Лекция: VISITING MOSCOW

The best time to go to Moscow is July and August because they are the warmest months of the year.

Summer days are long and it can rain quite a lot. By the end of November Moscow is frozen most of the time and snow stays until April.

Getting around is easy and relatively cheap. You can get between all five airports and the city centre by a combination of bus and metro or suburban train. It’s a good idea to book a transfer, which means you’ll be picked up and driven to your hotel for little more than the cost of a taxi.

Most visitors to Moscow come to see the Kremlin, Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral and to look at Lenin’s tomb. And it’s best to see the central area around the Kremlin on foot. For other parts of the city, the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to get around is on the metro. There are more than 150 metro stations – some of them with amazing architecture – and you don’t have to wait long for a train. Buses, trolleybuses and trams run almost everywhere the metro doesn’t go.

The most famous of Moscow’s parks and gardens is Gorky Park which stretches almost three kilometers along the river Moskva. There is a fairground, an ornamental garden and in summer boats leave from the pier on river excursions.

There are a number of festivals that are worth seeing. The Moscow Film Festival takes place in autumn and Russian Winter Festival is a must, with troika rides, folklore shows and games.

As far as eating out is concerned, for a real Russian experience go to “Petrovich” where the walls are covered by all sorts of reminders of the Soviet past.

For a quick snack, there are chains of food stalls and “Russkie Bliny”, which of course need no explanation.

Слова и выражения:

freeze (froze frozen) (v) - замерзать

relatively (adv) - относительно

suburban train (n, С) – пригородный поезд

book (v) - бронировать

pick up (v) – заехать за кем-либо

amazing (adj) - изумительный

almost (adv) - почти

stretch (v) - простираться

fairground (n, С) – торговые ряды

ornamental garden (n, С) – декоративный сад