Travel Notes

Mayakovsky Closes

The famous Mayakovsky Museum near Moscow’s Lubyanka Square has closed for a two year renovation. The futuristic exposition, located in the building where the revolutionary poet lived and died, not only holds his manuscripts and the room where he worked, but recreates the atmosphere of the poet’s lifetime.

But time had taken its toll on the exposition in the Soviet-era museum – originally opened during the perestroika era, and Moscow authorities say the apartment-museum requires meticulous restoration. A group of activists protested the closure, saying they feared the building would be completely rebuilt or transferred to another owner.

Night Buses

Moscow now offers a night-time bus service for travelers flying into Sheremetyevo airport late at night. The bus route cuts through the entire city, north to south, with Yugo-Zapadnaya as the final stop. Buses depart every 30 minutes between 1 am and 5:30 am, when the Aeroexpress train is not in service. The full trip takes two hours and passes through Leningradsky Prospekt, Pushkin Square, Kropotkinskaya metro station, and Leninsky Prospect.

Another night route circles the Garden Ring. The fares are similar to daytime routes, as they are regular city buses.

Taxi Online

Fear of getting scammed by unpredictable and pushy taxi drivers at Russian airports and train stations? There’s an app for that.

It is a new service offered by the internet company Yandex that allows customers to order a taxi anywhere in several Russian cities by scanning all cabs in the vicinity, regardless of their company affiliation, and then putting them in touch with the user.

The app, Yandex Taxi, is available for the iPhone, Windows Phone, and Android phones, as well as through a regular browser. To order a cab, one simply enters one’s address and destination, time, and any other requirements, such as a non-smoking cab or a car-seat; enters a contact number; then waits for the nearest cabbie willing to fill the order. The service is available in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, and Vologda.

taxi.yandex.ru

Vote Early and Often

An online race to select Russia’s ten “signature” landmarks has been soured by scandal.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov unleashed a campaign to get everyone in his region to cast votes for the monstrous new mosque in the republic’s capital of Grozny.

As a result, the mosque, called “The Heart of Chechnya,” quickly overcame Russia’s better known sites like Lake Baikal and Peterhof Palace. But then it suddenly fell behind the Kolomna kremlin at the end of the second round.

Kadyrov cried foul and blamed cellphone providers for miscounting text message votes. The kerfuffle reached its peak when young Chechen men egged the offices of cellphone providers MTS and Beeline in Grozny, forcing the latter to close its offices for the day.

At press time, the mosque was still in the top ten, along with Kizhi, the Rodina statue in Volgograd, Kamchatka’s Valley of the Geisers, the Rostov kremlin, and other notable sites. 10russia.ru

New Flight Options

Yakutia Airlines has revived regular air services between Anchorage and the RFE. This past summer Yakutia flew a limited flight schedule from Alaska to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and on to Khabarovsk.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air will extend its network into Russia this fall. The carrier’s purple and pink liveried aircraft started flying the Budapest to Moscow (Vnukovo) route in late September, and will begin flying the route daily in November. UK budget carrier easyJet also made its Russian debut this year, launching low-priced flights from London and Manchester to Moscow. Spanish LCC Vueling pioneered a Barcelona to St. Petersburg route this year, while Norwegian started budget flights from its Oslo hub to Russia’s second city.

Daytrip Map

The Moscow Oblast Department of Culture has created a clickable online map of the region’s most notable cultural and tourist attractions, together with hotels and retreat centers for those looking for a weekend getaway. The map provides addresses, telephone numbers, and web pages for many of the sites. For now, the map interface is available only in Russian.

mosoblculture.ru/map