From Russia with Love: Diary 2

Welcome to my travel diaries from my Russian travels in Dec-Jan 2018! These seven posts are a collection of photos and memories from the trip! To start from Diary 1 click here :)

To see photos enlarged, click on them and they will open in a pop-up and you can continue clicking through the gallery until it's finished! [P.S. I would recommend reading and scrolling on a desktop computer because images are larger and the webpage itself is more functional]

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy <3

Thursday 14 December

{ 17:04 Tokyo time }

Pretty chill day today since all we had time for was breakfast, pack and airport.

In duty free we bought a bunch of chocolates and candies, and now I have my eye on Clinique make-up because it is about $20 cheaper than Aus! Well, on the way back I guess.

Currently about 4ish hours into our 10 hour flight! I just finished watching Wonder Woman and cried three times. I’ve actually forgotten what an amazing movie it is. All the fighting scenes with Gal Gadot, her emotions and expressions are absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. SPOILER ALERT: when she screams for Steve it just stops my heart. I’m being emotional.

TIME ZONE THING HAPPENING

Landing took ages

Great hotel room, Soviet-era style but very spacious. Plus it's called President Hotel and has a bunch of security measures. We're definitely foreign dignitaries.

Friday 15 December

First day in Mauscau!!!

Walked to Christ the Saviour church which was absolutely stunning and so beautiful.

Then to the Library of Lenin that had a huge christmas tree right outside.

We walked past the Kremlin entrance to go to ohotni ryad, which is an enormous underground shopping centre right in the middle of Moscow. Of course we went into Zara!

I loved the sparkly shoes but I told myself that I didn’t need another pair of boots [in actual fact there were none my size but :(

Lunch at My-My which is a chain cafeteria which is super super cheap. If I was a broke student in Russia, I would totally eat there every day.

We journeyed on to the Red Square at it was absolutely amazing - GUM (high end shopping centre) was covered in christmas lights. Right on the square there was a huge ice rink and so many cute christmas markets.

Saw Lenin's mausoleum (but didn't go in), the Red Church and St Basil's Cathedral.

An American tourist asked Tonia to take a photo for him in front of the church. Keep that in mind...

We walked through GUM and had the traditional Eskimo ice cream!

The pedestrian street just outside was strung with beautiful lights everywhere! We walked through an alleyway with heaps of luxe shops like Tom Ford and Max Mara.

We saw Valentino on the corner and had to walk in because it's Tonia's favourite. We kind of pretended to be English for some reason but didn’t last last long ahahaha.

Then finally when we were walking down that street, I finally saw the Bolshoi with ma own eyes. I couldn't believe it. It was literally a ballet childhood dream come true :')

Gallery of the day :

Stayed in the apartment while the parents were meeting with a client for a really late dinner. I tried to soak up the view from the window, while I was eating a sandwich for dinner, because it was absolutely magical. The river with the huge statue of Peter the Great, is PHENOMENAL.

Saturday 16 December

{ 16:11 }

We are on the train to St Petersburg, feeling a little like Anna Karenina. There’s so much white outside the window. The pine trees are covered in snow and it’s so beautiful. I have realised that snow-covered trees are my favourite thing in the world. The branches are lightly dusted in white and the landscape looks like it's been pulled out of a fairytale.

It’s already getting dark.

This morning was very calm. Although I had a hard time waking up with a heavy head (kind of like a hangover but not because I've never had one), got ready and had breakfast. The buffet breakfast we had was so Russian - blini, cirniki, kotleti.

Afterwards, the parents went to check out an apartment for when we get back to Moscow after Kazan, and Toni and I packed and walked around Gorky park. Super interesting sculptures and just awe at the huge Peter the Great statue.

After that it was to the train station and train.

We’ve had so much food. We each get 2000 rubles each included in the train ticket as food allowance, so $40AUD. So much food!!! I got a salad, salmon, blini with condensed milk and tea yuuuum.

Another hour on the train I think and then St Petersburg.

Actually also feeling like Anastasia. 🏰

{ 23:33 }

I should be sleeping now but I really feel like catching up on this. In hindsight there’s so much editing to do to this when we get back. After getting off the train, we walked around the back of the station for some reason and waited for 15 mins in the windy cold outside for a taxi to arrive.

We got to the apartment and waited another 10 minutes for the host to open the apartment for us.

Let me be honest when I say the stairs and outside of the apartment block did not look inviting or clean. But when inside, it was so nice I wanted to cry it was so nice.

2 bedrooms, 1 fold out couch and so modern! After getting acquainted with the apartment we went to meet with mamas friend and babysit their 5 year olds.

If I was tired when I got there, coming back home I was dead.

It’s so hard to get little kids to bed, we were struggling for 2 hours. They kept talking and laughing it was a nightmare! Finally I said that if you sleep your parents will get home quicker. It actually worked and all was quiet from 10:30 for 5 minutes until the parents actually came.

Phew.

Walked 4 minutes back to our apartment, had a cup of tea, moisturised my dry face and NOW TO BED.

Sunday 18 December

The mornings are so dark until 9am so there is absolutely no desire to start the day early.

Walked to Hermitage

Saw the Atlanti

Did a circle of the main street of St P.

Slipped on the ice

Saw the river and the bridges that open to let large ships through

We all went shopping to find the little girls some dresses! First we went to TSUM (another high end shopping centre, like Myer but with clothes from Chanel, YSL, Elie Saab, Burberry etc). So we found nothing there, then we went to Gostinyi dvor and found really cute ones :) They both fell in love with the same dress!

A mascot on the street hugged mama. There are sooo many randoms on the street handing out flyers, hugs discounts. Eeeek.

We wanted to have lunch at Zinger's bookstore café but it was so full. All of us were so starving!

Real hungry. We found what seemed like a cute little cafe, but it turned out to be a multi-level lunch and dinner serving restaurant but still reasonable prices, and amazing presentation and decor. Cafe Biblioteka.

I got a Ramen (in Russia ahahaha) and dessert to share. Everything tasted soooo good.

They also had a tea sommelier on hand to help us decide what tea we wanted because that was the cafe's main speciality.

The guy helping us decide from a list of 100 different teas - "Would you like Earl Grey?"

:')

{ 15:06 }

I’m so tired after half a day of walking around and I want to sleep. But I know that I wont be able to.

Once again, not a super busy day, but tiring.

Music concert at the Mariinsky Concert Hall!

I was actually falling asleep during the first half. I was struggling with myself to keep my eyes open.

Had coffee in the intermission, but it didn't help with my sleepiness.

I noticed how everyone's shoes were super not colourful, unlike my flowery boots, so that is definitely something to take note of for the future...

Crazy taxi driver home. As in getting out of the car and shouting at someone in another car to move. Wow.

Tonia was getting her hair done in the meantime. Took a super long time and we were all sitting in the waiting room for another half an hour after the concert. It turned out more green than the dark blue we all expected but Toni was so happy :)

19 December Monday

{ 20:28 }

A long day it has been.

Morning was chill.

I slept in the bed this time so it was much comfier. I woke up weirdly for some reason and I was so worried that I woke up at 5:30 again and didn’t want to check the time, and wanted to go back to sleep. In the end, I checked and it was 7:45 so I was extremely relieved.

For breakfast fried eggs, sausage, bread and a glass of water.

After getting ready we went for a walk to the иссаевский собор which was amazing. From the outside it is massive and does not hint at the luxurious gold decor inside the church.

So remember how in Moscow, a guy asked Tonia to take a photo of him in front of St Basil's cathedral? Ok. Cool.

Fast forward to today, and we see someone that looks very much like that guy. In the same hat and coat. There's no way it could be him right? Two different cities, visiting the same monuments on the same day? NUP ITS DEFINITELY THE GUY. ITS THE HAT AND THE COAT AND THE SAME GUY.

How weird is that? Anyway...

There’s so much to take in and all of it is so beautiful. Gold ornamentation, huge carved stone doors, mosaics, frescoes, marble colonnades, statues.

At several times today I’ve wanted to cry because of my appreciation, gratefulness and complete awe at some of the things I have witnessed so far.

We listened to a tour guide for about half an hour, then afterwards since it was super windy we headed back home to rest before a photoshoot.

Family photoshoot!!

We walked around heaps!

When we ended the shoot, the photographer suggested to go to Moika Palace, the home of the Yusupovs, one of the richest Russian families.

We had an amazing tour guide, and the guide lasted for two hours complete with an a cappella musical performance and secret passageways.

Such a deceptively huge building. I can't imagine anyone living there, it's huge and so luxurious. Precious gemstones, gold, carvings made of wood it is literally a palace straight out of a fairytale.

CRY MOMENT OUT OF APPRECIATION AND WONDER.

Sooo hungry so went for dinner at a Vodka museum. Darn I'm not 18 yet.

Really good Russian food.

Inside joke: Alexei moment.

Cry moment

Strolled home and popped into a supermarket for some groceries.

It was such a nice temperature outside. When it isn't windy it is THE BEST.

Sleepy right now and heading to bed in 2 minutes.

// Thank you for reading Part 2 <3 \\