Pashas Apartment

Jenny in the stairwell to Pashas Apartment
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When planning our trip in the UK we stumbled upon Uncle Pashas web site www.unclepasha.com . This is a random and rambling site with a huge amount of useful information about cheap accommodation in Moscow and Russia in general.  Pasha appears to be irascible man who offers accommodation at his Moscow flat and his dacha (country cottage) out of the city. One of the areas of his site he give his view on the qualities of several european nationalities. Here is a quote pasted from the site: "The British are presently at the top of my "we reserve the right to deny service" list. Not only they are irritatingly polite. I could I suppose live with their annoying habit of sending 500+ mb pictures of themselves, their bikes, cats, kids, and favourite cactuses". "A certain superiority just oozes out of every pore of good many of them, absurdly mixed with confusion and fear". You get the idea, he has a dry sense of humour you may think; wrong he really means this stuff.  Our Email began: "Don't hate us because we are British".  We received a swift reply justifying the anti-british comments on the site.  I decided to stick to business and went about arranging the dates we wanted.  From this point onwards he was courteous and very efficient. All the plans in the run up to our departure went smoothly.

Kitchen area at Pashas
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We ventured on to the metro system and and found the usual cyrillic code from on all the signs.  Our map of the city streets and metro system had been translated into Roman script and this was not at all helpful because we had to translate everything before we knew where we were. Traveler Tip: Learn the cyrillic alphabet before you come to Russia and get a city map which has the both translations. Once we had worked where we were and how to get where we wanted to be, we set set off.  I had complained the day before that Jenny had taken on the role of "Chief Direction Finder" and I wanted to play a bigger role to get a better sense of the layout of where we had been. This was my chance to shine and I felt one slip would mean she would be justified in her lack of faith in my sense of direction. I confidently directed her to board a train on one side of the platform not sure if it was in the right direction or not. As luck would have it my guess was right, as my friend Martin would say "It's got two chances". After changing on to another line we arrived at the station we wanted. I now had to rely on a scratchy hand written note scanned and Emailed from Pasha.  We saw no street signs from outside the station so we set off to find out where we were. Shortly we found a street sign and headed off my apparent confidence covering foolish pride and fear I would get it wrong.

The location was excellent, around ten minutes walk from Red Square

Bathroom at Pashas
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We arrived outside the apartment block and found a steel door with security keypad and intercom.  I dialled the flat and spoke to he current occupants, a very nice Italian couple and said we would like to get in.  They explained that they had insructions to post the keys into the letter box and I should speak to Valentina, Pashas housekeeper to make arrangements.  I got out my UK mobile and dialled the number they gave me.  To my relief I got a reply but it soon became clear that Valentina spoke only Russian and German.  I speak neither of these languages and we somehow managed to arrange a meeting at what I had hoped was 12 o'clock. For two hours hung around, going off for a short while to find a coffee.  Valentina true to her word showed up at midday and showed us inside.  The flat was just as the website showed with a kitchen area just inside the door and a bathroom off to the right. The main living area had a TV, sofa and computer. Adjacent was a small bedroom with a double bed, wardrobe and bookcase. The bookcase had a interesting array of books in Russian and English, there were paintings on the wall and some interesting knickknacks including an old Russian mechanical calculator.

Jenny had some German language and we communicated with writing down numbers and with the help of the Alta-Vista translation web site.  We paid our boarding fee and scanned in copies of our passports and visas. In Russia every traveler has to register with the local authority if staying for more than three days in any city.  Valentina gave the place a quick cleanup and explained how everything worked.  The last residents left  some old food in the fridge and a pot of what was once lentil stew behind. We cleaned up the pot and threw out the suspect items from the fridge. It was a hot day and the powerful air conditioner was set to the coolest setting. We collapsed in the sofa weary from all the effort of lugging our packs around.

Pashas place was excellent, the computer had a fast internet connection, the kitchen was small but had everything we needed for our stay and the washing machine we found in the bathroom saved us an expensive laundry bill.  When we stayed the daily rate was $100 around £ 50 so a real bargain price.  The location was excellent, around ten minutes walk from Red Square and within five minutes walk of a shopping centre with pharmacy and supermarket.  I would whole heartedly recommend the flat as long as one puts up with the eccentric ways of Pasha and accepts this is a home not an international hotel.