I have a passion for food markets. It is not that I am the type of person who walks around the market for hours to touch and smell all the products in order to decide what to buy. Actually, I don’t usually go the markets to buy food. Rather, it’s because I think they are a perfect place to watch characters and overhearing funny dialogues. Personally, I think it’s more interesting – as well as positive – than visiting historical cemeteries, and much more entertaining than yawning in dusty museums. Because any food market is a slice of real life!

I’m lucky to live just around the corner from one of the best markets in Moscow which is called Dorgomilovsky rynok. It’s a giant pavilion with idyllic rows of stalls where sellers from all former parts of the former Soviet Union sell anything you can imagine. How many kilos of black caviar do you need? Looking for suckling pig to roast for your birthday party?

Just a 5-minute walk from this food market, near the Kiyevskaya metro station, there is a flower market, which is the biggest, craziest and cheapest in Moscow. The market is famous for its great selection of roses – so if you feel like killing your girlfriend with a scratchy monster of 101 bloody red 2-meter long roses (if you prefer Caucausian style of dating), this is definitely the place to purchase them.

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For more sophisticated (and still very cheap!) flowers you should head for Rizhsky rynok. This is one of Moscow’s historical market places, and it is also housed in a huge pavillion with obvious signs of dilapidation. One row is occupied with wholesale flower sellers, and their huge and varied selection attracts smaller florists and those who are just looking for pack of tulips or sunflowers for a sweet price. The market is just the perfect hangout for me, as it is both a flower and food market. Here you’ll find all kinds of meats, colorful dried fruits, marinated vegetables, homemade sausages and last but not least, great characters. I bet you won’t leave with your hands empty!

Go further: If you unlike Masha like to explore cemeteries you should definitely check out Momondo's cemetery-serie Beyond the Grave.