She drives me to Bolotny Island – please forgive my ignorance, but I never realized there was an island on Moscow river. We park the car and run toward the pedestrian bridge to catch the last moments of the sun setting behind the Church of Christ the Saviour – without a single doubt, one of the best views I’ve ever seen in my life.
In the attempt to challenge Tatyana’s 5 inches high heels designer shoes with my “converse” we set off on the streets of the island to investigate the area of former Krasnyi Oktyabr factory.
As part of an effort to remove industrial manufacture from the historic centre of Moscow, the famed Krasnyi Oktybr was finally forced to close after more than a century of producing chocolates and other sweets. In a rare and quite unusual move, the historic industrial buildings are being preserved and converted into high-rent real estate with the best views of the Kremlin, while the garages and other outer buildings have been already taken over by artists, studio space, bars and night clubs.
We catch the last moment of the flea market at open-space.ru where young designers sell their works. Seven hundred rubles (£14) out of pocket and I am the happy owner of the white t-shirt with a huge black penguin on the front by Ekaterina Voropaeva, or VoRoPe.
I absolutely loved the hand-made soft toys sold by Shop of Russian Designers. They are not a cheap bargain but the lack of cash spared me from the agony of making the decision – to buy or not to buy.
At the same time Tatyana snatches the hand-made jewellery for £1 - she has already decided she'd come back another time for some proper shopping.
We leave the market and in a few minutes we are on the opposite side of the island.
We pass The Lumiere Brother Photogallery at Bolotnyi Enbankment I glaze at the statue of Peter the Great and the queues gathering outside bars and clubs and then we head back to what we came there for – Strelka.
The idea of five people - Alexander Mamut, Sergei Adonyev, Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, Dmitry Likin and Oleg Shapiro – brought to life this project. Whilst the idea is not new, the actual existence of this absolutely unique for Russia project made me short for words. Strelka is “a non-profit organization aimed at generating knowledge, producing new ideas and making them come true”. The Institute provides free tuition for young specialists with backgrounds in architecture, design, social sciences etc. and aims to develop a network of creativity for graduates and their projects.
We sit at the a rooftop summer terrace bar drinking amazing ginger and raspberry lemonade among the cutting edge youth, foreigners, tourists, partners from Big4, musicians and others and I can honestly say that I am in love with Moscow seeing through my friend's eyes. For that I thank you, dear!
