Center for International Education. National Research University - Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Moscow is enormous and the pace of life hectic but efficient public transportation, basic understanding of the language and the wide range of cultural and not-so-cultural events make it interesting and contrastive city. As one popular very Moscow-a-like techno song goes “Moscow never sleeps”.

When it comes to the living costs, the contrasts continue. Moscow has been many times ranked as the most expensive capital in the world, which may be true if you can’t bear a day without Mövenpick ice cream (30 euros a can in my corner store) but when sticking to the local products, the price level should be equal to home, if not less.

Accommodation costs would normally set you back unbearable amounts but the rents in the dormitories provided by HSE have luckily missed the entire pre-soviet inflation. Thus, necessities of life should be always secured since local beer and pelmenis are also a bargain. Gastronomic heavens such as Krushka are also worth a visit.

Eero Lamminen, Turku School of Economics