Top Ten Things I WON'T Miss About Moscow

1-5. Language Barrier – This issue was by far the biggest source of frustration and difficulty for me… so much so that I’ve given it the top 5 spots on my list. The issue for me was not so much that I couldn’t ask for what I wanted, but that I felt so isolated from my surroundings.
6. Prices – With the exception of groceries and street-snacks, it seemed that just about everything was ridiculously expensive. The cost of rent and hotels was off the charts, and dining out was similarly unpalatable – we started to see a $100 dinner bill as a steal rather than a splurge!
7. Traffic – Moscow’s relentless traffic illustrates well the drawback of a ring-radial street layout … particularly at the center ring, where we lived. I usually traveled on foot but Jerel was often stuck in traffic for ages, and our few excursions out of town or to the airport really made me really appreciate ‘normal’ traffic!
8. Smoking – Self-explanatory…
9. Our Apartment’s ‘Quirks’– It was overall a great apartment but certain aspects I’m glad to leave behind: the lack of hot water during the last 2 weeks; the nightly mosquito all-out-wars (no A/C); the daily construction racket across the street and across the hall.
10. Elusive “Essentials” – It wasn’t unusual for me to spend an entire afternoon scouring the city for a single item that I would normally be able to find with ease in any North American city. Some of my hard earned prizes were: a can opener, a cheese grater, an oven mitt, a hand blender, an iron, and a hairdryer. This item is only sortof a ‘con’ because these missions provided a great excuse to stroll the city for hours and gave me a small sense of satisfaction when I was ultimately victorious!