From Russia with Love: Diary 5

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

Wednesday 27 December

All four of us cleaned the apartment and packed our things until lunchtime. It was the day we were leaving Kazan.

After handing over the keys, we went to Dimitri's (our cousins) apartment. We had lunch, tea and played Wii for 4 hours until our departure at 6pm.

Katya, Leosha and Natasha left in the morning, back to their property a couple of hours from Kazan, but Diana (Dimitri's daughter) was there and she was so cute but very naughty :) Since Nastya (Dimitri's older daughter) was at school, Tonia decided to draw a picture for her!

We left for the train at 17:30, Mitya drove us. Hustled into our cabin. And slept.

Thursday 28 December

We arrived at Moscow at 6am! It was still very dark so it totally felt like night time.

Hopped into a taxi, got to our new apartment for the next week and a bit and were completely blown away by it's size. It was so luxurious and spacious compared to all the other apartments we stayed at during the trip. A separate kitchen and dining room, a huge lounge, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms! And the beds were so fluffy and comfortable!

After settling down, we were super hungry. We were staying next to the Strasnoi Boulevard, so there was more than plenty of places to eat. But since it was 7am in the morning, most were closed. Coincidentally, the first MacDonalds ever opened in Russia in 1991, was across the intersection from our apartment block. And mama and papa visited it in it's first opening week when the lines were more than 1km long.

Off to MacDonalds we went! We got some interesting russian menu things like porridge (that word sounds very unappealing in English, but in Russian it's 'kasha' and it's actually considered normal food!), blini (crepe style pancakes), coffee and breakfast burritos (that were surprisingly good!).

After that, we went to a bakery to get some treats for morning tea.

{ 12:45 }

Everyone is sleeping in our apartment. And I feel like a snack. As always. Off to eat my almond croissant. Definitely need to consider going to the gym.

---

In the evening, we went to an event that had something to do with fashion. The truth was that mama and I booked tickets to this event and we only had a vague idea of what it actually was. When we were getting ready, Tonia was getting super nervous because we had no idea what to wear and we had no idea what the event would 'make us do'!

To get there we walked through the night streets of Moscow, all lit up with New Year's lights (not christmas lights, because in Russia the celebration is New Years! 'Novyi god')

We neared the complex that we thought was the place, and it seemed so deserted. There was the creepiest snowman I have ever seen in my ENTIRE LIFE the middle of the courtyard (and since it was cold but not 'snowing cold', the snowman was starting to melt and it looked very wrong). First we walked into the wrong building, then retreated and tried another, with the inscription 'University of fashion and design'. YASSS I thought it was so cool.

In all honesty, as soon as we went in and I saw the event set up and people mingling, I was AT EASE. All good. But Tonia was still so nervous! She looked so pretty in her new Zara constellation-y midi dress but she thought she looked overdressed, and she was worried for the rest of the evening.

There were two exhibitions in the building. One was a free 1960s Soviet era clothes, toys, electronics and furniture display over the two levels of the building. The one we booked free tickets to was about Russian fashion, design and costumes.

I absolutely loved all the designs that were displayed. And the thing was they were made by students at the academy. An extra was that they had a 'lecture' about the history of Russian costumes (I was kinda worried that they would ask audience questions, but it was all good). It was surprisingly eye-opening and super interesting! This is what it's like to do a degree in fashion...

When the event finished at about 9pm, I was so hungry. So as usual, I made everyone go to a restaurant. I actually didn't realise how late it was but everything in Moscow is open until midnight anyway and the streets were still bustling.

We went to a restaurant with delicious foooooood and super aesthetic. I got an exotic sounding soup that ended up being a little too salty (I have an averstion to salty food lol) but I ate all of it. We also ordered some raspberry and mint iced tea that tasted soooo good.

After dinner, we walked through several mid-street parks as we headed back home. First day in Moscow = success!

Friday 29 December

Tonia and I got to shop at H & M. We were so excited to finally have a shopping spree because everything in the Moscow store looked amazing.

We probably went in and out of the dressing room three times, even when the clothes limit was 8 pieces at a time.

Both of us ended up buying a ton of clothes. And this was only the second day of our Moscow leg of the trip!

When we got back to our apartment, it was time to meet up with friends! For lunch, we headed to Pushkin Cafe which was through an underground walkway and down the street from us.

Obvs I love Pushkin so I loved this cafe, more like a restaurant, but so cute. It was extremely busy when we got there.

After our long lunch we went to our place for tea and a rest before going to a musical! We had tickets to Anna Karenina <3 I've read the book in English and it is definitely one of my favourite books.

We walked to the venue and before the show started we sipped some champagne, and had some chocolates.

One of the three fell asleep. Guess which one.

The musical was absolutely stunning and very unexpected. I thought it would involve classical music, opera, ballroom dancing and the like. Instead it was an amazingly modern interpretation of it. The onstage backdrop was made up of moving television screens that projected the different settings and could move up and down, and be moved around on stage by the performers. The music was pretty much rock music. It was definitely a huge highlight.

When we headed out, we were greeted with one of mama and papa's friends that actually lives in Australia but was visiting Moscow like us. We walked together as a group of 7 all the way to the red square where their metro station was.

The aforementioned friend came to our house for tea (it was already past 11pm) and then it was sleep time.

Saturday 30 December

Blini for breakfast!

Tonia and I walked around to the Christmas markets, visited a United Colours of Benetton store (which I was pretty disappointed with) and then of course, visited H & M again.

There was the new years set up on the road!!!

After our second H&M shopping spree, Tonia really wanted a mocha. We scouted a really cute bakery, but it came at a cost of $6! Crazy money for one regular mocha.

We headed home, then headed to lunch at a karaoke, bar restaurant with really good food and oblepixovyi chai.

After enjoying a huge lunch, we walked for about an hour to a shopping centre with a sports department store (far away but a nice walk) to get Tonia some ice skates.

It was about 5pm when we got home (we also stopped at a Tartarstan supermarket for supplies) since we were having guests over at 6pm.

The rest of the night was spent conversing and tea drinking,

Sunday 31 December

New Year's eve! In the morning we walked through the completely transformed 6 lane street, which was now a 3 kilometre pedestrian entertainment centre for New Years for 4 days!

It was raining and we all hoped for a bit of snow, which we eventually got but it was 'wet snow', meaning it's already melting before it hits the ground.

We had a really long walk down the street, and then we headed off to Arbat, which is an actual pedestrian street 4 kilometres long with an abundance of overpriced souvenir shops and restaurants, but very lively.

Note: all the western food chains in Russia are called the same thing, for example Burger King, is 'burger king' said with a Russian accent :) I found it hilarious

We walked for ages up the street with the promise of a late afternoon tea at a french cafe. It was so good, and so worth it for the pastries too :) It was a great way to spend New Year's eve and I was feeling so grateful.

When we were walking back, a guy dressed in a promotional panda suit tried to ambush her with a hug and flyers but she was so scared and ran the opposite direction. So funny :)

Pushkin's house when he lived in Moscow was a vibrant blue and very stunning. I really wanted to get a tour but it was too late in the day...

Tonia and I got home really needing the toilet (which was hilarious at the time) and we just ran home out of sight from the parents. Literally sprinted. (TMI?)

After our full day of adventuring, we rested for a bit, then walked out into the festivities at 9pm.

Te rested and had some tea, then finally went to see the fireworks from the street. It was magical and such a wonderful start to 2018.

// Thank you for reading Part 5! \\