With an iPhone at his side, tech journalist Mike Haney explores streets less traveled without the fear of getting lost

Q: How difficult was Moscow (to navigate?
A: Fairly easy. Moscow's signage (is clear and consistent: As long as (I knew what I was looking for and successfully matched the Cyrillic (letters on my map to those on (the signs, I moved quickly to my (destination.

Q: Most useful iPhone features and/or applications?
A: Google Maps, above all, even if (it did occasionally deposit me half a block from where I needed to be. The highlights: being able to bookmark the day's destinations, walking directions that load quickly, and the little moving pin representing me that lets me see in real time if I'm headed in the right direction. Safari was also a lifesaver: Knowing that I could pull up any Web page I wanted offered me plenty of peace of mind when I was lost (both literally and figuratively) and needed to surf my way back on track. Finally, there's the App Store, where I found an indispensable Moscow metro map and several English-Russian (dictionaries and phrase books. The dictionary I most often turned (to is from PlanetDrives ($5), and (I used it primarily to help me (navigate menus, a sine qua non in my case—I'm allergic to potatoes, which was like being allergic to (rice in China. I'd scan every menu for items without the Cyrillic word for potato, which worked beautifully for most meals—except the time (I ordered Bavarian sausage and it came with fries.

Q: Least useful applications?
A: The hotel apps Simultravel and HotelRadar caused me more grief than anything. When I fired up both of them and Hotel.com's mobile app in the hotel lobby, only Hotels.com immediately recognized that I was in Moscow. The apps I use frequently at home, including AroundMe and Urbanspoon, don't cover Russia.

Q: Biggest disappointment?
A: The city's ubiquitous EDGE connection—the last-gen cellular data network that's about as fast as dial-up. (It frequently left me yelling "C'mon!" at the screen while shivering on a street corner.

Q: Biggest victory?
A: Even with AT&T's discount international calling plan, calls are $4 a minute, so I tried Fring, an app that routes calls over the Internet (the hotel has Wi-Fi) for just a few cents per minute against a prepaid account. I called Mom and got her voice mail, but it was crystal clear and didn't cost me a dime.

Q: When did you turn to locals for guidance?
A: Almost never, both out of a natural social aversion and to keep the experiment pure. One exception: the gruff young policeman to whom I said meekly, "Kremlin?" His grunted Russian reply and directional gesture put me on the right path and saved me more wandering around Red Square.

Q: Trip low point?
A: When I began my search for a new hotel, I saw nothing but Cyrillic signs. I realized that I could be staring at the hotel I was looking for but wouldn't recognize it. Paranoid that cops would instantly appear and ask for my hotel registration (which I had heard was common), I kept moving in search of a café with Wi-Fi access. After an hour, I sat on a park bench, determined not to move until the weak signal yielded me a hotel reservation. Twenty minutes later, my fingers were frozen (the iPhone- can't read a touch through a glove) and I was pulling the final watts off the last juice in my backup battery pack, still homeless.