Moscow Sports & Outdoors

Yesterday, I went ice skating in Gorky Park. There is an area, it is like a fairground in the summer. Instead of closing it in winter, they flooded all the walkways, ponds and open spaces, and turned it into one big skating rink. There were hundreds of people, despite being around minus 12-13 degrees, all dressed up against the cold and enjoying themselves inspite of the cold. There was live music, a big Christmas tree, performers in costume singing and dancing, and it was really a winter carnival atmosphere. I guess they were celebrating their Orthodox Christmas. It was a blue sky, sunny day, and when it got darker, they turned all the street lights on. It was very beautiful between the shadows, the snow, the lit-up areas and a full moon. Whenever I got too cold, there were restaurants along the way, where you could go in with your skates on and get something warm to eat or drink. What a marvelous idea, instead of simply closing the amusement park for the winter.

The only way to survive a long winter is to simply get out and enjoy it.

Equipment: Entrance costs RUB50 ($1.50) and if you do not have your own skates you can rent them for RUB100 ($3.00) per hour. The other prices are reasonable as well. Coffee RUB20. Local beers RUB30. Pizza RUB140. Etc.

Dress warm with lot's of layers and something for your head. Warm is cool.

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I have to say that in daily life Svetlana Pugacheva looks not the same as on events :)
She is the champion of the World and works as a trainer in Panata-club in Moscow.

Equipment: Also she has a web-site http://your-figure.com/ with video-lessons (VIDEO UROKI). Sorry, Russian only.

If you're from Canada or N. United States, maybe Skandinavia or the then named Czechoslovakia, perhaps you spent many early mornings getting up to go to hockey practice or figure skating lessons. Cold arenas, moms & dads freezing their butts off up in the stands, hot coffee keeping their hands warms. Chatting to friends and neighbors. It is part of our national psyche.

I had almost put all those memories out of my mind until I moved to Moscow and started playing hockey again. I had a great time. For one thing, the arenas are quite run down, so you get the feeling just from the building that it is 20-years ago.

Also, when you visit one of the many outdoor skating arenas around the city, the changing facilities are just like I remember as a kid. Lacing them up, heading out into the cold night, gulping down lung fulls of fresh air. Rosey cheeks and frozen toes. Heading in to warm-up, and then going back out again until they closed the outdoor rink for the evening.

Good clean fun.

Look at the photo - small dot upon the clouds is me.

To repeat this you just need to go about 100 km from Moscow to the small town Volokolamsk and visit avia-club.

4 hours of express training, 1000 rubles (~$30) and you will jump from 800 m from the plane with the automatic (w/o ring) parachute.

Equipment: Parachute D-2U was invented in late 30-s for army and considered to be the most reliable till now (99%). You shoud do nothing after jump - after 3...4 sec of fall rope will pull it out of the bag and you will see outscurts like from the giant big weel. ;-)))

(for this 1% left you will have an other parachute - smaller one on your paunch ;-)))

Directions:
Thanks to Anna (pinik) for correct directions in VT forum:

Hello,

I found the followind web-page: www.dropzone.ru/alferievo.shtml but its in Russian only.
It's written there that in case you are going by suburbian train (elektrichka) you should take the one that is going from Tushino station to Volokolamsk (it takes about 2 hours). Then on arriving to Volokolamsk take a bus (or even better marshrutka - a kind of mini-bus) going to Lotoshino - about 40 minutes. The stop is called Suvorovo. Then, turn back (to the direction from where the bus arrived) and look for the red-brick church - accross to the church there is a road that is going to the aerodrome (about 3km). It's also possible to take a taxi from the railway station to the place (Alferyevo).
Another variant is to take a bus from Tushino station that is going to Lotoshino, Mikoulino or Osheykino. But it's necessary to take a ticket at least 1 hour before the bus departure. Also go to the Suvorovo stop.

You may try to contact web-site authors by the e-mails from the first page (www.dropzone.ru/).

Hope it will help,
Anna

On 14th February 2004 at about 7:30pm, the massive glass roof covering the Transvaal Aquapark collapsed. There were over 300 people in the complex at the time and at the time of updating this tip, 24 people were confirmed dead with over 60 injured.

Although there will be a full enquiry, it appears that a structural fault was badly exposed with the huge weight of snow on the roof.

I had been here 3 times during 2003 and always enjoyed myself. I was in Moscow when I saw this news break and I was totally shocked. My condolences go to all the victims friends and families.

If you are here in winter and need a fix for some winter sports fun, head over to gorky park and rent a pair of skates. There are several places to do it, some better skates and some worse. The deposit will be from 1000-2000 rubles per pair, depending on which place you rent them from. But you will get the deposit back, the actual cost is only about 100 rubles per hours. The skating is pretty cool because it isn't just around in circles lke so many places, but they actually freeze all the walk ways in the park and use them as skating trails! Pretty cool! AND you can even get a beer if you like to keep you cooled down as you work up a sweat!

Dynamo Stadium is the largest and most famous stadium in Mosco. It was built during the 1930's and was modified for the 1980 Summer Olympics. It was state of the art at that time. It is now a dingy, run down building that houses the local Soccer club and a flea market.

It is sad. I was looking forward to visiting this place and was very dissapointed by it's condition.

Almost sports find in Moskwa a club or society. Football, enjoying a growing popularity, offers a real event en now Russia has taken the European Championship 2008 into it's borders, the sport will only grow in intrest by many.
Moskwa itself has three first league footballteams that compete in heavy rivalry. Spartak, Dynamo and Lokomotiv have many Moskovians as well as other supporters.