10 guys going to Moscow
October 25, 2016 11:42 AM   Subscribe

Me and my friends are going to Moscow with no plans for a couple of days. Difficulty: we are 10 guys.

I am going to Moscow with my friends for a couple of days. We are a group of 10 guys and I am truly wondering what we are going to do there. I'm looking for suggestions for good fun. While I'm in Russia I also want to get to know more of the culture. We'll be there on a long weekend so that includes a Friday and Saturday.

A friend suggested the Tretyakov art gallery, and some initial research led me to a club called the Chinese Pilot. Obviously there is the Kremlin, Red Square etc. but other than that I have no idea whatsoever.

We like to go out and sample the nightlife. I myself would maybe appreciate a good restaurant suggestion for a large group. We're a tight group that has travelled extensively in the past and everyone has known each other for years.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
posted by wolfr to Travel & Transportation around Moscow, Russia (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, it's the largest city in Europe, so lots of choice. I've only been to Moscow twice, and had people telling me where to meet them and whatnot both times, but I loved a big meal out we had at Кафе Дом 12 before my friend's wedding, and there was plenty of room there. Google Maps doesn't seem to have saved any of the other places I went to, so I can't give any recommendations. You'll be fine, though. There's plenty of nice places to eat and do things, and if you're any good at finding nice places in a Western European city or the US, you'll find nice places in Moscow.
posted by ambrosen at 12:54 PM on October 25, 2016


Do any of you speak Russian? You'll have slightly better luck with just English in Moscow than you would in most of the rest of Russia (barring maybe St. Pete), but it's still a very, very hard country to navigate without help with the language. I'd highly suggest hiring some kind of guide, and if at all possible learning Cyrillic before you go (which is much easier than it looks, and will at least allow you to understand signs, which frequently are only written in Russian).
posted by Itaxpica at 2:12 PM on October 25, 2016


As far as stuff to do, I haven't spent much time in Moscow itself, but the GUM shopping mall is an interesting place to kill a half hour if you're in the neighborhood. It's an ultra-fancy mall right by Red Square that's basically a playground for Moscow's billionaires, and it makes for an interesting stop. Grab some ice cream and take some time to pee in the "historic bathroom", which charges two dollars to use, just to say that you did.
posted by Itaxpica at 2:14 PM on October 25, 2016


Oh! And make sure you try Georgian food at least once. I can't recommend any particular places in Moscow, but Georgian places are pretty ubiquitous so you shouldn't have too hard a time Googling something good.
posted by Itaxpica at 2:18 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Buy a SIM card for your phone at the airport for a few hundred rubles, and you'll get 1GB or so of data to use, so more than enough for routefinding and, well, pretty much everything. Google Translate will read any signs you need to understand, if there really are problems getting around.
posted by ambrosen at 2:21 PM on October 25, 2016


Ride the subway, get out at some of the most beautiful stations and just gawk. You could probably make a game out of trying to ride the greatest number of transportation options in one day. Off the top of my head: subway, bus, trolleybus (with the electric wires), marshrutka (share taxi), elektrichka (commuter rail), and boat (cruise on the Moscow river).
posted by danceswithlight at 2:38 PM on October 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


I was in Moscow a couple months ago. Loved it. It's a lot like New York in that there are several different areas of the city where there's great nightlife, depending on what you're into. The one thing to remember is that pretty much everywhere, if you're out on the town, people are dressed well. My favorite bars when we visited were Ugolek (near the Bolshoi) and Bar Strelka (in the Red October area of the city.) Ugolek actually had great food and drinks, but you have to make reservations a few days or weeks in advance. The atmosphere at Strelka was super fun - very hipster, and we watched the FIFA finals on a huge projector screen with a couple hundred people in their large open area. There's music and a dance floor downstairs and the rooftop bar has gorgeous views at night of the Moskva.

We found where to go on www.trendymoscow.com. While this blogger mainly points out the hip, trendy places to go to, he does list a few low-key bars and pubs that you can visit if it's more your fancy.

Spend time at Gorky Park - walk by the Moskva, get surprisingly good ice cream there. As someone said upthread, the subway stations can be absolutely beautiful. Also, Moscow, like many Eastern European cities is overrun with cathedrals and churches. You could get your fill of them, but some of the ones further out from the Kremlin are worth the visit. Patriarch Ponds is another lovely area during the day, and a fun drinking scene at night. The bars in that area look like they attract university students, casual and trendy alike. We hung out at Keanu, which is a small gastropub across from the park that got so crowded at night people were spilling out onto the streets and the park, drinking. Great for people watching!

It was a fun time, although I will say that if your skin is... anything other than fair-colored, older native Russians may not be as friendly or helpful as they normally would be.
posted by Everydayville at 3:04 PM on October 25, 2016


Be aware that GPS might a bit dodge in central Moscow this month. The "problem" impacts GLONASS, too, so maybe carry a pocket map, as well.

And as everydayville says, dress for London.
posted by rokusan at 8:26 PM on October 25, 2016


Tretyakovskaya Gallery is awesome, highly recommend. You WILL get charged more for tickets as foreigners, however, anywhere you go.

Also second the recommendation of hiring a guide - I went with my mom a few years ago, to visit my brother, who lived in Moscow at the time and speaks fluent Russian. He had to work during the day for part of the time we were there, so my mom and I were on our own. Despite the fact that we both read Cyrillic and speak a different, but moderately similar Slavic language, we got TOTALLY lost on the subway (which is super cool and definitely you should take it - just FYI, you're not technically allowed to take pictures on it though) and equally lost when we finally got off at the right stop because we couldn't figure out which direction we needed to go in to get to the Tretyakov museum. We tried asking people for directions but people either do not speak English, do not want to help you, or some combination of both*.

Also, while this may have changed with the advent of Uber etc, at the time, one secured a ride across town by hailing any old passing car. A brief negotiation with the driver would ensue, and if your destination/the price they wanted was favorable, they would take you there. This is not possible or advisable if you do not have a Russian speaker with you (although with 10 people, maybe you should just hire a van and driver).

We really enjoyed walking around Moscow, from my brother's apartment near Arbatskaya (long historic pedestrian-only street) to the Kremlin. It was fascinating to see so many locations that are mentioned in classic Russian literature (Patriarch Ponds, for example).

* At the risk of stereotyping the entire population of a very large country, I will say that I found Muscovites similar to my own countrymen in that strangers, waitstaff, and shop employees were generally sullen and/or hostile, but the Russians we spent time with socially were exceptionally warm and hospitable. Just don't take the former personally.
posted by Aubergine at 9:45 AM on October 26, 2016


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