Day 12: Arbat Street

Arbat Street is a kilometer-long pedestrian street lined with shops, restaurants, and street performers, and is one of the most touristy places in Moscow outside of Red Square and the Kremlin.  The eastern end of the street is close to the Kremlin and the western end terminates by Kievskaya Station and the White House (which housed the Supreme Soviet of Russia and was damaged in 1993 when Yeltsin attempted to dissolve said Soviet and they in turn impeached Yeltsin.  Tank rounds fired through the building ended that standoff in favor of Yeltsin).

Our first stop was “Дом Книги” (Book House) a sprawling bookstore similar to Borders or Barnes and Noble.  They have everything from school supplies to books to music to stuffed animals – they even have Soviet propaganda posters for sale!  I ended up getting a couple Russian books, including one on Israeli tanks in battle, a book on Zhukov, a Russian History of the Soviet Union, and an encyclopedia of “All Tanks of the USSR.”  Of course, these books are all in Russian and right now I don’t have anywhere near the language skills needed to translate them properly, but I figure I won’t be coming back to Russia for a while and one day I plan on being a fluent speaker.  Besides, the tank encyclopedia is very in-depth with many pictures, including diagrams and photos of the interiors of Soviet tanks, the level of detail which I haven’t seen among English language books.  As for the other books, I’m fascinated by the way that the Russians see the world compared to us – how did they view the Arab-Israeli wars and the performance of their equipment against the Israelis?  Now that its twenty years past, how do they see their time as the Soviet Union?  What do they write about one of their greatest World War II generals? 

Now loaded down with about ten pounds worth of books, we continued down the street to find a place to eat, and ended up stopping at a Russian buffet chain called “Moo Moo” with a predictable mascot.  Now, this isn’t your traditional “Old Country Buffet” – not only due to cuisine, but because it’s really more of an ala-carte buffet where you tell them what you want and they’ll put in on your tray.  It was very crowded and the English menu is posted outside the restaurant (as opposed to at the food stations where it would be most convenient).  Dad and I decided to wade in and figure things out on the fly whereas Lance and Liz took a bit closer look at the menu first.  I got some delicious beet borscht soup, chicken, potatoes, bread, and a mushroom/cheese appetizer.  Dad got similar food, though instead of mushrooms or borscht he got apple pie and a strawberry drink instead (complete with sliced strawberries in the drink).  It is definitely a very affordable place and the food tastes good, and if all else fails and you don’t know what to ask for you can just look and point. 

Moo!	Dinner for the night!

The street itself was very busy and we saw everything from street musicians and performers to caricature artists, painters, and more.  There are also plenty of souvenir shops lining the street, which makes it very easy as a tourist to comparison shop.  Haggling rules do apply, and its particularly effective if you show up near the end of tourist season (end of August/early September) – if you aren’t satisfied, one of the dozen other souvenir shops will probably have the same product, and possibly for less.

This souvenir shop had a particularly good saleswoman and good prices, so we ended up getting all our gifts and trinkets from here.

Some of the typical Russian souvenirs that we either got or considered:
- Matryoshka Dolls – these are Russian nesting dolls that are placed inside one another, generally depicting a peasant woman with the smallest piece being a baby though you can find non-traditional themes such as Soviet leaders, astronauts, athletes, etc.)
- T-Shirts – There’s a whole gamut from “McLenin’s” and Yuri Gagarin to Lenin giving you the bird or selected propaganda posters.
- Shapkas – the Russian fur hat, usually with a red star, hammer, and sickle emblem on the front.  This served as the standard winter headgear for Warsaw Pact armies during the Cold War.
- Propaganda Posters – They have themed books, ranging from “The Cosmos Will be Ours!” to “Long Live Labor!” or individual posters.

Around 9PM, all of the shops shut down so we began to head back to the hostel.  Lance and Liz took the metro back, whereas Dad and I took the long route back so we could take some pictures of Moscow at night.  More on that in the next entry!

Arbat Street in the evening.