Moscow and Siberia

Subways are not something I generally get excited about, but I had heard so much about the Moscow metro, and it was all true. It's incredible. I have not waited two minutes for a train, which is incredible considering it's the most-used subway system in the world. I've read that eight million people use it daily, more than New York and London combined.

Don't believe me? Check this out.



You need the subway to get around because Moscow is huge. You can see most of St Petersburg by walking, but not Moscow. Whether you count the population of the municipality or the metropolitan area, Moscow is the largest city in Europe. Yes, bigger than both London and Paris. Good trivia question. Some Europeans I've met take issue with that. I think they don't consider Russia European.

Geographically speaking, the dividing line between Europe and Asia is the Ural Mountains, in Russia. Moscow and St Petersburg are in Europe, while the vast majority of Russia is in Asia.

In fact, though there are different definitions of what Siberia is, historically it has been considered to be everything to the east of the Urals. So while Siberia brings to mind images of wintry landscapes, the territory extends to Russia's southern borders with Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, etc. And it can get quite hot.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere is in Siberia: -96 degrees Fahrenheit. And people live there. (Check out the book "The Reindeer People" by Piers Vitebsky.) During the summer the temperature, in that same area, can get into the mid-80s. Which means that the temperature difference there can be greater than the difference between boiling water and ice!