Tired of baking under the searing sun, Moscow residents have come up with a novel approach to staying cool in the roasting heat.
Ice skating might not be the first summer activity to come to mind, but at the Evropeisky skating rink next to Metro Kievskaya, the owners have been getting far more people through the doors than usual.
“More people are coming to the skating rink – especially after a working day, at about seven or eight o’clock in the evening,” Tatyana Romanova, administrator at Evropeisky Skating Rink, told RT. “There are a lot more people at weekends too. Some people go to the countryside to take a swim – or to their dachas. But the ones who don’t have a dacha come to the skating rink.”
The summer sun is even bringing people back to the ice rink who have not done it in years.
“I haven’t been skating for 35 years, but now I feel like being a kid again, and it really feels like winter,” one Muscovite told RT. “I just suddenly wanted to remember my childhood. It turns out my legs remember these skills. And heat had a lot to do with my decision to go skating. It’s very nice and comfortable here.”
For those looking for a more extreme way of cooling down, there is the Snezhcom – the giant indoor ski slope about 40 minutes drive outside the center.
The over-40-degree difference in temperature from inside to out brings a taste of winter to Muscovites in the middle of summer. Ski and snowboard enthusiasts say there is very little difference between the artificial snow and the real white stuff.
“We are getting ready for winter which is coming soon. The snow is great. It’s a little wet, but it’s fine if you put wax on your board,” snowboarders told RT.
Like the ice rink, the slope has also seen an increase in interest this summer.
“We've seen an increase in visitors during the recent weeks,” Anna Borisova, snowboard and ski Instructor at Snezhcom, told RT. “People miss winter and snow. People are here even at midnight.”
Meanwhile, a new all-time temperature record has been set in Moscow.
It is the tenth time this month that the capital has broken its absolute temperature record.
Temperatures in St. Petersburg have also reached an all time high – but while Petersburg residents enjoy a cool coastal breeze, Muscovites are choking on smoke from peat bog fires.
RT
