Sunday, July 1, 2018

Russia Day 11 (Moscow, Russia): Soccer Fans, River Tour and Victory Park


I feel like a lot happened today.

We didn’t have any excursions booked until late tonight so we had most of the day to explore. Each metro station has a shopping center around it so we headed out to our metro station on our own this morning. This one has quite few shopping centers around it, some more commercial than others. The ship to the metro station is quite a walk. There’s a mix of retail stores, grocery stores, a few souvenir shops, salons and a number of markets out here. It’s not very often you find a grocery store in a shopping mall. This seemed to be very common in China too. We actually went out to the shopping centers twice today. The first time was to explore and we went out a second time after lunch to actually shop.

Our excursion tonight was quite interesting. Russia won their soccer match tonight and advanced to the next bracket in the World Cup so everyone was out celebrating. The streets were packed with excited soccer fans and it seemed impossible to get anywhere. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before! The scenery out here is the also incredible night. We’ve seen these Buildings, boulevards and cathedrals before but to see them illuminated at night is something magical.  We started out in the Red Square and made our way across a bridge where we were right in the middle of Russia’s victory celebration! Our guide made a joke that Russian’s don’t express emotion very often so for something like this to happen is something incredible. We made our way to a few tour boats and drifted along the Moscow River. We saw the most beautiful buildings and bridges on our tour, which were also filled with celebrating soccer fans might I add. I honestly don’t know how to express the excitement that was happening tonight in words.

After our river tour we went to Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill, the highest spot in Moscow. Victory Park is a memorial commemorating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. There’s a few museums and memorials here but the highlight of this spot is the fountain that’s Illuminated red at night, it’s absolutely beautiful. We didn’t do much exploring but the view here is amazing.

By the time we got back it was after midnight and we were exhausted! It was way past my bedtime.

We have another early day tomorrow!


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