visit Moscow

Don’t expect smiling faces and people bending over backwards to help you when you visit. Then again, I didn’t visit Russia for hospitality, and the coldness you get from a lot of people just reminds you that you are in fact, in Russia. My hotel staff were warm and excellent though.
There are so many things to see and do in the city, wish I could have stayed longer. I have traveled all around the world and lived in a few different countries, but walking into the Red Square for the first time (just before sunset)....seeing St. Basil’s in the distance….that is a moment where I had to stop and say out loud, “Oh my god!”

From the minute we arrived and had a crazy 3 hour taxi journey round the city with a guy who looked like he could be coming down off meths, to exploring the bars under the influence of absinthe with a crazy French guy and a New York fetish wrestler called Deb, I knew this city was something special.

The hostel was warm and welcoming [HM Hostel if your interested] and the people were vast and varied.

Travel on the metro is something to experience, and the stations themselves are a whole part of that.

Fantastic food, Russian not so much, but Uzbekistan and Georgian ruled the day.

And yes, I got to visit the Izmaylovo Market

I celebrated this New Year in Moskow. It’s a good city to visit, but a terrible place to live in.

that tells me i have less than 24 hours until i go [and can check in online if i so wish]

Holy shit im excited.

Il be very disappointed if, while under the influence of vodka, I dont learn this dance

With everything that’s been going on lately ive not really put much thought into the impending trip to Russia, i mean sure, its been there in the back of my mind. A internal countdown of sorts, ticking away the months, weeks, and now finally days…

YES! DAYS….

I have a grand total of 8 days to go!

And what’s got me this excited, that every other sentence to my long suffering workmates is Russia related… The Izmaylovo Market

I can’t wait to test out my bargaining skills on some matryoshka dolls or a piece of Soviet military history.

Im completly ready thank god, miss leaveeverthingtothelastminute[yeah thats me], is actually ready for something two weeks early. Ok, well i still need to get travel insurance, but honestly, thats it ;)

I have..

- Hotel booked
- Flights booked

I can say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘Thank You’ and ‘I dont understand’

Will be sorting Visa at the end of the month.

Im so excited :D

Bring on September.

We visited Moscow twice for our son’s adoption. I’d be glad to offer assistance to anyone else planning an extended trip there.

Had the opportunity to go in 2002. Wonderful experience, great people. Something about the place that is intriguing. Was with choir tour and saw more day to day life type stuff than one normally would. Would love to go back some day.

it was a scary place. Definitely worth the trip – an experience of a lifetime – but made me all the happier to live in the United States. The U.S. is by no means perfect, but I feel a heck of a lot safer here.

We took a train from Moscow to Yalta and had to make a run for it and jump onto moving train – with luggage in tow – as Russian Mafia had paid the conductor to leave 15 minutes early in an effort to strong-arm and inconvenience us passengers. Crazy. Seriously, felt like I was in a Cold War movie.

The Bolshoi Circus made me angry and I did not enjoy it at all – the animals were very mistreated during the show (I guess you could say at least they weren’t pretending to treat them well…).

Red Square was beautiful at night. People were somewhat welcoming, but still very guarded toward us. The museums were incredible – and got to wear fun booties over my shoes so as not to scuff up the floors. Had the best McDonald’s apple pie ever in Moscow.

Don’t go in February unless you like to freeze your butt off. Don’t mail anything you can’t live without. Still haven’t received the postcards I sent home in 1996 (yet we received the postcards I sent from Kenya and Zimbabwe in 1995). Hmmm… Definitely an experience to remember.