Amusing ourselves to death

If you8217;ve ever worn tight shoes, you8217;ll know that the relief you feel when you take them off is so akin to euphoria it leaves you dizzy. Imagine a whole capital city, hobbled for 72 years of communism, united in that sense of deliverance. Then try to imagine waking up after a night out in that city8230; Inky nightclub stamps in Cyrillic script brand8230; my hands8230; and my head reminds me why, even in binge Britain, we choose not to chase each glass of wine with a thimbleful of vodka.

8220;This city is a sick place,8221; shrugs Elena, the biggest party girl I know. She means sick in the LA sense of the word8230; so outlandishly hip8230; that it prompts only that most contrary of adjectives. Others may prefer to use the same word in its original meaning. My first night was gentle enough: dinner at Turandot a new pound;30 million restaurant built like an Italian palazzo, followed by two bars and three nightclubs8230; we arrived at a rave in an old factory where pornographic pop-art lined the walls and strobes bounced off eyeballs avid and dry from drugs. Two pound;25 drinks later and we were off again in search of transport. Nobody takes taxis in Moscow. Instead, they hail down any car that will take them: a Skoda, a Lada8230; courtesy of a dignitary8217;s chauffeur8230;

Culturally the capital is a frenzy of amorphous creativity, with one art form bleeding into another: bars are selling books, nightclubs sell clothes8230; I8217;ve spent all-nighters in New York and LA and been disappointed to discover only a forced8230; attempt at hedonism. Muscovites are suicidally serious about fun. But if this is New York, then it8217;s the New York of Brett Easton Ellis and Jay MacInerney, or the Chicago of the Twenties, where corruption and decadence8230; can be a heartbeat away from despair. 8220;As long as the oil prices stay the way they are,8221; sighs Troitsky, 8220;the lifestyle will continue. Politically we are in limbo, but for you guys, for visitors? It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit a capital that burns money.8221;

Excerpted from Celia Walden8217;s 8216;Is Moscow the new Big Apple?8217; in the London Telegraph