“Finding Vegas”
A small pun on the title of one of those films which having seen I can never get out of my head (Leaving Las Vegas). Others include Reservoir Dogs, Straw Dogs and the Eternal Gardner. The memory of any of these can make me shiver. Why it is only the nasty films which never escape my head I don’t know probably some shrink would be able to tell me I had an unhappy childhood and I need therapy
Anyway the actual “Vegas” I am looking for is a new Shopping Mall to the South East of Moscow. I say South East as locating it is proving rather difficult. In fact finding most things in Moscow is difficult. There is no “tourist Information” centers and no consolidated sites. Trial and error is the name of the game. In most places it is the Tourists who wander around with maps. Here it is the locals who are the ones who are constantly stopping me and asking if this is the way to or from some unknown place. I always have a street map handy and sometimes once stopped a queue forms as people wait to see the oracle and his map.
Vegas opened early June and is the biggest in Russia. Now you would think that would be enough for it to be easily found. Not so my naive friend things don’t work like that around here. True there are “some” references on the web but not any which actually tells you where it is. There are some general reference to it secret location as being somewhere around the Kashirskoye Shosse and the MKAD. The MKAD I should mention is Moscow’s version of the M25 therefore it is like saying it is out Leatherhead way.
Undaunted I set out on the Metro (it’s our friend remember) starting from Novokuznetskaya and off at Domodedovskaya. Which is nearly the end of the line only one stop after that so can’t really get lost can I?. Up out of the metro and into that searing sunshine, whilst it is only 10:30 it is very hot today.
Try and get my bearings as Metros are normally on the corner of major junctions and have several exits so you need to find a landmark or a road to work out where you are going. If not you can happily stroll off in the wrong direction which would be a bad thing. I work out that if I can keep the sun on my left I calculate about a 2 kilometer walk and I should be somewhere close. 2k will take me to the MKAD so by then I figure I should be able to see something.
I march on ever hopeful of seeing some signs, billboards, golden towers or some other sign that my quest is successful. What do I see? I see a motorway that’s what I see. Double check my map; I am where I am supposed to be the problem is that the Mall is not. Maybe it is only accessible from the MKAD anyway its back to the metro for me. As I have mentioned before surrounding the stations there are lots of kiosks and this one is no different and actually has a food hall. These places can rival anything you see in Asia. They have different areas for meat, fish, vegetables and one for “other” items.
You can see people gutting fish and chopping up various pigs, lambs and other things. The Russians are picky when they buy food and spend a lot of time picking exactly what they want. Fruit and veg is not to EEC standards and therefore not a uniform shape or size which at first is disconcerting but actually quite interesting.
Watching all this activity is fun and you are constantly offered slices of product as everyone fights for your rubles. I managed to have a lunch of lots of fruit which I finished off with a savory pastry with “seere” (cheese) which I found hidden in a corner. Coffee is always available but I turned down the opportunity to have some from the girl with the shopping trolley who was doing a roaring trade with the stall holders. I was ok with water as I still had to brave the searing sun back outside.
So whilst I completely failed in my quest I still had a good time and all for $1.5 which can’t be bad can it.
Recalling my little adventure later to Judi (who is somewhere in Turkey) she said “I know exactly where that place is I pass it on the motorway sometimes, how did you get there as I don’t think there is any pedestrian access”
Now you tell me. !!!!!!!!!!