This post was going to be called "How the Other Half live' but I thought I should describe the situation I'm going to compare it with first.
Everyone but no-one lives in apartment blocks in Moscow, there is simply no room for town houses, attached, semi or otherwise. Be they flaking, rundown with a smell peculiar to old Russian buildings (as anyone who visits will soon find out if they come to our flat) or modern, spacious and slightly fresher. For the most part it is the former of the two which dominate the residential market in this enormous city. Hundreds and Thousands of people all cooped up like sheep in large, ugly, concrete blocks of misery. The mandatory lifts in each block are a definite plus if you happen to live above the 5th or 6th floors and they don't smell too bad either (I've been in many a lift here and not one smelt of pee).
A plus point of living in one of these grey monsters is that they are all built to keep people out, with security codes and security doors and at least 3 keys to get through your front door (which is heavy duty and usually padded) which is really rather comforting as you are not advised to open your door to anyone you're not expecting. That said the occasional drunk does manage to find his way in, drawn the warmth, to get a few hours alcohol induced sleep sprawled on the stairwells between floors. They are never any trouble though (aside from the smell).
Muscovites are blessed with a seemingly endless supply of piping hot water although it is occasionally turned off for 10 minutes to several hours without notice and when the water supply does return to normal the water is judderingly spurted out of the tap a decidedly unhealthy rusty red/brown. Depending on how long the supply has been cut off for it takes 2-20 minutes for this muck to run it's course. Nice. Unfortunately the cloud to this silver lining is that the hot water is turned off for 2-3 weeks (by district around Moscow) which means visiting a friends house most days, if you've no friends - enduring cold showers or if you don't want any friends -going without a shower until the hot water is turned back on (I'm quite sure that Djalma prefers the latter option using only the sweat on his body and wash-in-a-can to keep smelling, ummm fresh?!).
Another benefit of a residence in Moscow is free heating, well I presume it' free as I haven't seen any bills for it (or for gas for that matter), only electricity and phone bills. Unfortunately you don't get to choose when you have the heating on, only when you can turn it off (if you're lucky and your radiator has some knobs!). It is turned on by the local authorities at a pre-ordained time and turned off again once winter is over (continuous heating for 6 months of the year then as this is how long the winters here are). Believe it or not the system usually works quite well, with the exception of last winter when after a very sudden and sharp drop in temperature mid-autumn (which only lasts for about 3 weeks so no biggie) the government or whoever it is in charge, turned the heating on early after numerous complaints and voiced concerns over the welfare of the the elderly (about 95% of the population) and infirm who may be especially susceptible to hypothermia (Russians are hypochondriacs when it comes to the temperature, preferring to keep wrapped up what-ever the weather). Not EVER a hypochondriac myself, I never complain me, no way hose, even I had to admit that it was worryingly cold indoors, at night I slept fully clothed wrapped up in my dressing gown underneath the piddling duvet the school provides AND a woollen blanket, I did have double glazing in that flat although with all the holes in the old wooden frames I'm quite sure that one single glazing would've been just as (in) effective as double. Anyway within 4-5 days of the heating system being prematurely switched on, lo and behold, an Indian Summer!! JOY! My newly cosy little apartment was transformed into an unbearable little sweat box within 24 hours, 2 weeks of sleepless sticky night later and Winter arrived.
Another I can't complain about, instead it's the one thing I actively praise for it's beauty, form and function is Московский метрополитен aka THE METRO!!!
I've yet to visit all the stations but I do plan to before I leave. It is a toss-up as to whether the stations are a joyful combination of form and function or whether they've only been designed with function in mind, but that said a large number are grand in design, size and the materials and workmanship. My first flat in Electrozavodskaya was next to a metro station (of the same name) which was closed for refurbishment, so the first 3 months in Moscow I had to walk and extra 15 minutes to the next station, which was nothing to write home about, until the beautiful day that MY station opened. It was total fluke, I happened to be passing by the station when I noticed that a couple of people had disappeared inside and that a few more people had appeared from its vicinity, I decided to step closer, take a look when I discovered to my un-imaginable joy, that the damn thing was open for business!
I stepped inside, the smell of new was overwhelming, the floors were clean, un-scuffed by old men's boots or young ladies stiletto heeled FMS and very very shiny, I was in heaven. And the best thing is, is that it was completely beautiful. Downstairs the middle of the platform lay under a curved ceiling studded with light bulbs, the warm, clean light flooding the interior, carved relief marble showed scenes of men and women working in the field and in small factories (ok, so not THE most beautiful of subjects but a lot better than some of the other soviet stuff). The columns were all cream marble and the walls on the opposite sides of the platform all dark red marble and very shiny. LUSH, I enjoyed getting the metro so much more from then on. Now of course I'm in Kozukhovskaya which is big but not special, functional but uninspiring.
The best thing is the variety of the stations, because the system has grown with Moscow there are loads of different styles from different eras and so while some of them carry a heavy soviet/war theme many of them don't. The Metro system has 180 stations, is the second largest metro system in the world (second to Tokyo's twin subway) and was first opened on May 15, 1935 at 7am. There's some more information here about the system (fascinating stuff!).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro
