Moscow is a mystery for every foreigner. We traveled Moscow for a few days and explored the great unknown among the world cities.
Proud and stubborn to this day, indomitable even if all the other large western states continue to criticize. Russia is different, as is its capital Moscow. You must have seen that. Read part 1 of the story here, part 2 is here, the 3 part here, part 4 here, part 5 here, six here, the seven here, eight here, nine & ten
Here you can find everything. Everything!!! At least everything that no one needs. All that, whatever no one has never ever needed. Or will ever need. There is nonsense. There are old lamps. Fur hats, real and fake antiques, works of art of real geniuses and unrecognized artists, jackets of the Russian army. Shoes of astronauts. Stamps. Knifes. Bears. Wolves. Guns. Cartridges. Wooden matryoshka dolls in every imaginable variety - the choice is almost endless. Old women knitting socks. Old men carve walking sticks. Little gangsters selling billboards with communist slogans.
That's how it is, the "Vernissage" market of Ismailovo on the eastern outskirts of Moscow. A little outside the city, but easy to get to, lies the mecca for tourists, souvenir hunters and lovers of all obscure things under the sun, accessible by subway and then a stroll through one of the Russian capital's many parks.
The metro ride to Partizanskaya station (dark blue line) takes 20 minutes from the center. From Partizanskaya to Izmailovo market is about further 10 minutes walk.
Back in socialist times
Probably nowhere in Russia is the selection of handicrafts, junk and bric-a-brac greater than here. What began in socialist times as a huge flea market where underserved Russians could find what was available nowhere else, now takes place amid pseudo-historic settings. In the Russian architectural style of the 16th century, a rather imposing fantasy Kremlin was rammed out of the ground here around the turn of the millennium.
Behind it, life rages today in its own way: flea markets in Russia are different from those in Germany, the USA or Asia. It's true that you can find rare and old items here, too, because older people in particular often have to part with things they've grown fond of in order to supplement their meager pensions. The rest, however, are goods that are specially carted together to please lovers of funny, nonsensical or purposeless things.
Red Army uniforms for sale
A clock with Hitler and Stalin on the dial, a cutlery box with a picture of Friedrich Engels, a T-shirt with Vladimir Putin and one with Lenin, the father of the Russian Revolution. The atmosphere is just as quirky. Right next to a group of huge skyscrapers built for the 1980 Olympics, Red Army uniforms hang next to Gucci sunglasses from Siberian factories next to fake icons and old Russian records. Under the artists are The Rolling Stones. But not on vinyl - this kind of rcords are really made from thin foil.
Since the area was thoroughly remodeled, there are also snack bars, restaurants and beer stands in the recreated ancient Kremlin. The wooden fortress with colorful towers, built in 2001 supposedly according to sketches from the 14th-17th centuries, even has an Orthodox church, making it a real tourist trap. With kids playing in plastic tanks.
Izmailovo Kremlin is undoubtedly much more colorful than the real Kremlin in the city center, it reminds of a Russian fairy tale and fulfills all expectations of Russian cliché images: Everything here is full of national colors, flags, souvenirs and junk. Every day for ten hours, people can haggle and trade at the Ismailovo market, but with a foreseeable result: everything you buy is always far too well priced for shure.
Take away forbidden
Anything else would be dangerous, because buying real antiques can lead to trouble in Russia. According to Russian laws, objects over 50 years old cannot be taken abroad. An official permit is required for this. But for really valuable objects, of course, there is no such permission.
So it's better to take a second or third matryoshka, revolutionary porcelain, thick schapkas made of artificial bear fur and magnets with motifs from the Soviet space program. Even if you will never need all this stuff yourself, you will be doing a favor to the matkas (very old mothers) and otets (old fathers) who hawk the old books, the worn-out clothes and the worthless ruble coins of times long past.
There are several other flea markets in Moscow, which is after all the largest city in Europe, for example at the Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad metro station. Here pensioners stand and try to get rid of parts of their household goods to get some money in the kase. From battered wardrobe to stamps from Soviet times, heroic medals, old shoes, paintings and homemade flower arrangements, there is more here that no one needs.
Remembering the Cold War
At the Levsha market, the largest very in the Russian capital, located in the north of Moscow on Novoshodnenskoye Highway and open only on weekends, fans of the Soviet era will find what they are looking for. If you are a fan of Stalin, of the Cold War, the WW2, of communism or the signs of any other murderous socialist organization - here you can find everything of their legasy. Everything!!! At least everything that happily no one needs anymore. All that what hopefully will never ever needed again from anybody.
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