When I travel I always stick to one rule: the trip is incomplete if I haven’t visited a local flea-market. Therefore I fully understand tourists in Moscow who are looking for flea-markets to buy souvenirs or (pseudo) ancient and useless stuff. The problem is that here are none of those tiny and cozy flea-markets that are so common elsewhere in Europe.

The only place that I think could satisfy the tourists’ expectations is the Vernisazh in Izmailovo. The market quite far away from the city center (though only a 5 minutes walk away from the Partizanskaya metro) and to be honest I had never been there myself before.

However this weekend I went there for the first time and I found out that the market is a fantastic place to spend a Sunday even if you're not interested in matryoshka (wooden dolls with several smaller copies inside) or other Russian handicrafts.

Words will not help much so let the pictures tell the story:

The Vernisazh in Izmailovo is a huge territory near the Izmaylovsky Kremlin, which is a very strange construction that is anything but medieval and has a vodka museum inside. I was not too brave (or desperate?) to check it out. Next time maybe!

At Vernisazh you can find tons of traditional russian crafts.

Anything you want – from shawls...

to dolls...

and colorful coffee cups.

Things for sale can be rather absurd – like this huge wooden spoon...

or this typical matryoshka but in acid version. Cindyrella, Little Mermaid, Sponge Bob. Can you decide which one to choose? I can't.

I found lots of inspiration for how to decorate a New Year's tree, such as these wooden hand-painted eggs?

What I found was not only funny but also useful such as stalls selling traditional Uzbeck ceramics. The beautiful big plates (about $20) are great as wall decoration and the pots and pialas will be great for tea-ceremony. I actually have these ceramics at home.

What about carpets from Iran and Turkey. They are new but look pretty faded. Prices start from $200



I have always had a soft spot for Soviet porcelain statuettes.

What about fragile gypsies, pioneers or a bunch of asparagus which is actually a butter dish.

This plate with Lenin on is in perfect condition and it is expensive – about $300.

Retro–pins are cheap and pretty ugly

I chose this weird Mickey Mouse.

Despite the huge variety of items for sale the greatest attraction of Vernissage is people. How do you like this Venus in furs...

or this seller of antique statuettes?

Visitors are great too. Especially the tourists. This madame is my favourite. She definitely won’t get cold.

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.

.

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. 

Photo: Ptitov

A popular expression here in Moscow goes: “Moscow has everything one can desire…except the sea!”. Nor do we have many shady parks, where one can escape from the heat on hot summer days, when this city of asphalt and concrete feels like a frying pan. The only green areas you can find in downtown Moscow are the narrow strips of dusty grass in the middle of the noisy boulevards and even here you should book a free spot in advance as every square meter normally is occupied by gothic teenagers drinking cheap beer or homeless guys working on their suntan.

Photo: Ariil Davidoff

Apart from the life on the boulevards, Moscow on hot weekends seems totally abandoned as every living creature has escaped to their dacha or to any muddy lake in the surrounding countryside. However there is one place in downtown Moscow where I seek refuge from the heat on those summer days when the outside temperatures reach body temperatures, and this place is called Lebedinoe Ozero.

Photo: Ariil Davidoff

This open-air café opened in the summer 2008 and has given new life to Gorky Park, which lost its appeal long ago and to a majority of Moscovites is less attractive than McDonald’s is to a left-wing vegan. The café is hidden in a far corner of the park on the banks of a small shallow pond with white swans (in Russian Lebedinoe Ozero means ‘Swan Lake’). Lebedinoe Ozero has two sections. There is a shady wooden balcony, which is furnished with tables and comfortable sofas that are perfect for chilling in while smoke a waterpipe in the early evening. However, my favourite part of the café is the sun deck with a swimming pool so tiny that one could confuse it with bathtub.

I love coming here early in the morning during the week when the café is nearly empty as everyone else is sweating in their offices. There is nothing better than to relax on one of the Thai cotton mattresses and daydreaming while licking the sun. To cool down I order lemonade with kaffir lime leaves and a big bowl of svekolnik, which is cold beetroot soup. And if I am really hungry I go for the chicken shashlyk, where the meat is so tender and light that I’m always tempted to order a double portion.

Evenings and nights at Lebedinoe Ozero are very buzy really lively, so it’s better to book a table in advance.

LEBEDINOE OZERO Krymsky Val, 9, bld 22 (Крымский Вал, 9, стр. 22). Metro Oktyabrskaya

Photo: Sugarcoma

Do you know what is the trendiest thing to drink in Moscow these days? Vodka! I can’t believe it, but vodka really is back. Not that it had ever disappeared, as it has always been an essential part of weddings, funerals and kitchen-parties where people during the long winter evenings gather around a big table to talk about the meaning of life (a very typical Russian topic) while drinking gallons of vodka.

Photo: Oskarlin

However what I have noticed is a totally different story – vodka has become a party-drink. Not as an ingredient in cocktails or energizers such ‘vodka-RedBull’ but in its pure form.

I was really surprised this weekend when I several times witnessed how groups of glamorous Moscow girls in backless silk dresses were ordering vodka in the bar. Three months ago they would have went for whiskey and cola or mojito, but not anymore. Now all they want is pure vodka served in a shot-glass with a piece of lime, basta!

Photo: Erin.kkr

I guess it’s the credit crunch, which have made the party animals here in Moscow return to their (vodka) roots. In many bars a mixed cocktail will cost you $15, while you for a maximum of $10 can get enough vodka to radically improve your footwork on the dance floor. So everybody seems more than happy about saying goodbye to the mojito and hello to the vodka.

Many of Moscow’s new bars such as Lilienthal have grasped the vodka-hype. Lilienthal is a tiny place with a huge bar where the walls are covered with retro-pictures of famous pilots and their machines. The bar is always packed with a young crowd, especially on Wednesdays when Rolling Stone magazine organizes parties where the editors are dj’ing playing everything from heavy-metal to the sweet tunes of MGMT or ABBA.

Not only is Lilienthal a great place to go and have fun and meet people, I also love the bar’s location in the cozy and quiet Rozhdestvenka Street, which looks like a piece of the old Moscow.

BAR LILIENTHAL; Rozhdestvenka Street 12. Metro Kuznetsky Most, Trubnaya.
                             Рождественка ул., д.12, метро Кузнецкий мост, Трубная

When I’m in the mood for shopping I avoid going to the huge malls here in Moscow with all the international brands and crowds of teenagers who make my blood pressure go up. After a short stay in a shopping mall I always need a boost of energy and even the strongest espresso is usually not enough.

Instead of huge shopping malls, I prefer to refresh my wardrobe in smaller shops with a small but delicate selection of brands. These shops are even more attractive to me is if they are situated within a walking distance from eachother and more important: if they have a sweet ‘SALE’ sign in them. Therefore the new shopping trend here in Moscow called Sunday Up Market, which combines all this in one, has made my life so much easier.

The Sunday Up Market is a once-in-a-month event gathering young designers who have just began their career, small companies who sell new and vintage clothes they’ve bought around the world, leather tailors and producers of various funny trash items that would work perfect as birthday presents.

The market is like a huge showroom where each seller has its own stall. Many people just come here to meet friends, but if you are looking for a new dress it’s definitely the place to go.

My favourite shops are AIR with cool japaneese brands (not cheap!) and Oh My Coat! where two girlfriends sell a nice mix of accessories and clothes designed by young European designers. Clutch-bags, t-shirts, belts and pants in basic colors – items that are absolutely necessary for everyday life!

The Sunday Up Market is a living creature- it grows and changes from month to month, so you never know what you will find the next time. And keep in mind that the market changes location too. Currently it is located on the territory of art-space Winzavod, but you better check the address on of the Sunday Up Market before you go.

WINZAVOD; 4th Syromyatnichesky sidestreet, house 1, bld.6. Metro Kurskaya
Винзавод; 4-й Сыромятнический переулок, дом 1, стр. 6. метро Курская