Trip to Moscow

While working in Italy in 2008, I had a chance to take a business trip to Moscow.  I was pretty excited since I had a good friend who lived in Moscow while he worked on a project there.

We landed in the evening, I think.  I was with a bunch of Italian engineers.  I was the only American.

We checked into the Metropol Hotel. Apparently, this hotel used to be used exclusively for Politburo members.  But we were Post-Communist now and we got the chance to see the richness of the place that used to be only for the powerfully connected.

Moscow Metropol Hotel Lobby

We first made our way to Red Square.  Unfortunately, the gates were shut and locked.  All we could do was look into the area.  Quite impressive.  There may have been another way in, but it was pretty dark and we were tired.

Gate to Red Square

The Kremlin and Cathedral

We made our way to what I am guessing was the Moskva River.  The area was really quite nice.  Restaurants lined the river.  There were fountains and other nice touches.

We were getting hungry and decided to eat.  I spotted a Sbarro's restaurant and (half kidding) told my Italian counterparts we could eat here.

Oh NO!  They said.  I decided to keep digging.  I told them they had Italian food.

Oh!  They did NOT!  I was told.

So I pointed to the Sbarro umbrella printed on it "Authentic Italian food."  Look at this I said.

They all laughed and kept walking.

We ended up eating here...and they were ok with that!!

We got back to the hotel and the elevator impressed me.

Metropol Hotel Elevator

The next day we had breakfast.  I recall breakfast being $100.  It was buffet style.  A woman played the harp as we ate.

I loved the ceiling in the breakfast area.

After the meeting I headed out to meet my friend Raj Sharma.  In order to get there, I had to take the Moscow subway system.  Amazing and FAST!

Escalator down to the Moscow Subway 

Stunning architecture.

The main problem I had was that all the signs were in Russian/Cyrillic.  In order to find my way out, I had to follow people in the hopes they were exiting the subway and not just connecting to yet another subway train.

It's a miracle I made it to the bar my friend was waiting to meet me at.