Russia Day 12 (Moscow, Russia): The Last Day

Today is our last day in Russia!

This morning we headed back to the city center of Moscow and went to the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Archangel. The Assumption Cathedral’s design is based on the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir and made with heavy limestone. This cathedral has been destroyed by many fires and had to be rebuilt several times. This is also where Ivan The Terrible was coronated. The Cathedral of the Archangel is where most of the Tsars of Russia are buried until they were moved to St. Petersburg. The iconostasis in this church is unique because it’s a collection of icons from cities that Tsars have conquered.

After our tours of the cathedrals we decided to stay in the area and take a later shuttle back to the ship. We went back to the Red Square and explored the World Cup Fan Zone. There was a gift shop, vendor demo booths and an exposition game going on. It wasn’t too busy when we were there, most of the fans were probably exhausted from last night’s celebration or at work. We had a hard time filling our time before the shuttle picked us up. We went back to the GUM, another mall and some grocery stores in the malls. All of that walking around was exhausting!

When we got back we immediately started packing and went to a farewell reception. This reception was a little more intimate than other farewell receptions. Since we weren’t traveling with a large group of people and staff, we really got a chance to know everyone.

This trip has been filled with pleasant surprises! I learned a lot about Russian culture, visited some incredible museums, cathedrals and palaces, walked amongst some of the most passionate soccer fans in the world and met some pretty awesome people. 

I can’t wait for my next trip. Here’s to many more!

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!

Russia Day 1 (St. Petersburg, Russia): Surprisingly Short Flights, The World Cup and Settling In

I’m in Russia guys!

Today wasn’t a very interesting travel day so this is going to be a pretty short blog entry. We started out at the Sacramento International Airport and took a super quick flight out to San Francisco before heading out to Frankfurt, Germany. This was the shortest flight I’ve ever been on… It was over before I knew it! After we made it to Frankfurt we headed out on our last leg of our trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. 

One of the biggest sporting events in the world, The World Cup, is going on right now and we're in the middle of it! We caught bits and pieces of the action as we made our way between terminals. 

When we arrived at our dock we boarded our ship, ate and unpacked. Eating always seems to be the first thing we do when we arrive. The ship we’re on is smaller than the ones we normally travel on so we won’t have access to as many amenities as we did on our other trips. This trip is also a little longer than trips we normally take so we had to pack a little heavier. It was a challenge to get everything into one suitcase. We were allotted two suitcases but traveling with more than one piece of luggage makes it significantly harder to get around.

After we settled in we went to a briefing about the excursions were taking and the other available excursions. The format of this trip is very similar to the format of the China trip I took. On most of the days we have a morning excursion and an evening excursion booked which will keep us very busy.