Chinatown and Future Environs

привет, my friend!

Today there was a Formula 1 race at 4pm, so I decided to go on a shorter tour, instead of going to the VVTs.

I took the Lonely Planet walking tour around a neighborhood called Kitay Gorod, which is Russian for Chinatown. No Chinese there though! This is the old commercial center of Moscow, and there were tons of old buildings and old churches, which were built by rich Moscuvite merchants. I passed by St Basil and the Kremlin on the way, and couldn't resist taking another picture.

Many of the old buildings in Kitay Gorod are being renovating, so there was a lot of scaffolding. Here's a pic of a church, an old building recently renovated and another one still under renovation.

I also passed by the Rossyia Hotel, which was built in 1967 and was the largest hotel in the world with 3,000 rooms, a concert hall, etc. In order to build it, the crazy Soviets tore down an entire historic neighborhood. The hotel is now being demolished to make room for an entertainment complex whose design will be based on the design of the old district it was built over. See pic below, along with yet another church:

At the end of the walking tour, I checked out another synagogue in Moscow and -- guess what -- it's also scaffolded and under renovations :-)

I went to the neighborhood where I will live, to check it out once again. I found out there is another subway station nearby, and was relieved to discover two small self-service Russian grocery stores. I'd been very concerned about grocery shopping, since the other places I'd seen were 1) an upscale Dean & Delucca like place ($4 for pasta!) and 2) small bodegas. The problem about bodegas is that all the products are behind the counter and one needs to order all products from an attendant -- huge challenge since I don't speak Russian!!!! I also discovered a dry cleaners :-)

I walked to Victory Park, but didn't go in -- I will write a post when I visit it. I finally made it back to the hotel just in time for the race... too bad Schumacher broke down 4 laps from the finish line :-(

пока!