Top 5 Reasons Why I Left Moscow

 

Five years ago I left my home town and moved to Moscow. Why? I was offered a nice job. And besides, 2 things had happened just before that. First, my then-current employer went bankrupt and I lost the job I loved so much, and second, I had just applied for a mortgage for my apartment. I guess you understand that my decision was mostly driven by these 2 factors.

It’s worth mentioning that my hometown is a 3 hours ride, and during the first year, I was able to visit every weekend. Though, it got rarer as time passed.

But, getting back to my life in Moscow. For the first 6 months, I rented an apartment in the suburbs along with my friend and her brother. We shared a 2-bedroom apartment (we shareв one room with my friend, and I had to sleep on a mattress on the floor). And it took me 2 hours to get to work. One way. I spent 4 hours a day en route. That was too much. And 6 months later we all agreed we needed to move closer to the city center. And so we did. The two of us. My friend’s brother didn’t move with us.

I’m not going to share the cost of living and how the apartment looked like, - I'd better do it in a separate video on apartments and cost of living. But today, I’ll stick to the topic of this video: why I finally left.

So, we lived in the city center. It was a 20 min walk to Red Square, and we got everything we needed: shops, entertainment, subway, good jobs and all that. In 3.5 years I paid off my mortgage and stayed for another 1.5 year to save some money. And I left Moscow about a month ago.

Why? Well, there are a number of reasons.

 

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But before I begin, I want you to know that it’s only my experience and my opinion, purely subjective and I do not insist everyone feels or experiences the same, be it in Moscow or in any other city, and in any other country.

Ok. I’ve chosen the top 5 reasons why I left Moscow and let’s get started. By the way, you can not only read it, but watch this on YouTube.

The overcrowding

Every day I walked down to the subway to get to the office or meet with my friends or visit one place or another. Have you seen the Moscow subway in the rush hours? Let me show you. And that sound. Our subway is really noisy.

And it’s not the only point. Everyday you see thousands of faces, of people you’ll never see again. They pass by. And the feeling is, “STOP”. That’s how I felt lately. Just stop. But the point was, I was one of those people. Rushing around, living my life too fast. But what was the point?

The neverending construction works

Yeah, it’s everywhere and it’s all year round. You might not notice it when you are a tourist. But when you live there, it shows. The subway stations are under construction and the routes may change for like half a year. The road construction works are permanent. The pavement upgrades, the buildings renovations. And yeah, I want to remind you that I lived in the center of the city, not in those new districts where building the infrastructure is a permanent thing.

And sometimes, you just want to enjoy the view, to enjoy the sound of the city. Not the sound of a jackhammer, right?

Fatigue

According to WebMD, Fatigue is a daily lack of energy; unusual or excessive whole-body tiredness not relieved by sleep. And that’s what happened to me. I got really tired of the rhythm of life I had. I mean, objectively, life is different in a big city, in a town or in the countryside no matter who you are. Of course, it depends on what you do and who you are, and lots of circumstances. And yet, generally speaking, it’s different.

So, the fatigue. At first, there was nothing special. I just began to feel tired. But it turned into health problems, those of neurological nature. I visited my neurologist 4 times during the last year. Me, who got ill last time when at school.. So, it was not ok for me: my sleep was bad, I felt tired no matter what I did: be it sports or yoga, just doing nothing or doing relaxation sessions. What helped me a bit was reiki. I learned the technique and got a Master’s certificate. So I practiced on myself. It helped a bit.

But my overall condition was not the best. What I clearly understood is that it was not about my body activity or sleep or eating habits (which are quite healthy). It was about my mental state that affected my body. So, it was obvious to me that I have to change my lifestyle. And the first step to it is to quit my job and have some time on my own.

The cost of living

Despite all the things I didn’t like, there was still an option to stay. To quit my job, to have a rest and decide what to do next. Unless.. Unless the cost of living is quite high in Moscow.

So, if you don’t have your own apartment there, and want to leave your job and just have a rest for a while or find yourself, you still have to pay your rent. Though my salary was much higher than average, as I worked in the IT industry in the top position, it was still not an option to stay in the city without having a job.

Just to give you some numbers. The average rent fair is around $800, for the not-so-bad one-bedroom apartment or a studio. Plus, the utility bills. That makes it $1000 a month. It made no sense to me as I had my own apartment in my hometown, where I don’t have to pay any rent, just utility bills.

And the final reason

The final reason I decided to leave Moscow is that the concept of HOW I want to live my life has finally formed in my mind. Maybe that was one of the reasons I felt fatigued. That’s because the way of life I had in my mind mismatched the way of life I had in reality.

Getting back to the concept formed in my mind. It’s the Everyday Aesthetics concept. I’ll expand on the topic in my next videos.

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These are my five reasons I left Moscow for my hometown. Let me know if it somehow resonates with what you or people close to you have felt or experienced. I would be glad to hear any thoughts on where and how you live and whether you feel it’s the right way.