This year, two teachers took part in the traditional journey of the winner of the FIRST TEACHER contest – Nurjan Isakova, the winner of the 12th competition (2023/2024 academic year) and Turumkan Karimova, the winner of the 6th competition (2017). Turumkan eje could not come immediately after the winning award due to personal circumstances, and now she has managed to make a long-awaited trip with a colleague. Later in this report, I will call our guests Nurjan (based on the fact that she is younger than me) and Turumkan eje (eje – respectful treatment of an older woman).
As those who follow the news of the Sanjarbek Daniyarov Foundation know, every year the winner of the “FIRST TEACHER” competition, in addition to this expanding horizons trip, receives an award in the form of a cultural and educational trip to Bishkek for the weekend together with her/his entire class. Three classes are going on this trip at once – students of the teachers who took the first, second and third places. After the next trip of schoolchildren (including Nurzhan Isakova’s students) takes place, in accordance with the tradition of the foundation, we will share our report on this site.
This report consists of two parts: from July 8 to 11 and from July 12 to 17, 2024.
PART 1
08.07.2024 MONDAY
We arrived in Moscow in advance to prepare for the arrival of Nurjan ayim (aiym – miss or mrs in Kyrgyz) and Turumkan eje (addressing an older woman in Kyrgyz). All the winners who come to Moscow as part of the foundation’s award stay in our Moscow apartment in the CSKA metro area, the apartment building is located right in the Khodynskoye Pole Park.
The plane with the guests arrived at Sheremetyevo airport at 11:55 a.m., we went to the city by Aeroexpress train. This is a comfortable high-speed train connecting all Moscow airports with train stations and metro stations. Pensioners, such as my husband and I, travel on the Aeroexpress train and in all types of public transport for free.
Together with the guests, we arrived at Khodynsky Boulevard just in time for lunch. After a short rest and after discussing the details of our program, we went for a walk around the surroundings of our place of stay.
Build not very long ago Khodynskoye Pole Park is a place of attraction for Muscovites who want to relax. The park has a small pond with ducks, two hills from which the surroundings are visible, one of them has a Mirror maze, the second has a swing for adults. There is a large playground, a huge sandbox, an outdoor swimming pool, and many sports fields. Everyone is especially fond of the “dry” fountain, the jets of water in it are beating out of the ground, and children and adults like to run under the jets in hot weather.
The CSKA metro station, opening directly into the park, is its built-in part, a green lawn is laid out on the roof of the station and benches for sunbathing are installed.
A large shopping and entertainment center Aviapark adjoins the Khodynskoye Pole Park on the opposite side from our house, in which a huge aquarium is installed to attract visitors. It is the tallest cylindrical aquarium in the world, 23 m high and 6 m in diameter with an artificial coral reef in the center. We looked at it too.
In the evening we returned home and had dinner together
09.07.2024 TUESDAY
After breakfast, we took the subway to the very center of the city, towards Red Square. On the way, we got off at the Mayakovskaya metro station to see the wonderful beauty of the station hall, which I demonstrate to all travelers, and then continued the trip.
We started exploring the city center from Red Square, the perimeter of which is outlined by the high walls of the Moscow Kremlin with the Spasskaya Tower, Lenin Mausoleum, Historical Museum, GUM and St. Basil’s Cathedral. The guests expressed a desire to visit the mausoleum, but it turned out that they had to stand in a long queue (which is not visible from the square, it stretches along the wall behind the turnstiles), and the day was hot.
We went to GUM, built at the end of the 19th century as the Upper Shopping Malls. Of course, its architecture is in the form of three long galleries (passages) with a glass roof, with bridges on the second floor and a fountain in the center, it pleases the eyes of visitors. Traditionally, we enjoyed ice cream.
We returned to the square to enter St. Basil’s Cathedral (Pokrovsky Cathedral). This colorful temple, erected in the middle of the 16th century in honor of the capture of Kazan, has long been a hallmark of the main square of the Russian Federation and a symbol of Moscow. We looked at the painted walls, narrow mysterious rooms, an ancient iconostasis, all this was accompanied by church polyphonic singing in conditions of excellent acoustics of the temple.
ZARYADYE Park appeared a little more than 10 years ago on the site of the former 10,000-bed Rossiya Hotel. In the old days, this place was called that, because it was located behind the shopping malls. In this park there are mounds covered with vegetation of different climatic zones of the country, as evidenced by the signs. The hills offer wonderful views of the Kremlin and the surrounding area, as well as the park itself. In the center of the park there is a huge outdoor concert venue with a glass canopy, where we sat. In Moscow, on this day, it was incredibly hot, and fog was sprayed from the canopy to cool those who sat down to rest. We walked along the famous Floating bridge over the Moscow River with glass railings. The bridge was created specifically for viewing the most beautiful views, it reaches the middle of the river and turns back.
We had lunch at a Georgian restaurant in the shopping center “Okhotny Ryad” under Manezhnaya Square, which adjoins Red Square. Through the Alexander Garden, stretching along the western side of the Kremlin, we walked to the Borovitskaya Tower, then past the monument to Vladimir, the largest library named after Lenin and entered the subway, drove to the Komsomolskaya metro station. We rested in Trubetskoy Park next to the Moscow Youth Palace (MDM), which is essentially a theater for musicals.
19:00 musical “DON’T BE AFRAID OF ANYTHING, I’M WITH YOU” in the MDM. This musical is based on the hits of the Secret group, popular in the Soviet Union, whose songs were distinguished by melodiousness and content. The action takes us to a later Soviet time. I hope the guests enjoyed the performance or, at least, it was interesting to get acquainted with the genre of the musical.
07/10/2024 WEDNESDAY
After a leisurely breakfast, we set off towards the Kropotkinskaya metro station. Our first goal was to inspect the Cathedral of CHRIST the SAVIOR, inside and out. The temple has a high dome, its walls are completely painted on biblical themes, and in the center there is a very beautiful iconostasis. All this impresses visitors, but, unfortunately, photographing inside is not allowed. We went up to the observation deck of the temple, from where you can admire the panorama of the center of Moscow.
After leaving the temple, we walked along the “PATRIARCHAL” bridge, which offers beautiful views of the Kremlin on one side, and the historical buildings of the Einem Partnership chocolate factory, renamed Red October in Soviet times. Currently, the buildings are used as an exhibition and shopping complex.
Our main goal on this day was to visit the PUSHKIN MUSEUM of FINE ARTS, the main building. The museum is huge, opened in the early 20th century. According to the plan of the initiator, Professor Tsvetaev, it was supposed to bring art closer to the people by presenting samples of world masterpieces. We visited the halls: The art of Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, Europe of the 16th-18th centuries. The impression was made not only by the works themselves, but also by the halls of the museum, beautifully decorated, favorably emphasizing the beauty of sculptural and picturesque exhibits.
We had lunch at the Il Patio near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and managed to walk along Gogol Boulevard. A ring of boulevards surrounds the city center, many of them have monuments to writers and poets. An original monument to Mikhail Sholokhov, the author of The Quiet Don, and a Nobel laureate, has been erected on Gogolevsky.
We took the metro to Strastny Boulevard, turned onto Petrovka Street and Karetny Ryad Street. We came to the HERMITAGE Garden. The garden is located in the very center of Moscow in a very beautiful corner, and in fact is an Art Nouveau park for the recreation of citizens. Unlike other parks three theaters located in this one in addition to the summer stage: the Hermitage Theater, the New Opera and the Sphere Theater.
At 19:00 at the SPHERE Theater, we attended the performance of the classic Russian playwright A.N. Ostrovsky “GUILTY WITHOUT GUILT”. The Sphere Theater is not like other theaters, the hall in it is chamber, and the stage is viewed from all sides, so that the audience feels like participants in a stage action. Interestingly, Nurzhan was familiar with the translated version of this play staged by the Kyrgyz Drama Theater, which was shown on television many years ago, and left an indelible impression.
11.07.2024 THURSDAY
In the morning, after breakfast, we went to the Cosmonautics Museum. This museum is located at the base of the 110-meter monument to the Conquerors of space. In my opinion, the museum is extremely interesting, filled with real spacecraft and attributes of astronauts, it clearly shows the development of cosmonautics.
We spent three hours in the museum, and then went for a walk around the territory of VDNH (Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy). Of course, we took pictures at the Fountain of Friendship of Peoples. This fountain is famous for sculptures of 16 girls in national costumes with symbols of the republics in their hands. At the time of the fountain’s creation, the Soviet Union included not 15, but 16 republics (later the Karelo-Finnish SSR ceased to exist). As always, I suggested that our travelers identify a Kyrgyz girl, which is not very easy. In accordance with the signs of that time, she had cotton in her hands, which was also on the coat of arms of the Kyrgyz SSR, then cotton growing was an important branch of the republic
Our next goal was the MOSKVARIUM oceanarium, in which we wandered for a long time, because the number of inhabitants of the seas and oceans that can be viewed through the aquarium windows is huge – from sharks, killer whales and rays to the smallest colorful purple, yellow and mottled small fish.
After going out into the air, we had lunch at the cafe “Shokoladnitsa”, this time we were treated to lunch by Turumkan eje.
On the way back, we took another road through the Botanical Garden, past the Ostankino estate (unfortunately, at that moment the estate was under restoration).
We had dinner at home and discussed the impressions of the day
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