The Metro

I know, I already wrote about the Metro, but it is truly amazing.  This time, our hotel is way out of the city so the only way to get anywhere is by Metro, especially if you consider the traffic here.  So we took the Metro every day.  By now, I am confident enough that we took various different lines, transferred lines, took different routes into the city and back home, so I feel like we had the chance to experience quite a bit of it.
There are 11 lines, that criss-cross through this entire city.  Certain stations may have 3 lines running through at different depths.  The tricky part is that the same station on different lines may be called different things, so you really have to pay attention (especially b/c everything is written in Cyrillic only).  If you've been to New York, London or Paris and rode the subways there, you are probably envisioning dark, dimly lit, tight little tunnels.  Nothing could be further from the truth in Moscow.  All the subway stations, connecting tunnels, thruways and everything else is beautifully lit, everything is covered in marble tiles, each station is beautifully decorated -- mostly Communist themed wall paintings mosaics, sculptures.  I wish I could have taken pictures of the various stops, but it prohibited after the bombings a few years ago.  There is also very visible military and police presence all over. 
If you do have to switch lines, you may have to walk 10+ minutes, -- climb flights of stairs, and walk through tunnels (which are strictly one way).
There are always a lot of people, but it was by far the most crowded at 9:30 p.m. -- like rush hour on the Budapest subway....  people are sandwiched in the cars like sardines.  The Metro also goes very fast, and the distance between each stop seems to be quite large -- you might go for 5 + minutes between different stations.  The people on the subway seem accustomed to long trips -- they read books, papers, do crossword puzzles -- even while standing.
Another interesting little tidbit is that if you are standing on the escalator, you stand on the right side, so the people who are in a hurry can pass you on the left.  What's surprising about it is that Russians haven't struck me is particularly disciplined or rule abiding -- see the people who get up on the airplane as soon as it lands, the people who cut in line in front of you, and even physically push you out of the way if they need to....   But they all line up on the right side of the escalator....