT

SUBWAY

Quick and efficient, the subway in Moscow works as in any big city, except for the natural reason: practically everything is written in Russian. This obvious detail can take you to the madness, in case you do not understand the Russian alphabet. The system of lines, each one with a color, which could help, does not help in anything when in the entrance of the station the color is not on display, but only the name of the line written in Russian. To complete, not always you will find someone who speaks English to help. The subway works from 6am to 1am. Avoid the peak hours, from 8am to 10am and from 5pm to 7pm. The Russian stations are amongst the deepest in the world, and you can spend minutes going up the escalators. A one way ticket costs 15 rubles, and a card for 20 travels, valid for 30 days, costs 140 rubles.

The good news is that the Russian subway, in spite of the crowd and the not clear to us direction, has fantastic stations, true underground museums. Portraits of Lenin, details of communist symbols, mosaics with daily scenes of the Soviet period and spacious spaces with marble pillars make worth the visitation independently of the destiny.

BUS AND TAXISThe bus ticket costs from 10 to 15 rubles, but it is good to avoid if you do not speak Russian. Taxis, you just signal with the hand and a car, any car, stops to combine the travel. Without fluency in the Russian, also it is a good

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recommendation. The best alternative is the teletaxis, many companies operate the service. Ask the hotel to recommend one or call the Central Bureau, telephone 927-0000.

ATTRACTIONS

In Moscow, capital of Russia, the tourists have the opportunity to take advantage of the trip looking at several points of view. Political and cultural attractions are mixed in a true knowledge of history inside one of the biggest cities of the European continent.

As in any great city, it is always good to be attentive to your belongings during the travel. Be at ease if you are stopped by policemen only because you are taking a photo of a communist symbol (or any postcard of the city) and if you are asked to show your passport. You must carry it always, or a copy. Being completely in order, including the register of the visa, you probably will be excused immediately.

Among some suggestions such as touristic places, cathedrals and churches, theaters, galleries and museums, we point out places where the visit is almost compulsory for the visitors.

KREMLINThe Kremlin of Moscow is a fortress situated in the center of the city being the headquarters of the Russian government. Occupies around 30 hectares and it has several monuments inside. The Kremlin

wall contains 20 towers, of which the most important is the Tower of the Savior. Continuing clockwise, the towers of the Senate are next, Saint Nicolas, Corner Arsenal, Peter’s Arsenal, Trinity, Commander, Armoury, Borovitskaya, Water, Annunciation, Secret, two towers without name, Beklemishev, Saint Constantine and Saint Helen, Alarm and finally the Tower of the Tsar. In front of the Trinity Tower, outside the Kremlin, is the Tower Kutafya.

RED SQUAREThe Red Square is well known by the military Soviet parades during the era of the Soviet Union. The square separates the Royal citadel known as Kremlin, to the historical district of Kitay-gorod. As wide avenues of Moscow leave from the square in several directions, being extended in highways going out of the city, the Red Square can be considered as the central square of Moscow and of the whole Russia. The name of Red Square does not drift from the color of the bricks in its outline, not even the association of the red color to the communism. In fact, the name appeared because the word in Russian can mean both “red” and “pretty”.

SAINT BASIL’S CATHEDRALBelonging to the Orthodox Russian Church, the cathedral had its construction ordered by the Tsar Ivan, the Terrible. Saint Basil’s is in the south-east extreme of the Red Square, just in front of the Spasskaya Tower of Kremlin. Particularly, it is not a very big construction and it consists of 9 small chapels. The front of the church, in a garden, there is a bronze statue, raised in honor of Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, that voluntarily joined the army who

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fought against the Polish invaders. The initial concept was to build a group of chapels, each one devoted to each one of the saints of the day when the Tsar gained a battle. The legend says that the Tsar Ivan left the architect Postnik Yakovlev blind, to avoid him to build a more magnificent construction for someone else.

NOVODEVICHY CONVENTIt is the second architectural set in importance in Moscow after the Kremlin. Surrounded by 11 meters high walls, in its interior there are many churches. The most important is Our Lady of Smolensky. The convent was established in 1524 year that Vasilii III celebrated the reconquest of Smolensk. During the 16th and 17th centuries was a convent for women from the Royal family.

TRETYAKOV GALLERYThe State-owned Tretyakov Gallery is a Russian museum devoted to the preservation and spread of Russian national art of. It is located in Moscow, in the proximities of the Kremlin. Its works are exclusively from Russian artists who have had a small contact with art, and is one of the most important in the world as such. At present the Tretyakov Gallery has more than 130 thousand items that goes from the 11th century up to nowadays.

CHRIST SAVIOR CATHEDRALThe Christ Savior Cathedral is the biggest Orthodox Church of Russia. It is a landmark in the city, not only for its great beauty, but also for its history that begun in the 19th century when, after the victory of the Russian army against Napoleon, the then Russian emperor Alexander decided to build a cathedral in honor of his dead soldiers.

BOLSHOI THEATREThe Bolshoi Theater is a theater and a company of opera situated in Moscow. The name Bolshoi in Russian means “big”. It is recognized like one of the best companies of ballet and opera of the world. The company was established in 1776 by the prince Peter Urussov and Michael Maddox. After three years presenting in a private enclosure, it acquired the Petrovsky Theater. In 1805, a fire destroyed the building that was hosting the theater. The only school of the Bolshoi Theatre out of Russia, the Ballet Bolshoi, is in Joinville, in Brazil.

MUSEU PUSHKINThe State-owned Museum Pushkin of Fine Arts is the biggest museum in Moscow devoted to the European art, and one of the biggest in the world of this kind. It includes Greek, Egyptian and Roman collections of art, of sculptures and western painting that goes from the 19th century to the 20th century. Its collection is absolutely replete of magnificent preciousness. The distinction goes, naturally, for the insurmountable set of works from modern European painters.

WHERE TO STAY

The lodging in Moscow is expensive, mainly because of the high prices of the real estate. There is an enormous difficulty on finding apartments with cheap or moderate prices: most of the hotels are 5 stars. Generally, a simple or double room in a luxury hotel costs 300 dollars or more. A room in a three stars hotel costs between 70 and 100 dollars, and

in most of the cases the quality is inferior to what one waits. There are also some hotels with apartment type rooms, with two rooms, kitchen, and bathroom.

The inns in Moscow generally offer a bed in a room for around 16 dollars. Basically, the inns of the city are places to sleep and to know other travelers, only. Nearly always these inns are located badly and it has not a casual and friendly environment. If you want to rent an apartment, it is going to be difficult to find one that can be rented for an inferior period than 3 months. Normally, if you are going to rent an apartment for a longer period it is going to cost around 400 dollars monthly (for a standard apartment far from the center) and 1.000 dollars monthly for a standard two-bedroom apartment in the center.

DINING OUT

The Russian cuisine is famous for its exotic soups like the borsch. It is varied because of the extensive territory and of the great diversity of races that create this quantity of receipts and plates being the biggest in the world. The tea is a very important drink in Russia brought by the Mongols. So important that the Russians manage to consume, on average, 3 to 5 cups of tea daily accompanied by blinis (Russian pancakes) and other biscuits.

The rivers also contribute to the variety of the Russian gastronomy: the most varied types of fish turn in great variety of plates and desserts. Besides the fish, the vegetables, the mushrooms and the meat are also a raw material for several preparations: soups,

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entries, desserts, and others. The bread is a compulsory side order to the main course and of soups especially if it made out of rye.

Concerning restaurant, Moscow offers a great variety of restaurants with traditional food or with international cuisine. However, an important thing to know: the restaurants and bars in Moscow are learning to collect the tip. Some of them add 10 % to the bill. But it is not compulsory, in other words, you choose between giving or not the tip.

SHOPPING

The one who visits Russia is going to find many ways of spending money, specially in Moscow, where the commerce is big and varied. Here you will find art and antique dealers, shops of souvenirs, department stores, commercial centers and of italicize shops famous worldwide.

It is important to curl that the Russian commerce does not accepts payment in dollar, euro or any other currency other than ruble. So, always have with you Russian money in sort. Banks exchange foreign money (dollar and euro) easily, and the value of the list can change at any hour.

The shops are open from 9am to 7pm, from Monday to Saturday, but they can open later, mainly in the summer, or to close earlier, in the

winter, as well as opening on Sunday. For public places and banks, consider Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm, some of them eventually open on Saturday or even up to 6pm.

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