Moscow is in the air

I don't like travel guide books. They give mere facts and pictures of historical and public places for tourists. When you come to the place, you want to find exactly what was shown in the picture or was written about. And most commonly the tourist places are really of no interest and underestimated sites are marvellous. As a result you feel annoyed and unhappy.You didn't meet you own expectations.

There is another thing why I don't like guide books. Usually when I arrive to a place, the most important thing for me is the first portion of air I breathe in. Each city and town smells differently.

Moscow smells of Russian forest - mixture of fir trees, birch trees, pine trees, aspens and oaks. This smell is desperate in its freshness and melancholy. But not negative.

When you get out of the taxi you took at the airport close to the centre of the city, this air changes for the smell of exhaust gases. Don't worry, you will get used to it in two-three days.

What is impossible to forget and find a substitution for - is a smell of a Moscow night. Sweet, fresh, with odour of wet asphalt and road dust at the same time, tempting and also desperate, but in its freedom. The most of it you can smell on a fine summer night from 10 pm to about 3 or 4 am.

You feel that the city loves you and you start loving it, you can do everything you want and you will be successful, you feel as you are about to spread your arms to the sky, stand on your fingertips and fly.

In the morning this mysterious atmosphere fades away and you start hating the city and maybe yourself. Congratulations! This is a true sign that you fell in love with Moscow.