Guess who's back!

Annnd I’m back. Sorry, I’ve been MIA for a while. Part of it was due to being away and eating and drinking way too much. The other part of it was because once you don’t write for a while, each subsequent day you don’t write, makes it harder and harder to jump back on the blogwagon. But, regardless of my absence, I am back!

So reason one for being away: eating and drinking too much! I was in Moscow with my mom and was actually on top of my blogging. But then I went to Hong Kong and things changed! My time was consumed with 5:30pm happy hours, scrumptious wines, and the deliciousness that is non-chinese food! All I can say about Hong Kong is that I came, I saw, I ate! J Well and we did some sight seeing too. O and I did some kicking ass in Pinochle even though it was my first time playing! Overall I had a great time with Brandon and his parents, Barry and Rhody. :) (Thanks for a wonderful time in Hong Kong!)

Hong Kong is a unique mix of rich and poor. You have fancy shiny skyscrapers, mixed with dull and dreary falling down apartment buildings. You have alley dwellers, and Ritz dwellers. You have 5 star Michelin food, and street food. In other words, you a little bit of everything. I enjoyed my time in Hong Kong and am looking forward to going back there. O except the passport control part. Apparently, my brand new fancy biometric passport is broken. Yup. I have a chip in my passport and Hong Kong officials told me (twice!) that it doesn’t work. My information has to be entered manually and I have to go to the little room with the official and overall it’s just a pain. Look forward to doing it again two more times. :/

Run down old buildings. They stick out sometimes.

Alley dwellers.

The rich skyline (and famous too)

Hong Kong's very own Walk of Stars. It's Jackie Chan!

Junks are adorable.

The old village of Tai O where the houses are on stilts! 

So freaking cool! But I wouldn't want to live here, ever!

Pana of Tai O

Pana of HK at night

Streets of HK

Dog cutely guarding the stall as the owner sets up.

Ladies' market setting up. Boy did we find some great steals here!

The boathouse restaurant right on the water at Stanley's Market. Yummy seafood!

Big Bus Tour around HK Island

Tram on Victoria's Peak!

Construction is everywhere in HK

Literally everywhere!

O and I forgot to mention! We met a wonderful lady, Xana, who lived in Macau for four years and offered us a personal tour around the old Macau. Obviously, we took her up on her offer and had a great experience roaming around Macau and buying Portuguese port/wine! (Macau used to be a Portuguese colony).

Cutest crab I ever ate!

Cute European looking street in Macau

Holiday time = soooo many freaking people!

MGM Casino Macau

Odds and ends

As always, when traveling you come across oddities and some very cool stuff.

First off there is the Moscow Metro. It was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union and it is currently the second most heavily used rapid transit system (after Tokyo). It is also famous for its decorated and very beautiful metro stops (unlike Chicago). I haven't taken many pictures, but I promise to take more from now on and I will add a few more pictures in a few days.

One stop with chandeliers 

Awesome carvings.

One with stained glass (and me!)

It's a loooooong way down/up. Sometimes as deep as 84 meters which makes Moscow the home of the second deepest station in the world. Also, it is the home of the longest escalators in Europe taking about 3 minutes ascend to the top.

Furthermore, there is an underground network connecting stations and different exits so you don't have to walk outside in the cold and you can do your shopping on the way. Kinda nice but kind of bad for impulse shopping. ;D

In the airport and around town, I came across these beauties.

Fresh squeezed OJ in the airport. Interesting....

Buy your own contacts... no prescription needed

And then there is Yeliseev's Grocery Store off of Tverskaya shopping street. It amazing upscale gourmet grocery shopping. It was originally the home of Russian Princess Zinaida Volkonskayause. It was renovated by Grigority Yeliseev in 1889 and is in amazing shape with its crystal chandeliers, stain glass windows, and ornately carved and decorated pillars. Pictures don't do it justice. It's one of those places that has to be seen. I stumbled on it by accident and when I walked in I was just in awe. First you see the beautiful decorations and only then do you realize that there is food. Coming from China, literally everything looked delicious, but looking closer I found caviar and delicious meats and fine chocolates. Definitely upscale. Below is my attempt at capturing this awesomeness.    

Fruits in the corner

Ceiling

Beers from all over the world.

Moskowing!

Busy busy busy! That's what I've been lately! So let's see, yesterday we headed off to the Kremlin and the Armory Museum. The museum had tons of cool stuff from massive carriages to dresses from the 18th century. No photos were allowed inside but this website did a good job of covering the highlights. It was a lot to take in and a lot to listen too (our tour guide was what I like to call a talker). It was a prettier day so I was able to take lots of pictures. Here are a few of them.

Inside the Kremlin. This is the Palace and the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Cathedral Square

Close up of the Palace

Cathedral of the Annunciation in Cathedral Square and its nine golden domes

Beautiful door

Broke bell. The broken part weighs 11 tons! Ouch!

Inside the Kremlin

Candy Land Castle!

I mean.... St Basil Cathedral

Red Square - Christmas version

More pics I left out.

So here are some left over pictures from Yaroslavl.

I couldn't help myself! heheh

Prettiness

One horse open sleigh ride!

Ultra adorable I-want-to-steal-you type of cottages

Sleigh and Santa!!!

Very tired girls on the bus

Detour to Moscow

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!