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Moscow Information Guide |Rus-a| Tips for expats
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Welcome to Moscow Advice Section
Find out helpful information to make your life in the city more comfortable.
Whater in the Capital
Officially it is safe to drink water in Moscow from a tap. In 2016 Moscow Government completely upgraded capital plumbing infrastructure, including exchange of 30 years old concrete pipes on new modern polyethylene pipes but still it is not a good idea to drink raw water.
Many Muscovites drink water from a tap but at first they always boil it every time before drinking or use special cleaning filters which are installed on taps.
To learn more information about the quality of water in your district you can visit special website www.mosvodokanal.ru If you still doubt whether to drink water from the tap or not you can buy drinking water in capital supermarkets where you can find different brands and volumes.
Electricity in Moscow - Russian Standards
The nominal supply voltage is 230 V +10% and a frequency of 50 Hz. It is one of international standards. In Russia are used European plugs -socket has two round holes. If your gadgets have western electricity standards and plugs different from Russian ones you can buy adaptors in various capital electronic stores such as Mediamarket, Mvideo, Eldorado and others.
Wi-Fi in Moscow
Wi-Fi is widely spread in Russian capital. You can easy find free internet in Parks, malls and in Metro Railway. Most of restaurants and cafes also offer its clients free Internet. Furthermore all Russian mobile phones operators offer very fast Internet LTE. Its rather cheap - about10-15$ (USD) per month.
Taxi in Moscow
Today Russian capital is very modern. We have different taxis from simple cars to luxurious limusines and rolce royces. We have some international well known companies like Uber or Wheely. You can trust them. The most populat taxi among Russian are Gettaxi and Yandex taxi. They work through mibile aplications, and you can easy download them from applestore or googlemarket. The prices for taxi are much cheaper than for exemple in Europe. From one side of the city to another with traffic jams you will pay 20-30$ (USD) while in some Western countries citys you may spend about 100$ (USD). For exemple Yandex Taxi has express rides about 99 rubles it's like 1,5$ (USD). Taxi now is very fast here. Since you make an order the car arrives in 2-5 minutes. In Moscow there are also special taxi stands for exemple near Metro and Railway Stations. We also recommend to use only official taxi it is good for your personal security.
Where to buy food in Moscow - Food markets
Muscovites prefer to buy foods, vegetables and meet in special food markets and not in supermarkets and big malls. Why? In special food markets al products are always much more fresh and cheaper. Besides in food markets the choice is always bigger and you can find quality and quantity you need.
Most famous food markets are Danylovsky, Dorogomilovsky, Leningradsky, Bagrationovsky, Preobrajensky and others. In Capital every district has few markets.
The best time for food shopping is weekend morning when all farmers come to the city with their products.
Sometimes foreigners feel difficulties on such markets if they don't know Russian language. For this there are two reasons - first people who sell food at such markets are basically farmers or resellers from nearest countries. They don't know English or French for example. So you can face difficulties in communication. Other reason - too often on products there are no prices so that sellers may tell you any price they. Finally you may pay more on such markets than we Russians and Muscovites do. But whether you are good with Russian language such kind of food selling areas will be very useful for you. You will always have fresh food on your table which in fact is less expensive than in malls and supermarkets.
If you feel that it is better for you to buy food in big malls where are prices written on products and simple food logistics on pages of our site we will advise you some good places.
Problems in apartments, with water, light, non-functioning elevators, dirty courtyard etc.
If you have problems for example with water in you apartment (pipe burst, flooding), or you have no electricity you need to call to your «dispetcherskaya», it is city office which serves buildings in Moscow (free).
To find your «dispetcherskaya» go to yandex search website www.yandex.ru and tap in an empty field «dispetcherskaya metro (name of metro station nearby your apartment), Moskva».
On the first page of search results you will find links to sites with correct phone numbers. Call to «dispetcherskaya» and tell about your problem.
Where to buy food in Moscow - shops and supermarkets
If you have reasons not to buy food at local city food markets we advise you some good shops where you can buy food.
First and most popular location among citizens is Auchan hypermarket store. It is extremely big hypermarket where you can buy at least everything - from food and drinks up to socks, jackets, toys, washing powders etc. We Muscovites go there at least once a month by car to buy canes, cereals and things for home, for example cleaning agents. Auchans for most of us are far from homes, they are located in the city but in special areas, so if you have no car it is better to take taxi or find some simple shop near your accommodation. But in Auchan you really can find almost everything you need. It is also a perfect place to buy express home goods if you have just arrived in Moscow. And of course it is rather cheap. The only problem we have found out in Auchan, sometime they don't have good vegetables and fruits or good vegetables or fruits are mixed with bad ones so that you need to select carefully what you need. Anyway all prices are written on products, working stuff is rather polite, logistics is also comfortable for visitors. Auchans work from 9 a.m. to 11p.m. There are about 30 shops in Moscow.
If you have money you can choose one of Moscow luxury food store such as Bahetle, Azbuka Vkusa or Globus Gurme. Most of Muscovites don't visit these food shops because they are too expensive and some prices are unreasonable. For example in Auchan there are many Russian very good analogs of cheese, sausages and other food two, three and even more times cheaper.
The main difference between, for example, Auchan and these kinds of shops is that in luxury food stores you can find good imported food from Europe and other countries of the world. Besides such markets have very beautiful design, very polite stuff and of course very clean and positive atmosphere. So it is always up to you where to buy food in Moscow.
On Moscow streets there are thousands of local supermarkets for example Piatiyorochka, Sedmoy Kontinent, Perekryostok, Dixi, Magnolia and others. All them are good but in fact they do not have wide choice for dome food positions (for example there may be 7 varieties of cheese while in Auchan you will find 70 different sorts of cheese), sometimes there are not good fruits and vegetables while in Auchan you will find them anyway.
So we Muscovites advice to use Auchan once a month, if you know Russian once a week (for ex. weekend morning) go to our food markets (article on the left) and we recommend find for yourself a good local supermarket to maintain your needs during working days.