Get Ready: Moscow is Planning on Putting on the World’s Most Magnificent World Cup to Date
Moscow is heading to the World Cup at the speed of light. There's a mesmerizing light show at the Manege every evening, dedicated to the championship. Moscow is expected to receive more than one million Russian and foreign tourists. 5,000 taxi drivers have taken courses on hospitality and are now hard at work studying languages. Restaurant owners are updating their menus, tour guides are making up new routes and schedules.
Irina Baranova reports on the transformation of the football capital and surprises for the guests.
As soon as the board shows "zero", Luzhniki Stadium will explode. The planet's largest football festival will begin in a few days. Moscow will be the host for the first time.
— This is a real festival, the World Cup.
— Do you think Moscow is ready?
— Yes, I think.
For Moscow, the football festival will become also a championship of hospitality. The football players, FIFA employees, ticket holders for the 12 matches, and more than a million visitors, in their spare time, will certainly go for a stroll. Dozens of new footpaths appeared in Moscow. There's a unique 10-mile long path among them which starts at Moscow City waterfront and ends at Taganskaya Square. While walking the path, one can see the Kremlin, the Monument to Saint Vladimir, and the updated waterfronts which now have easy access to water.
There are boats, cutters, ships each making eight voyages per day. The smooth water allows one to see everything to the left and right, to find out why Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge collapsed in the 18th century and where Malevich's Black Square is. The guests will be told why the capital consists of rings and radii, Moscow's tried on one of them recently and kept it forever: the Moscow Central Circle train will become a new guided tour in the next few days.
Mariya Nikitina, The Museum of Moscow methodologist: "The similarities between the MCC platforms, and the MOZD platforms which were built in the early 20th century, is interesting. Each one of them has very noticeable differences, they were often built in an open field, so each one needed to be easily recognizable".
Numerous tourists won't let the nose of the dog at the Ploshchad Revolyutsii station go dim. They will learn that the Moscow Metro is an under-earth monument of architecture, sculpture, and art.
"It's very special, I've never seen anything like that. So much art, so much history, I got a wonderful impression".
Ora came with her friends from Israel for a few days.
Ora: "We'd like to see the historic center, taste the Russian cuisine, to talk to the people. The people here don't speak English very well, but they're helpful".
They've visited the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theater, now they're enjoying the view from a double-decker bus. In the evening, they will see how dark Moscow nights are compared to St. Petersburg ones.
People talk at tables of the cafes in the center all day long. Someone is taking a nighttime stroll or going home from the theater.
"Nowhere in the world there's such illumination that Moscow has now".
"It's positive. There's cool energy, a lot of beautiful people all around".
There are dozens of reasons to be at the center at night. For instance, it's nice to see the city bathed in all colors and sizes of light while waiting for dawn. It's 2 o'clock past midnight, at the highest point of the Moskva River. The view from Sparrow Hills is breathtaking even by day: so many attractions can be seen at once. But at night, the lights of the city are magnificent. Moscow is both large and diverse; it's impossible to get tired of the impressions.
Alexandra promises to revive the spirits of anyone, who tries her mushroom syrup cocktail. Many restaurants' menus are written with a nod to the football festival.
"This is baked beef Stroganoff, our response to the Cup".
These restaurant keepers show support to the national team, but they will treat fans of other teams with respect.
Victor Mikhtiev, restaurant manager: "We're contacting various Russian regions to represent the whole spectrum of the championship in our pub. We want to gather 32 fans from different countries to watch the cup finals in our pub".
The city authorities promise: the locals won't suffer from the noise. But the ones living in the vicinity of the stadiums won't be able to avoid "Goal!" chants.
Irina Baranova, Dmitry Bolshakov, Ivan Kharitonov, Mikhail Rostotsev, Ksenia Luskanova, Nedelya