Moscow on the cheap

Boasting posh restaurants, luxury boutiques and a flock of millionaires who indulge in them, Moscow is considered one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Just take a walk through the rows of Range Rovers and Bentleys parked behind the Bolshoi Theatre and you’ll understand why this is the city that hosts the conspicuously named Millionaire Fair.

Yet behind this facade live most of Moscow’s 10.5 million inhabitants -- the IKEA-shopping, subway-traveling middle-class residents who like indie theaters and smoky, underground cafes.

As a proud member of this class and a former resident of the Russian capital, I set my entertainment budget at $20 a day and not a ruble more, on a recent trip back to the motherland. In the three weeks I spent here, I never found the budget limiting. With all its parks, churches, galleries and art cafes, Moscow offers plenty of entertainment that’s both affordable and a great way to experience life in this heaving city.

For getting around to my favorite spots, I relied on the Moscow Metro, which also serves as a great shelter from the varied Russian weather. It’s cool on hot summer days, warm on freezing winter nights and dry during torrential spring thunderstorms.

But the Metro, which opened in 1935, is a cultural attraction tourists often ignore. Many of the central stations sport neoclassical architecture, sculptures of Soviet soldiers, mosaics and Art Deco chandeliers.

My first order of business after catching up on sleep after a long transatlantic flight was to take the Metro’s green line to Tsaritsyno station, on the southern outskirts of Moscow where I grew up. I wanted to see the newly restored Tsaritsyno Park, which in the old days was a neighborhood park meant mostly for local families coming to ski the small slopes, feed the squirrels, go boating and climb the brick ruins of an 18th century palace.

But since the Gothic palace, commissioned by Catherine the Great and left unfinished after her death in 1796, was restored two years ago, Tsaritsyno has become a popular destination for Muscovites looking for a refuge from the hum of the city.

I hardly recognized the park, with its new gilded gate, musical fountain and the restored palace, which now houses a museum, where for a $3 admission, visitors can see Russian artifacts.

For a nature spot closer to the city center, I especially like Patriarshy Pond. Surrounded by tree-shaded benches and sculptures, the pond is in a quiet square right off the 10-lane Sadovoe Koltso, which reminds one why Moscow, when not plagued by traffic, was once called the Third Rome.

The pond, which doubles as an ice rink in the winter, was popularized by writer Mikhail Bulgakov, whose 1930s novel, “The Master and Margarita,” wasn’t published in the Soviet Union until the ‘60s. Literary clubs often host Bulgakov events and tours around the Patriarshy neighborhood, but I like coming here for the white swan couple that lives in a small hut on the water.

This neighborhood is also a major destination for theatergoers and music lovers, housing several popular theaters and concert halls clustered around the Mayakovskaya Metro station.

About 20 minutes from Patriarshy is Chaikhona No. 1, an Uzbek tea house set in a small park, Hermitage Garden, near another pond that also doubles as a popular ice rink in winter. My friends chose Chaikhona for its reasonably priced Uzbek pilaf, an expansive tea selection and milk-based hookahs. Although the giant portrait of Vladimir Putin inside the restaurant was not on the list of pluses, I still found it amusing.

Moscow offers plenty of variety in its night life. The city has ex- perienced a cultural revival that has brought in many new galleries, music clubs and performance centers.

Many of these spaces combine several forms of entertainment under one roof. For example, Project O.G.I., in the trendy Chistye Prudy neighborhood, is simultaneously a club, bookstore and restaurant. It’s a favorite among those who appreciate affordable Russian food, live bands and a selection of the latest novels by Haruki Murakami and Viktor Pelevin.

Project Fabrika is a cultural hybrid on a bigger scale. This recently opened center in northeastern Moscow includes several exhibition halls and a performance space. For less than $15, you can choose from international DJ festivals, video installations or animation weekends for children.

For contemporary Russian art, I like Winzavod, converted from an old wine factory. This 200,000-square-foot art complex behind the Kursky train station includes contemporary art and photo galleries, artist studios, a café and a bookstore. Admission to Winzavod and its galleries is free.

As the Soviet era retreats deeper into the past, the city is also beginning to embrace Russian traditions. In the last decade, the Moscow government has restored many Orthodox churches that were destroyed or used for secular purposes during the Soviet era.

Although some, such as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the Moscow River, are destinations of their own, I came across many smaller onion-domed jewels just by walking around the city.

Returning from lunch near Tretyakovskaya station, home to the famed Tretyakovskaya Gallery, I stumbled upon a gorgeous black-and-white monastery. Although I couldn’t go in because it was closed, I enjoyed taking pictures of the empty church courtyards.

Moscow also abounds in uniquely Russian leisure options. One of the most unusual is the Fishing Village, an entertainment complex near the VDNH Metro station with a restaurant, pool, sauna, paint ball games and year-round “guaranteed fishing” pond where locals come to catch giant sturgeon and have them prepared on the spot. In the winter, the Fishing Village offers ice fishing.

When I left after a satisfying three-week trip, Russia -- with its passionate people and lovely idiosyncrasies -- just didn’t seem to want to leave me. On my transatlantic flight back to the U.S., I sat next to a pudgy Russian Baptist minister who told me about a plane crash video he had seen. After a short pause, he asked, “Do you ever think about the afterlife?”

All this and heaven too.

travel@latimes.com