I decided that if I only have a 3 day metro ticket, I might as well get the items on my list that are the furthest away. Why waste a day walking around “local.”
I headed out to visit a botanical garden. I don’t know if there is a difference between garden and botanical garden.
After exiting the station, I walked down the road. I crossed a river, then took a turn onto a new road. Problem is it didn’t have a side walk, just a bare patch where others had walked.
I see a small path through the trees and I see a bridge, so I do the dumb thing and follow the little path. It took me down to the creek. The rivers and creeks I’ve seen are small, but fast.
There is nothing special, just an area where kids probably hang out breaking rules if not laws.
The creek has a large metal pipe running across. Do I dare to cross it, or do the sensible thing and go back? It is a challenge and I must conquer.
It was easy, until I got almost halfway. There were some tabs welded on it, on top of course. meaning I had to step over them, putting me out of balance.
I made it and continued to follow the path. I expected the path to return to the road, but it diverged further out, until I was walking down a paved path going through a semi-natural park.
It was quite nice, the wildness of everything, the flowers blooming willy-nilly. This was despite the path only being 30 feet from a roadway.
A check of the map showed I needed to turn and head away from the “wilds.”
I passed a small lake and made a detour to pass around it. You could rent paddle boats, but you wouldn’t want to get to close to the fountain. The Zolotoy Kolos fountain sprayed water in a 75 foot circle. Further up, there was a former ski ramp, but I don’t see how there was enough room to get up to speed.
There was an area with sunbathers, with clothes thankfully, it was mostly older people. The younger would be at work or university.
Multiple sand boxes for the tykes, but there seemed to be a “canal” meandering though them. I can’t quite figure out what they were for. They had “locks,” but I saw no way for water to enter or exit. If they were just for sand, then what were the locks for? Curious.
There was a giant climbing rope park, just for the kids, dangit.
The area had an “Eco bridge,” which was an elevated walkway through the trees. Isn’t the ground more “eco?” It was only 6 ft off the ground, so you really wouldn’t see much extra anyway.
An acre or so of cherry(?) trees surrounded a statue of someone I’d never heard of. Wait… What is that? I see the top of a freaking rocket.
Yep, there is a Vostok rocket surrounded by a Vertolot helicopter and Yak-42 and SU-27 airplanes. They all still had the original CCCP and Soviet flags painted on them.
Elsewhere they have a Buran Space Shuttle, which NASA obviously stole, even if no Buran ever left the planet. They have a tour, but the ticket office wasn’t open at the time.
Nearby, there is the remains of a 1938 agricultural exposition, initials VDNKh, which covers an area larger than Monoco. It was similar to the World’s Fair, but just Soviet Union countries. The Pavilions are still mostly intact, but some are currently under repair. Even walking by food courts, the flower’s aroma dominates.
Stone Flower Fountain sums up the Soviet philosophy: If you can’t make it good, make it big. If you can’t make it good looking, make it sparkle.
I see a Farris wheel, so I head towards it. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find the location of something that big, but I came across a lot of dead ends and loop-backs, but finally go to it.
Normally, I wouldn’t consider going on a Ferris wheel, but I supposed I could get some good photos of the area and possibly find something else cool to visit. Checking the price, at an auto-kiosk, they want the equivalent of $30, plus it is card only, so I can’t buy one. Thanks Biden.
New York’s Central Park is a huge single park. This area is covered in smaller parks, sort of a Park Central. I headed off to another, to see the Museum of Cosmonautics.
I entered and headed to the ticket desk, but it was a “free day.” That’s my favorite type of day. There were plenty of groups of kids being taken on tours. I noticed quite a few had cameras on their watches. I don’t know if I ever seen that before, not even Apple watches do that, do they?
There were a lot of scale models of Russian and Soviet rockets and space capsules, and some USA’s including a Saturn V.
They have a Soyuz capsule that you can walk through and a Sputnik reproduction. They provide plenty of the era’s propaganda, as well as a horde of photos.
There is a large sphere with the globe illuminated on it, showing the launch trail of one of the Soyuz. I point out Florida to a couple next to me, the woman points out Cuba. We’re neighbors. I didn’t think of it at the time, but they might be one of the only people I meet that I might be able to chat with. Poorly, of course.
They have a display showing all the Russians who have gone to space. There’s still room, so I suppose they add new photos as needed.
Getting hungry, I headed back and went to the market. I’ve given up. The Russians don’t eat Russian food. All I find are kebab, shwarma, Chinese, and American restaurants.
I got sliced meat and cheese and some peanut butter and a pouch of raspberry jam. Yes, a pouch, just about every sauce here comes in a pouch with a twist cap. Cheaper to manufacture I suppose.
Went back to the kitchen and made some sandwiches. The peanut butter is more like the “natural” types in America, you have to re-stir it before use, also it is a bit paler, although that could just be the type of peanut used.
I went to my room, to check on my money, doing good, I still have some. Then started to pass out, but I didn’t want to sleep, so I set an alarm for 30 minutes. Just enough time to recharge my iPad and myself.
Alarm goes off and I head back out. I go into the metro and scan my card and RED. I try the next one and RED. Crap. My 3-day ticket was only a single day’s. I don’t know if I was cheated or the old woman just misunderstood.
I have to then swim upstream against the river of commuters and the ticket office is closed. I don’t know how to use the machines, so no ticket for me.
Oh, well, I decide to just walk down the Arbat promenade. At the other end, is near the next station. Maybe they still have a office open.
Good, they do, so I bought one, but I don’t want to use it yet. The clock starts when I first use it, so I hold off. I can just walk back now, and save the time for later when I really need it.
