MOSCOW, A BUCKET LIST DESTINATION

We had two kinds of reactions when people found out we were going to Russia.
1) “Aaahhh WOW!!! You are gonna love it” – those who have been.
2) “Why Russia?” or “That’s a random destination” – those who have no idea.

In my previous post “Intro to Moscow“, I mentioned how we came about deciding on Moscow. It was never a tick we needed on our bucket list, but in retrospect, I don’t understand why not? Why don’t more people put that rather high on their list?

Some of Julia’s facts about Russia.

Julia was our tour guide for one day and would recommend her any day. She could be found on Tripadvisor, although we found her through Airbnb experiences.

She had more information than we could ever remember or recollect and it would be wrong not to mention some of the facts that we were able to remember.

Due to the war, Russia has more women than men, even today. For this reason, there is no sex discrimination, as the women had to step into both male and female roles.
During the war (before the days of GPS) they would cover all of their buildings with a kind of coth that all had the same picture of a building. Covering was done so they could try to hide and protect their most important building from plane bombings. This was obviously not foolproof, and some were still bombed regardless.
Despite what people may think. Russians are very religious and superstitious.

From here on, I would highlight some of Julia’s facts (JF) as I discuss the landmarks in more detail.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Although the cathedral looks and feels as if it is hundreds of years old, it’s unfortunately not the case. Stalin ordered the original cathedral to be destroyed in 1931. After the destruction, the foundation started to flood, and in 1958 it was transformed into an open-air swimming pool. The cathedral was rebuilt and consecrated on 19 August 2000.

The interior is absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful, but taking photos is however prohibited. On the outside, the architecture does not disappoint but there was quite a bit of construction.

This was also the spot where we were able to take a selfie with Julia.

Eliseevsky Grocery store.

The Eliseevsky store originally opened in 1901. It’s your regular supermarket, with the usual groceries, fruit & veg, a fairly good liquor department, and a few other odds and ends, except, it’s not. You immediately wonder whether you have entered into a palace or a store. The ceilings are high with handpainted art and portraits, big arches with golden detail, and huge crystal chandeliers.

Red Square.

Quick Russian lesson:

English – Russian
Beautiful – Krasivyy
Red – Krasnyy

As soon as we arrived at Red Square, we thought we knew exactly where its name came from. I mean it’s obvious… The color of the stone used for a few of the buildings has an overpowering reddish pigment to it. Our quick Russian lesson shows us, how close those two word’s spelling is. The name thus actually started out as beautiful and over time, with translation it became red.

The main sights surrounding the square are:

Lenin’s Tomb
Kremlin
St Basil’s Cathedral
GUM department store
Kazan Cathedral
State Historical Museum

We absolutely adored the Red Square and lost count of the number of times we went there. Although we never entered any of the buildings except for GUM, it just kept taking our breath away. I even got T out of bed early enough to try and catch the sunrise one very cold morning (although soooooo worth it).

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

T is quite clued up on the war history, whereas me, it just never tickled my interest that much. Visiting Moscow definitely changes that.

The tomb of the unknown soldier (located at the Kremlin Wall) is a memorial dedicated to all the soviet soldiers that passed away during WWII. It has an eternal flame, and on every hour there’s a changing of the guards.

Julia ensured we had a front-row view of this synchronized ritual. I was amazed at how motionless those guards stood there for an hour in sub-zero degrees, while I was jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean trying to warm up.

GUM.

Although GUM originally was a universal department store. Today it is an exclusive mall with some of the most luxurious brands available. We have become somewhat of snobs when it comes to malls, being from Dubai. GUM however still managed to blow our minds.

For their New Year Fair, the decor celebrated the 55th anniversary of a children’s program “Good Night, Kids”. A colorful collection of satellites, rockets, and stars turned every visitor into his or her own version of a cosmonaut.

Christmas Tree Collection.

As part of the New Year Fair, every store got a Christmas tree to decorate, as a resemblance to their store or brand. Sadly we didn’t have the amount of time, to appreciate every single one. In the center of the mall, the GUM New Year Tree stood high, with decorations to fit the “Good Night, Kids” theme.

They also have the most beautiful Christmas decorations I have ever seen.

Vdnk.

Our last stop with Julia was Vdnk. Vdnk is also known as VVC is an Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, which includes more than 500 permanent fixtures. She definitely left the best for last in our opinion. Sadly, we never managed to explore the entire park, and can’t wait to go back in a summer month to explore further.

Although we might seem too lazy to cover the entire site, it’s actually more a case of we ran out of time. *JF: It is six times the size of Central Park in the USA*.

There are numerous pavilions, each of a geographical region of the Soviet Union. Apart from that, there’s a wooden walkway in a fairytale-like wood, numerous fountains (obviously empty for winter), and last but not least they transform the center part of it into a winter wonderland over Christmas. In the center, they create the largest outdoor ice rink in the whole of Europe and Russia. The ice-rink is approximately 20 000 square meters, and able to accommodate around 4000 skaters.

With the help of all the Christmas lights and music and snow falling, this winter wonderland turned into probably my most romantic destinations and walks.

Space Pavilion.

One of the many pavilions in Vdnk was the space pavilion. It did take us about two or three tries, but we eventually managed to explore the inside on our last afternoon/evening.

The inside is museum-like entirely dedicated to space. The little geek in my husband made him feel like a kid in a candy store. They even have a 1:1 scale of a space station.

Food.

Let’s take a quick break from all the sightseeing, to talk about the food. I think we only ate at a typical Russian restaurant once or maybe twice, so maybe our finding/opinion isn’t 100% accurate, but for us, the food was pretty bland. We thus rather stuck to some home cooking, bakeries, or international pubs and restaurants.

Having said that, we did stumble upon a gem…

Tvrandot.

Friends of us, Marc and Janke (whom we missed dearly on this trip), came to Moscow in 2018. They gave us quite a few recommendations of places to see and eat. One of these places was NOT Tvrandot. In fact, they actually pointed us to a place next to it, but we misunderstood and got it wrong.

This turned out to be one of our most spectacular mistakes ever… At every restaurant, they have a cloakroom (obvious) for your heaps of winter clothing you take off once entering a building. This cloakroom was down one or two floors. Our first hint should have been the stunning wooden crafted staircase, the second, the guy who took our attire was in a tux. At this point, we were kinda beyond the point of no return. As they took us to the dining room, we immediately felt completely underdressed, and dumbstruck.

We were gonna eat in what felt like a palace. We soon realized that it was a proper fine dining experience that we stumbled upon. The service was immaculate, en the food pretty and yummy. Luckily for us paying in Dihrams, it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg.

Even the restrooms were something to see.

Izmailovsky Market.

After a day in Moscow, we realized that regular clothing will not cut it. We did try and come prepared and would say that we were about 97% there. The one thing that we definitely needed improvement on was our head. The basic beanie was just not warm enough and we soon realized that fur was the way to go.

Julia pointed us to the Izmailovsky market since we did not have enough time with her. The building itself is colorful and impressive.

Once we entered there were a few small shops and one or two food-related kiosks selling amongst other steaming and fruity gluhwein.

The next part of the market is all the secondhand “treasures” or in my opinion junk. You can find anything from an old pair of shoes to teaspoon, roadside sign and so much more. This was not our cup of tea, but eventually found what we were looking for. All the locals had brought their specialty of curios to the table. Although hackling is advisable, we rarely do. Here we got hold of our fur Russian hats and did most of our curio shopping.

Moscow Metro Stations.

The train was our main form of transport like in many other cities. Metro in Russia is also very affordable ₽35 (around US$0.50 at the time) per trip, regardless of the distance. The only difference is, it’s not only a form of transport.

JF: During WWII, metro stations also served as bomb shelters, and 213 babies were born down there.
Stalin started a competition on who had the prettiest station, and as a result, have some of the most beautiful stations in the world.

On day four of our trip, we struggled quite a bit with the cold. The reel-feel temperature was around -11’C in the middle of the day. After our usual mid-day rest at the apartment, and not feeling like facing much of the cold, we decided on going on a metro tour. In peak hours, there’s a train every minute, making it very easy to jump off at every station, and back again onto the next. I would like to add that I wish we took more time to experience more stations.

Only while prepping for my blog post did I realized that we never stopped to take a photo at Mendeleyevskaya station (The station with the famous statues of the stray dog). I have to add to that, it’s quite a busy station and I think we kept on thinking we’ll take a photo next time. All of these dog’s noses are so shiny and starting to lose its shape, as everybody walking pass rubs its nose to make a wish or for good luck.

Every station had it’s own charm and uniqueness to it. Some had large chandeliers, others had mosaic, or hand paintings, big arches, and the most incredible detail. To add to this, it’s absolutely sparkling clean, with no littering.

Our favorite had to have been Novoslobodskaya with the most amazing stained glass panels that are being lit from behind.

Bolshoi Theatre.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go see a live performance in the Bolshoi theatre but did manage the next best thing. We got to go on a tour. They only recently started doing the tours, to try and generate a bit more income.

Bolshoi is the biggest ballet academy in the world with about 200 ballerinas. The theatre itself is three months older than the USA and had to be rebuilt three times.

I’m struggling to put into words what we felt and what we saw once we entered, we didn’t know where to look. All the velvet red curtains, the big crystal chandelier, painted ceiling and gold detail (all covered in real gold) just took our breath away. Even the stage which runs at a 5-degree angle and its curtain was something spectacular. We soon understood why the Tzar’s coronations were held there. Lastly, we were privileged enough to see a prima ballerina practice for the show that evening.

Snow.

We were fortunate enough to have seen our first snow earlier this year in Lichtenstein and Austria, but this was different. Here we lived and travel in the snow. We saw a perfect little snowflake fall on T’s black hat and gloves and experienced snowflake-kisses on our face as we walked outside during a snowfall.

Moscow, our favorite city.

We have really had an amazing travel year and ended it on an absolute high. During our travels, we usually were drawn more to the countryside since there were fewer people and tourists, and more nature.

Moscow still had loads of people (a lot fewer tourists though), a little less nature, and lots of buildings but it definitely won our favorite city of this year. The buildings were spectacular, parks impressive, and people (contrary to popular believe) very pleasant.

We can not wait to come back and see the winter wonderland city transform for the summer months, and even see more of Russia outside of Moscow. I would definitely take more photos and live right in the center of the city.

We started 2019 with only one trip planned and ended up being blessed with having to see five new countries. What a year it’s been! For 2020 we had high expectations and a Bali trip planned for May. Sadly as I’m writing this (in self-isolation), we have decided to cancel that trip due to the Corona-virus. Until our next adventure, we will be spending some quality time in our den.