So after just about 24 hours of travel (5.5 hours on a train
to Beijing, 8 hours hanging out in Beijing, 7.5 hour flight to Moscow, and 2
hours of travel to Moscow downtown because I was deliriously tired), I finally
made it to Moscow! I checked in to my hostel, took my sleeping mask that I got
on my flight, and passed out for 4 hours. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready
to face the city. I had about 8 hours until my mom’s flight arrived so I went
to explore a bit and get some delicious Russian food. Oddly enough, I ended up
at a sushi restaurant but hey, don’t judge! Also, I ended up, unknowingly,
walking by and seeing some of Moscow’s most famous sites including Red Square,
the Kremlin, this fancy grocery store, Pushkin Park, and Moscow’s equivalent of
Michigan Ave, Tverskaya. Oops, my bad! :O
Old clunker train that takes you to downtown Moscow from airport.
Pushkin Square
Red Square
Fabulous grocery store. I got some cheese!!
The next day we all woke up jetlagged and disoriented and
headed off to Yaroslavl, one of Russia’s oldest historically preserved towns.
We did some touring and some eating and we stayed at pretty much the cutest
hotel in the world! The second day in Yaroslavl we went to see a children’s
play of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Even though it was in Russian (mom
translated a bit for me) the story was pretty self explanatory and it was just
beyond adorable. I’m sad kids in America don’t get to experience such
treasures. O and to top it off, all of us got a present: a huge box full of candy!
Russia is awesome! After our play, we headed off to sleigh rides! We got driven
around an adorable neighborhood full of cutesy houses. Dream come true. Ride in
a one horse open sleigh…check! And last but not least, we ended the day with
going to a matrioshka workshop. Matrioshkas are those Russian dolls that have
one inside the other. Anyways, we met a matrioshka master and we got to paint
our own. Let’s just say that our dolls were just fabulous! Hahah
Sitting in the theater waiting
The seven dwarfs in Hello Kitty pajamas
Santa Claus comes and saves the day. I think this was Snow White holiday edition...
Snow White and her Prince
Ice fishing. Our hotel was on the river so this was the view from our balcony.
Checking in
Our hotel
Famous monument on the 1000 bill
At the icon museum in the monastery
Cute church
Handmade statuettes
More beautiful churches
Locks of love
View of two rivers meeting.
Famous statue and beautiful church
Calling Santa!!!!
Our painted matrioshkas!
And last but not least, today we took a bus tour around
Moscow. It was a cloudy and rainy so I didn’t take many pictures. And since we
are going back to Red Square tomorrow, I’ll try taking pictures again!
So overall Moscow is ultra great! I had no idea what to
expect but this place is seriously cool. The food is heavenly, the architecture
is so different from anything I’ve ever seen, and all the activities we have
planned are so fun. The people could be a bit friendlier and it would be fun to
speak the language, but I get buy. Moscow rock on!
