Here in Moscow they have their own version of the underground, aptly named the метро (Metro). It's a melange of different colored lines with interconnecting stations. The lines are named by number from 1-10 and each has it's own different color.
- The color of the line you see at a station does not necessarily correlate to the color of the line you want. You need to look out for the number of the line and not the color.
- Each Metro station is a palace in its own right and is grandly decorated. They all have high ceilings, classical music playing on the escalators and policemen at every station keeping the peace.
- The trains are larger than those on the Underground and quite basic. The seats aren't that comfy but as a young person I'm not expected to sit down, unless I'm the only girl and then all the young men proffer their seats at me.
- If you're travelling into the centre of Moscow the voice over the tannoy is a man, and if you're travelling out of the centre the voice is a woman! Kooky huh?
- They have a sort of similar Oyster card system here but you pay for a certain number of rides in multiples of 5 or for passes for a certain number of days (60/90) but I'm holding out for my student card on Sept 14th which should guarantee me a super cheap pass (I'm hoping!). A month pass here is about £40 which seems a lot cheaper than the London Underground, but for Moscow, that's still pretty expensive.
- The most perplexing thing about the Metro is that each line has different names for different stations, even if they're the same station. So алехандровский сад is библиотека ленина is арбатская. But they're all on different lines. So Alexandrovskii Stad is on line 3, Bibliotecka Lenina is on line 1 and Arbatskaya is on line 4. Which means you can get confuzzled when you're trying to find your way around. You're trying to find your way to somewhere on a certain line but you have to remember the name of the station as that line calls it. It's strange.
It would be like Kings Cross/St Pancras, with its 5 lines having 5 different names and one for each line. Confusing right? I guess the citizens of Moscow must be used to it by now. But boy oh boy is it confuzzling for us poor tourists!!
