694 dobry den (is this right?)
So I haven’t actually gotten down to editing the rest of my Russia videos, but since I’m already accumulating a backlog with my holidays, here’s a photo post! To the best of my memory abilities, thankfully Yus & I sorted the albums on FB by cities instead of lumping them altogether haha. (Will probably skip Saint Petersburg since the video’s already done!)
Best part about staying at my aunt’s apartment (other than the fact that we stayed for free)? Location! It’s right near Arbatskaya which I guess is kinda like the Haji Lane of Moscow? Lotsa food, lotsa buskers (and lotsa very persistent people in onesies giving out flyers and grabbing onto you). And there was Shake Shack! Had my first Shake Shack and it was so fabulous omg. Anyway we also had a very wonderful first meal at My-My (pronounced mu-mu). It’s old-school Russian dining, like a cafeteria style which is actually very dangerous when you end up choosing so much food.
When we got back from St Pete’s, we spent about a week or so in Moscow. Headed to the Ismailovsky Market where they sell tons of old school trinkets and very Russian stuff. We had shashlik, and continued our quest for finding homemade kvas (which we didn’t succeed in and had to settle for canned). The market was really cool. It’s divided into a few sections so you have the main area where artisans are selling their wares; handpainted nesting dolls, wooden/metal crafts. And there’s another section dedicated to preloved goods, so it’s all these old Russian folks selling stuff from their homes! Clothes, little trinkets from the Cold War/World War eras, communist posters etc. And we also got to eat shashlik!
We also visited a shit-ton of museums. I kid you not. When I went back again in August 2017 I actually went to Tripadvisor to check out what sights to see and I realised we ticked off a lot the first time round haha. Anyway this was the Novodevichy Convent. It was created as a place of exile for one of the princesses (forgot which, there’s too many). Next door is the Novodevichy Cemetery which was actually really nice! Very peaceful and tranquil, and resting place of many famous people, including Boris Yeltsin!
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour! It was a gloomy day (actually I think everyday in Moscow was gloomy) and we couldn’t go in because they didn’t allow tourists (I think). According to Yus’ caption on FB it’s because it still serves as a working cathedral today!
And what’s Moscow without visiting the Red Square right? We actually went twice because on the first day, the queue to go see Lenin’s body in the mausoleum was too long! So we settled for just visiting the rest of the sights, like the Armoury, cathedrals, garden. The Ivan the Great Bell Tower was also closed (for construction) but silver lining because we managed to catch the changing of the guards! Was cool. Anyway all the pictures look really gloomy because #nofilter it really was gloomy weather almost throughout my Moscow trip! It even rained on the first day we were at Red Square. Anyway Red Square is really a must-go! Despite all the tourists that will inevitably get in your photo, it’s really a sight to behold. The Kremlin is just huge, there’s so many watchtowers (and some un-inspiringly named too) and somehow the gardens were still in full bloom despite it being early fall.
I think another really cool part of Moscow is actually their metro stations! It really puts Singapore’s MRT stops to shame. It’s one of the oldest metro systems in the world (I believe) and it’s really deep below because I think a lot of the stations also doubled up as bunkers during the wars. The escalator rides can take over 3 minutes and the metro still functions great. A train every 2 minutes, a lot of connecting stops, and their circle line is truly a circle. Also, the artwork! Each station is apparently designed with a different theme and there’s a shit-ton of art! Paintings, mosaics, statues, stained glass. We followed the Lonely Planet Guidebook’s Moscow metro tour and it was really interesting! Although I think we may have pissed off some locals because we’re blocking their way looking at the art.
Bolshoi ballet! Splurged on this and got the tier 1 tickets to watch the matinee premiere of Don Quixote! The ballet was good (can’t comment more because I’m not a ballerina) but the theatre was beautiful! So plush and decadent and wow.
And that marks the end of the Moscow segment haha. Lemme try and remember all the other places I went in the other smaller towns like Sergiev Posad and Vladimir!