Flea Market Saturday in Moscow

The life in Moscow usually goes under the following schedule:

from Monday to Friday – average Moscovite approximately spends 10 hours going and coming back from work, 45-50 hours actually working (useless sitting in the office also counts)

Saturday and Sunday – days off. On Sunday people mostly prefer to sit at home, do laundry, watch stupid Sunday TV shows and mentally prepare for the upcoming week. So basically there is only one day per week left – Saturday to actually enjoy the life – go to the theaters and museums, visit exhibitions, do some shopping and finally take kids to the Zoo….

This Saturday, despite me living on a freelance mode where I can actually afford to go to the places I want any day of the week, I decided to join the overall rhythm and planned two cultural activities: visit of Flea and antique market in the morning and Theater with my parents in the evening.

Here I need to mention that there are several flea markets in Moscow, one of the most famous and popular is Izmailovskiy Rynok. However I’ve decided to see something less touristic and more sophisticated. So I headed over to Retro-market “Bloshinka” which takes place once per month in Cultural House “Dom”, located in Ovchinnikovskiy pereulok. After 1,5 hours spent in the overcrowded subway, where I almost left without my feet, I finally arrived to the destination. Hidden in a small backstreet of Moscow, “Bloshinka” made impression to be the place for “those who know”.

Inside, one little room with few stands – anything from vintage shoes and clothes to antique silver tableware and oriental carpets. Despite the little size of the room, I’ve spotted some really cool finds, the only thing which stopped me from buying anything were exaggerated prices….

I finally ended up at the stand with my favorite things – Antique oriental rugs. The owner was very nice and friendly – it was nice to chat with him about these beautiful pieces, which he mainly brings from four destinations – Afganistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Dagestan. All in wonderful condition and I couldn’t resist imagining them in my living room:

Having explored everything up to my heart’s content, I thought that it was too early to go home and I headed over to my favorite spot in Moscow, which is (I will be super original here) is the Red Square. Honestly, every time I visit Moscow this is my first and compulsory place to go – where else you could see the city with tourist’s eyes and forget about the other, not so pretty side of megapolis.

My day has ended up in the Theater, where I finally convinced myself that life in a big city has its own advantages….