Moscow
Before I arrived in Moscow, I viewed it as a famous and foreign place, filled with iconic sights and unfamiliar foods. When I left Moscow, I knew that it was a city that many people are lucky to call home.
When we arrived in Moscow, there were armed guards in the streets surrounding our hotel. We thought that the hotel must be really well guarded! When we read the news later, we discovered that there had been protests nearby and the guards had arrested some of the protesters. This came as a shock to me… it felt scary when the machine guns weren’t directed at me, so I can’t imagine how it would feel if they were.
After arriving and setting our stuff in our hotel, we headed for the pedestrian Nicholas Street, the street that leads right to the Red Square. When we went, it was covered in lights, colorful flowers, decorations, and street performers. It was truly picturesque and I even considered trying to install something like it in my room (live bands included). You can imagine how that went with my parents.
On the way, we stopped at the Shopping Center G.U.M. The shopping center is a leftover from Soviet times, when it was the main shopping store for the communists. Now it is revamped to give tourists a beautiful experience, whether or not you want to do a lot of shopping. We are not big shoppers, so we skipped the fancy stores and instead we grabbed the Soviet Era ice cream from one of the stalls. I got the G.U.M. flavor, which is vanilla dipped in chocolate. Yum! It was the best they had in the Soviet times, and I not only loved it but loved the feeling that we were having a taste of the years 1922-1991, the era of Communism. If you’re looking for some more exciting ice cream flavors, try hopping into a mini-mart. The G.U.M. shopping center is reminiscent of the arcade in Brussels but much larger. To me, the whole place is more of a big, fancy historical ice cream shop, because I really don’t have a need for Gucci or Louis Vuitton.
When we got our ice creams, we headed outside to enjoy them in Red Square, the big square in Moscow that features many of its famous 
buildings: the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral (pictured to the left) and G.U.M. Because of construction for an upcoming military tattoo, a celebrational display of the military, our view was partially blocked by the parade stands, but still pretty good. We saw the iconic symbol of Russia, St. Basil’s Cathedral. It stands out against the backdrop of the sky with its colorful facade and patterned onion domes. Rumor has it that Ivan the Terrible, the reigning ruler at the time St. Basil’s was built, saw it and proclaimed it the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen (his poor wife). He then cut out the architect’s eyes or killed him, depending on the story, so that the architect could not build anything more beautiful than St. Basil’s in another country (his poor architect!). Ivan the Terrible sure was a terrible guy.
We also got great views of the Kremlin. For some even better lookouts, we headed to the Zaryadye Park, a beautiful and modern park with a floating bridge! The views were spectacular, the park was fun to explore, and, as one can’t say this too many times, it was super duper clean.
We headed back in search of a place to eat and stumbled upon (or TripAdvisored upon) Bosco Cafe in G.U.M. The food there was good, pricey, and the restaurant provided more good views of the Kremlin.
We then went back to the lit-up street, back to our hotel, and went to sleep.
The next day we woke up and headed outside to meet a work friend of my father’s who is Russian! We went with him in his car and drove around to 
some of the far-flung destinations. We saw the Sparrow Hills Observation Deck. It’s a great way to start and view the city. We could see the “Moscow City” as locals call it, which is the part of Moscow with all of the skyscrapers. Our day was off to a great start, but something a bit unexpected happened. I was attacked by a big bunny in a pink dress!!! There are lots of people dressed up in costumes waiting to get you to take pictures with them. They’re super aggressive and have obviously not gone to personal space school! One tried to hug me even though I ran away and tried to look as horrified as I possibly could. It was a very, very, very scary incident that makes me petrified even to think about. I must put out my warning that this is a truly tragic story that should be discussed with care.
We then got back into the car and explored Victory Park, a park with a handful of big memorials to the Great Patriotic War, which is what the 
Russians call World War Two. The Russians helped defeat the Nazis during the Second World War and it was a hard time for their country. It made me feel lucky and thankful to people who risked and even sacrificed their lives so that I can be safe. The museum had many recreations of bombings and shellings, and these made me feel even more thankful because there were models of bombs that hit streets that I had been walking on only a few days ago in St. Petersburg.
When we finished at the museum, our Russian friend, Sergei, took us to eat a meal at one of the Georgian restaurants in the park. He ordered us lobio (red bean stew) khachapuri (cheesy flatbread) and other Georgian foods. I ate so much that I was stuffed, I felt like I couldn’t eat another bite. Then came the khinkali (dumplings filled with broth and meat). I ate all of them! They were so delicious, I couldn’t turn them down! What I liked most about them was that they took foods that I am familiar with and then made them taste completely different with yummy spices and combinations of ingredients.
We spent the next few hours driving through Moscow. We saw Gorky Park, drove past the VDNKH (we wanted to go there but there was a festival and we could not find parking). We also saw a statue of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. It’s a statue that was built for the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. It features a worker and a kolkhoz woman, a woman who worked and lived in a shared farm. It’s very big… almost 80 feet tall! They had to break apart the statue into little pieces to get it to and from Paris. We didn’t go inside any attractions because of parking, but seeing the sites from a car window was pretty good as well.
To complete our day, we got out of the car and said our goodbyes and thank yous to Sergei. He did a great job showing us around. I loved how we got all the recommendations on what foods to try and what museums to go to 
from an actual person. Sometimes, it’s nicer to hear these things from someone you trust, not just a faceless person on TripAdvisor. We then headed to the Repinsky Skver, a park where we wanted to see a group of statues called “Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices.” My parents found the name intriguing. It’s pretty disturbing. There are 13 adults, each symbolizing a different evil. They are surrounding two blindfolded children playing. The evils are drug addiction, prostitution, theft, alcoholism, ignorance, child labor, etc. It was only missing giant bunnies wearing pink dresses. The main evil is indifference. It’s moving, disturbing, and depressing all at the same time.
We finally ended our day with a good yogurt dinner and bed.
The next morning, we started in front of the Bolshoi. The Bolshoi is an iconic Russian theater where the Russian Ballet performs. They were not in town, so we just saw the theater from the outside. We then continued to Red 
Square and took in the lovely view again. We walked right through it and continued on to walk along Zaryadye Park. As we kept exploring, I felt like we were getting to know the city, and the iconic Moscow, Russia didn’t feel so far away. We walked on the side of the park and saw many historical sites, like the Old English Court, the Chambers of The Romanov Boyars, and The Church of St. George. I was lucky that I had worn pants because the church has a no shorts or shoulders policy. We then headed to a tucked 
away church, the Church of the Trinity in Nikitniki. It’s very beautiful and off the beaten path. Right nearby, we headed to Il’insky Skver. It’s a quaint park with the tiny Plevna Chapel hiding out in the back. It looks like a very ornate tourist information office, but I assure you, it’s a chapel. After this stop, we headed to the old headquarters of the KGB, Lubyanka. Right in front of Lubyanka is the Solovetsky Stone, a memorial to those killed for their political beliefs in the Soviet era. It’s very moving.
After taking in the memorial in front of Lubyanka, we walked over to the Central Children’s Store just next door. This unique mall only houses children’s stores, a giant clock, and a pretty stained glass ceiling. What it does not hold is good food, but we ate there anyway. When we were stuffed (with just okay food), we headed to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We took the very easy to navigate metro system, with maps clearly marked for 
people who don’t even speak the language! The cathedral is just as striking on the outside as it is on the inside, with soaring painted ceilings and a gold-topped roof. Right behind the cathedral is a nice footbridge where we got great views. Beware of the people in animal costumes! We walked back from the cathedral, which took about 40 minutes, and arrived once again in Red Square. We headed to St. Basil’s and got an audio guide and tickets, but the inside isn’t worth it! The audio guide was boring, the exhibits were boring, and even the plaques were boring. The only interesting part is the facade, with its colorful domes, which you don’t need to pay for. We went through quickly and headed out. After a disappointing museum, we had the one dinner that couldn’t disappoint: yogurt and bed.
For our last full day in Moscow, we decided to go to the Kremlin, which functions both as the seat of Russian government and as a museum. We had purchased tickets online and we had to go to a separate desk to exchange
them into real tickets. Then we went to a seperate desk after that for security checks. When we got in, we explored the armory with the free audio guide. It was informative and took up the right amount of time. They have tons of gold, silver, carriages, and thrones. When we finished, we went to some of the cathedrals on the Kremlin grounds and explored half of them because the lines were too long for us to have time for them all. The ones that we went into were picturesque, to say the very least. They were all white and topped with gold onion domes. We spent the morning exploring the complex, which is less of a government building and more of a big museum. I was pleased and surprised.
When we went out of the Kremlin, we went to do our laundry at a local 
laundromat, Launderette Chistoff. This was the only place my parents could find where you can do your
own laundry. Even though the woman at the laundromat did not speak English, she still welcomed us. The laundromat is in the area surrounding Moscow City, so we saw what it’s really like to live in Moscow. It’s not as clean or as well kept as things are at the center of the city where the big park and Kremlin sit. As we walked along the streets, we headed into a few food markets for a quick bite to eat. Once our laundry was done, we headed back to the hotel for the last night in Moscow.
The next day, we headed for VDNKH. It stands for “Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy” in Russian. We got there using the 
Moscow public transit system and it spits you out right where you need to be! We were right near the VDNKH. It’s a pretty large place, like a Soviet Disneyland, or EPCOT Center. It’s the amusement park (not with rides) that the Soviet Union built to advertise their economy while it was crumbling. There were exhibitions from all parts of the old USSR.
We went to the main entrance and picnicked with some food from a supermarket near our hotel. Our first stop was the Museum of Soviet 
Arcade Machines. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a museum from the name. Instead, I would approach it as the child of a video game arcade and an antiques store. Most of the games are old- from the Soviet era. We noticed an abundance of shooting games. How it worked was that you got a box of 15 coins and had free reign over the games that you wanted to play! It was pretty fun. We played games with each other and enjoyed walking around, observing.
We then wandered around the complex and took in the clean atmosphere. There weren’t many international tourists. And there were many sites to 
see. Also, in the distance, we saw the Museum of Cosmonautics. It’s a great thing to see in the distance, with a fluid design, even though we didn’t have time to go in. When we finished exploring, we headed back to our hotel by metro and got our last ice cream at G.U.M. I also asked if I could install a G.U.M. ice cream maker in my room, but sadly that one was my last, so all that was left was to enjoy the final taste of Moscow as we headed off to the train station with our bags.
STAY TUNED FOR MY JOURNEY ON AN OVERNIGHT TRAIN!
