From Russia with Love: Diary 7

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

Saturday 6 January

Finally, on the second last day of our stay in Moscow, we visited the Kremlin.

We visited a few of the myriad churches. One was 600 years old, another had a Spanish Conquistador exhibit, another had a Russian embroidery exhibit. All of them were so beautiful.

There was also a New Year's 'elka' for children, organised by the government, which is a celebration with gifts, Russian carols and dress-ups! There were soooo many little kids around. I would estimate like 300.

While we were enjoying the views, it started snowing again with the cutest little snowflakes ❄️

As per usual, I was so hungry so we went in search for lunch/for a walk to a city neighbourhood where our parents worked at their first job.

It was getting super windy and cold, so we ran into the first restaurant we saw, and it was a Ukrainian-themed massive split level restaurant with a dancing guy in costume out the front of the building. YUM

We ordered a million plates to share for lunch and since they didn't sell cocktails (omg no cocktails in a traditional Ukrainian restaurant? What? ~sarcasm~) I also got a nastoika, which is a shot of weaker vodka infused with some natural berries.

I can say that the nastoika was NOT to my tasteee. EEEK

But the food was so delicious.

After a huge lunch we ventured outside to walk around a little more, but didn't survive for long because of the cold. We then searched for the metro home.

Got home tired and defeated.

Sunday 7 January

{ 22:22 }

С рождеством христовым!

Officially starting to catch up on diary entries. I'm blaming my lazy commitment on my sister. She be stealin my ipad all day every day to beat highscores on lawnmower. I kid you not.

Today has been a souvenir shopping kind of day. We (Tonia and I) woke up at 11am. Breakfast consisted of lepeshka, tea with milk, bread with cheese. Mama was already at church.

Getting ready took an hour and then Tonia and I locked the apartment and walked to staryi arbat for souvenirs.

There was an unbelievable amount of cute babies on the way there. I just can't. Every three seconds we would turn to one another and cry over the cuteness level. They're just so fluffy, wrapped in their coats and hats and gloves :')

We got to staryi arbat and went into a few shops to gauge prices and find some things that caught our eyes. After looking around for half an hour we found starbucks!!!! Our excitement was unreal!!! We've been looking out for Starbucks-es since the start of the trip.

We both got mocha frapuchinos. “You know that its a cold drink?” the cashier said. YES THANKS WE KNOW IT'S ONLY 2C OUTSIDE.

We ended up sitting in there for almost an hour because we ordered venti sizes, and I promised that I'd think of presents for everyone. I finally did after Tonia threatened the existence of my drink.

We were finally ready to go on our quest. But first I HAD to walk into the Nike store, although Tonia said she couldn't be friends with me after that and made our relationship strictly business. Not friends. But I got to see some dope shoes because it was a concept store so ahahaha

We got ripped off at one souvenir store but got discounts and a free gift (oops) in another. It was raining and super windy by now, and both of us were disappointed that it wasn't snowing!

We got home and displayed our treasures while papa was buying himself a new phone! Omg

We chilled for about 20 mins until 3 uni students came over. Zero notice from mama :) we got to talking and chatting about music, gingerbread houses, travelling, the Bolshoi and opera over tea. Apparently architecture is relevant to almost any topic.

At this moment we have a full table of guests over, celebrating our trip to Russia and saying goodbye until next time.

I'm also reflecting a little. Firstly, impressions. I think... that to everyone that I have met this trip, I have come off as quiet, boring and having nothing interesting to say. I kinda worry what there will be to say when (not if) I'll come back for exchange.

Secondly, I regret every time my phone has died from the cold. No photos.

I cant believe we've been away for a month. Its been such a great month and so many memories have been made. I’ve learnt a lot - about my family, about my family history, about my parents' lives in Russia and about Moscow/Kazan/St Petersburg history. I appreciate and am thankful for all of it. During this trip I've also made some very ambitious plans for this year and I hope to see them realised.

A few days of travel left before we get to Brisbane. Its been a heck of a trip and I loved every minute.

Monday 8 January

Our last morning in Moscow :'(

I finally got sooo many pictures with the Pushkin statue which was across the street from our apartment!!! I was so happy.

As we walked around the streets for the last time, we said goodbye to Moscow and went back into the apartment to pack and cram all of our shopping sprees into our suitcases.

This is actually the entrance to the apartment block. It looks a little sad, since it's on a main street in the CBD, so there are some scary marks and things on it but the apartment itself is beautiful. There are 5 flights to our apartment, so its either a good workout or the scary lift that says "No more that 2 people in the lift at a time." No thanks, stairs it is.

After stressful packing, we stuffed our luggage into a tiny taxi and left for the airport.

It was a 40 minute drive and all of us were reminiscing the adventures we had on this trip.

We got to the airport, had stress free check-in since mama and papa had business class tickets on Aeroflot.

Then we all went into the business lounge.

CAN I take a moment to say how great business lounges are. 'Free', unlimited food, drinks, entertainement, wifi, electricity, comfortable seats. WOW. So worth it.

[ Time zone thing happening - travelling into future time ]

The plane was half empty, so I scooted to a middle row so that I could have 4 seats to myself and sleep normally. It was actual bliss.

Tuesday 9 January

We landed in Tokyo at about 10am local time, and it was so confusing with the time zone changes.

We had to change terminals, so we got on a transit bus and had to stand all the way to our stop with our stuff, which was actually a good thing since we were sitting for so long.

Since check-in for our flight didn't open for a few hours, we were stuck in the front bit of the airport.

Some time later, we went for some lunch at a sushi train place, but I was in a mood and I was so annoyed that we had to order to the chef and I didn't know what to order :(((( so we ended up eating one plate of sushi, leaving, and getting a starbucks matcha latte. That was good.

Finally, after we could check in at the Qantas desk, we went through the bag check and straight to the Qantas business lounge.

These are our tired and sleepy backs in the Qantas lounge, waiting for our flight.

During the time in the Qantas lounge, we went shopping at duty free for lollies, !cheap! Clinique makeup and pocky sticks.

Finally it was time to board at 8pm, and we got on with the mindset of watching as many movies as we could.

Wednesday 10 January

Officially turning it over to Queensland time zone! On the plane, and awake from 4am.

At 5ish we had a light breakfast and watched movies until we descended.

Side note: that landing at Brisbane airport is really beautiful, but also scary since it's so close to the coast, it almost feels like you're going to land in the water. But thankfully, pilots are skilled :)

After getting off the plane, standing in the customs line for 40 mins and collecting all of our gypsy belongings, we walked out into the Australian sunshine and felt the familiar wave of humidity...

// Thank you for reading Part 7! The end of this epic travel series <3 \\