Russia- Moscow - Part 1

I apologize for this VERY late post about my Russia trip back in February (it's June 25th 2015 right now), I just did not feel inspired enough to photoshop my pictures so decided to post them anyways in order to get this post out of the way... Enjoy!

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The flight was delayed due to the snow and de-icing of the plane.

Before heading to the airport, my friends came to pick me up and we had an amazing brunch at the Allomoncoco restaurant at the West island. The service was quick and the design of the place was very airy and comforting.

I ordered the Royal Waffle (vanilla ice cream, Nutella and bananas). The portions were very good for the price and our waiter made our brunch enjoyable.



2 of my favorite people in the world! 10 years of ups and downs friendship, love them to death! Crispy is 7 months pregnant here

Afterwards, I went to buy last minute gifts for my European friend and we head to the airport. I am very fortunate to be able to travel as much as I can while I am still young and have no commitment (children or sick parents). Also am very fortunate to be able to afford everything that I want. People often ask me how I can travel as much I can. There is no magic tricks... You just gotta work and be good with your money.

Back to traveling, so at the Montreal airport, international section, there were new stores and new booths everywhere, it was quite nice and well designed. However, something that bothered me was that there weren't enough plugs that actually work...

For boarding, Air Canada has decided to change their system into zones like the American Airlines. Could not upgrade to business class but at least she gave me a seat with nobody next to me so I can be comfortable and with lots of leg room without paying extra. I always ask for business class or upgrade without paying, I should note down how many time I got it because it is very fun to flight in first class - unlimited booze and no I am no an alcoholic or am I???!!!! 

We were delayed for 30 minutes because of the de-icing and the luggages therefore Air Canada decided to give us free earplugs. I wonder why my own earplugs don't work on the plane... Such a waste to use their earplugs when I have two of my own.

They served us supper with alcohol so I decided to drink as much as I can in order to fall asleep faster - sounds like I am an alcoholic...

After 2 full movies and 3 hours of sleep, I got abruptly woken up by the fight attendant throwing a pastry at me- not a good way to wake up... For supper, we had the choice between pasta or chicken and had anything you wanted to drink so I had red wine. The food was not bad for Air Canada standard but I still miss Quantas service and quality. I think every airline should learn from the Australians. 

Route to Moscow (DME)

Arriving at Frankfurt was too much for me because I was so tired and felt overwhelmed with all the German speaking people and the existence of different terminals really made me feel uncomfortable.

First went to the Lufthansa counter to change my ticket, they referred me to Air Canada. Security was so slow and painful with all the Chinese people that don't know how to speak English and that had tons of luggage. After an hour at the security, I went on to the Air Canada counter in the B gate, from there I waited for another hour and they informed me that it would be 1000 Euros to change my flight. I decided to stay in Frankfurt and explore the terminal...

The view from the restaurant here, met an Ethiopian girl here and she works and lives in Manhattan, living the single life in sociall media consulting.

My breakfast, it wasn't very good and it was 20Euros!!!! OMG

Where I found my spot to sleep till I board my Moscow plane. It was pretty neat - no kids and nobody

 

I found a comfy place and slept there till my flight at 17:55 and watched Netflix. I am so grateful when there is free wifi. Life is so much harder without internet and I enjoyed watching shows from other countries because Netflix changes according to where you stream which is quite cool.

After 12 hours of layover in the Frankfurt airport, I finally boarded Ukraine International Airlines. They fed us so much and I sat next to a Russian couple where the husband was much older than the wife. After noticing this trend, I realized that the plane was full of this type of couple (older men with much younger women) - wished I had taken a picture of the trend...

When I arrived in Moscow, DME (airport name is way too long to type and I don't really remember what it is), I waited 40 minutes for the custom. It took very long with the officer because he didn't really speak English and I had a hard time understanding Russian and his heavy accent. I was so worried that I was not going to find my friend's husband because it was already 30 past midnight... After getting my backpack, I walked towards the exit where many people were waiting and I automatically recognized him with his black glasses (thank GOD!)

We chatted the whole way and I didn't realized that they lived about a hour away from the airport (holly shit!) We talked about his job and about mine because we are both in the oil and gas industry but in different countries so it was very interesting to understand his perspective as a Russian when the oil price dropped. Also, he is in another department - financial sector, trading commodities and I am in the engineering/mining sector, not trading anything, just building and destroying the earth lol.

After a long transit, I spoke to my friend on the phone, her voice has not changed and it was so comforting to hear her voice on the phone because I haven't seen her for about 12 years! She was also very excited and she waited before I got to her place before heading to bed. She made red borscht soup for me.

Her condo was sooooo nice, very European and I loved her design style. We chatted and I went to bed at around 5am (OMG, her husband needed to go work at 9am but we just had so much to catch up on) It's funny how life works and how friendship flourish, I was already super comfortable with them and it seems like we were friends forever.

1st day in Moscow, Feb 16 2015

This is my first real day in Moscow, slept in and my friend made me pancakes that you wrap caviar and sour cream. It was so delicious! This week was the pancake festival called Maslenitsa.

Pancake and caviar, soooo good.

We chatted for hours, catching up and looking at old pictures of us from high school. She is the first in our highschool group that has a baby and the 2nd one is my other best friend, Maxou (her nickname)

Afterwards, we drove to the University of Moscow. It was a very easy day because I was so tired from the travelling and she planned it so well!



City center view from the University of Moscow



I have been living in a VERY small city so I have forgotten how city traffic looks...

Moscow is beautiful, with the sky and sunset, the city is very magical and fantastic. I felt like I was in a dream - the old buildings and the look of the city is mesmerizing - I have FALLEN in love with this city that was so unknown to me. When I told people that I was going to Russia, I get a blank face ("normal people" would chose a beach destination instead of a winter city)

 

We came home and she made pasta with double cooked meat, basically, you roast a chunk of meat and then you ground it yourself and cook it again. Georges came home later from work and ate supper, we drank cider wine from Canada, ate sausages and cheese and chatted again till very late. My favourite part of travelling is seeing friends and relaxing with them with a glass of wine and food - best moments in my life were those and not the crazy insane parties.



Betsy trying to walk and Sasha making supper for us

Kremlin (Feb 17 2015)

I had to wake up early to take the subway with Georges where I was so excited because I heard that Russian subway was very nice because it was built during the Soviet Union where they worked hard and were proud of their country and they decided to put different themes in the subway to make it artsy.

Walking towards the entrance

Map of the Kremlin with the list of buildings

We went off at the Library station which is one of the biggest because is it under the Kremlin. At 9:00AM, I met my personal tour guide and we went off to visit the Kremlin. I realized very early during the tour that I was not going to remember my tour much because there were WAY TOO MUCH RUSSIAN HISTORY IN IT with different names and period and wars...on and on... I think the only people that I remembered were Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible (first Tzar of Russia), Queen Elizabeth, Queen Catherine and some others.

 

Russian women's fashion is very different than North America, they have an old classy style with fur coats, knee lenght boots and very nice wool scarf (I wished I had bought one when I was there, oh well, next time when I go back with the hubby) No matter what your age is, the women dressed very properly and old style...

The architecture of the Kremlin

WOW, I was just so AMAZED by Russian buildings, it was magnificent, magical and so beautiful that I felt I was part of it. I have goosebumps when I talk about it. I really wished my husband could have come with me to experience this amazing city where his ancestor came from. Anyways, side note... my husband's family were Ukranians but with all the Russian history that I learned, they are no different (I might get yelled at by your blog comments but oh well)

We had to go through a security gate because Kremlin is where the parlament is located and where Putin "works". There is a joke that they like to ask me when I tell them I am a tourist - Did you see Putin? I answer no but I saw the Kremlin and they would say Ahhh yes, where he "works" wink wink... I don't know if it's because they think that he doesn't work or they just don't like him... I haven't figured that out yet.

So when we went in, I could only walked on a specific path because I don't have the security clearance to go in front of some really beautiful buildings that I really wanted to take pictures of. Everytime, I would walk towards a building, the tour guide would pull me away from it, saying that I would get into trouble... I hope that they don't think that I am a spy, that would be funny lol or maybe I do like to get into trouble... I wonder if the Canadian Embassy would save me...

Paths that I am not allow to walk on

 

 

When Moscow started, they didn't have enough money to build beautiful buidings so a lot of the nice buildings were built during the prosper years of Russia and they would invite a lot of Italian Architects so some of those buildings reminded me of Italy (Venice and Florence specifically). The Russian architect knew how to build small churches but never really built a big church so they had to ask the Italian to come and help them build the Royal Basilica. The inside was so stunning with very nice icones and relics, silver, gold and wood everywhere.



Different Basilica in a small portion of Kremlin

Dormition Cathedral



Inside of a the Cathedral, lots of work with the paintings

Huge bell fell down and cracked

The view from Kremlin was the new Moscow with the Moscow River. It was a windy and very cold day but I still enjoyed it because it was sunny and just a beautiful city.

I also went into the History museum where it was opened 200 years ago to the public and where different objects were displayed to show the people of Russia. I asked if everything was still in the palace because I was surprised that there were so many ornaments still in the museum during the Soviet Union because when China changed into a communist country, Mao burned everything that was from the old dynasty so when you want to see old emperors' things, you actually have to go to Taiwan instead of China because they have not much left in the Forbidden city in Beijing.

My tour guide was surprised with my question and honestly answered that she recently saw a documentary talking about this subject and that during the reign of Stalin, they had to sell some diamonds arts because they didn't have any money left for the State but we don't know how many things the Soviet Union sold.

After my guide, I went on exploring myself before meeting Sasha, we walked around the Red Square and went to eat Russian food in the first and oldest department store in Europe.

Walking around outside Kremlin, really sunny day.

Met up with Sasha and we are in front of the famous hotel

The center of Moscow

Inside the first and oldest department store in Europe

St-Georges Icon saved, during the Soviet period, they have asked people to destroy it, instead they covered it and last year or maybe 2 years ago, they were cleaning and found that the people didn't destroy it.

 

Really nice architecture in the Red Square

Potatoe, cranberry juice and mushrooms

 

I had to take the picture of the famous basilica where Lenin murdered the architect in order to keep the secret of how they built the church. Also Lenin's body is plastified there...

Fanous Basilica of Tetris - LOL

 

After the long walk and talk, we head back home to Betsy where her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's sister were taking care of the baby. Betsy was soooo happy to see Sasha, it's very adorable to see how a baby know and unconditionally love the mother.

We had Russian beer and snacks (sausage, cheeze and bread) so delicious and again talked for hours.