Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would definitely recommend it. I learned so much about the culture and norms in different places, which is a completely invaluable lesson in empathy and understanding. I saw places that weren’t just major cities, walked through the countryside, and I think that’s also a really important part of this trip. When traveling, it’s so easy to just go to the main cities and never explore an entire country. It’s so rare to get the chance to see this much of a single country. Why travel alone? It’s partially an exercise in exploring my personal endurance, and learning…
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Final Day in Russia
Checking out For my final day in Moscow, I have made a list of the things I still wanted to see and try to be a bit more organized. I could spend another whole day wandering Red Square because those guys are out there dancing again and really what more could you want? I had to pack everything up and check out of the hotel, so here I do the muscle work of putting as much as I can squish into the roller suitcase. It’s carry-on size, but I’ll be checking it. Then I put everything I’ll need on the plane: clothes to change into, electronics, batteries, etc, in my…
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New Years Day
ABBA Ok, so I totally forgot to tell this story last night. So there’s this song that plays on the radio everywhere. I’ve heard it a hundred times this trip, but never before. It’s clearly from the ~70’s, and my guess was Oliva Newton John. But it turns out it’s ABBA, a song called “Happy New Year”. It’s popular here because I guess there aren’t that many new year songs. It’s a weird song because the vocal harmonies overlap a lot, making the lyrics difficult to distinguish. But what I can hear is the chorus of “Happy New Year” over and over and a line that says “We might as…
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New Years Eve in Moscow
Venturing out into Red Square After sleeping until 2 in the afternoon, trying to fight off my cold, I woke up starving. Leftover breakfast pastries just aren’t going to do it, so I put on some clothes and go out in search of lunch. The map says there is a collection of fast food places across the street from my hotel, so I decide to head that way. It turns out that the security for NYE is already in full effect. They have barricaded off Red Square essentially in concentric circles and a series of one-way paths, each circle with another security checkpoint and bag check and metal detector. Outside…
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Moscow part deux
My last train ride Now it is the final leg of my trip. I am taking the train back to Moscow to celebrate New Years Eve before coming home. It has been an amazing adventure and while I’ve written as much as I could on the road, There’s obviously so much more. I have a 4 hour train ride now and I am just going to reflect a bit on all that I’ve seen. Siberia Traveling to Siberia was really the highlight of this trip. Honestly, before I left, I had given little thought to the ‘culture’ of Siberia. When I thought of traveling there, my imagination was of lakes…
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Final Day in Saint Petersburg
Travel takes its toll My last day in Saint Petersburg and I wake up at 4 a.m. and my face is all runny and gross. :/ I have glared at every coughing child on the train and every lady who sneezed in the elevator, but after 3 weeks, I finally got some sort of cold. I get up and close the window and take some dayquil, hoping to get control over this. I finally get up at 8:30, and have to get ready for my photo tour at 11. Feeling only marginally better, it takes the entire time to get myself showered and dressed and ready. Photo tour Once the…
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Saint Petersburg Day 3
Hermitage Museum I began the day at the Hermitage museum, a former palace turned art museum. Art museums are not really my favorite things, but I make do. I like learning about art, but going to a museum in Saint Petersburg and learning about Italian Rennaissance paintings is kind of nonsensical. However, the museum itself, another former palace, is amazing. It’s beautiful and the walls and ceilings and floors are all covered in ornate paintings and carvings and stone inlay. The museum itself is way more fun to look at than the paintings. Why spend my morning elbowing tourists out of the way to look at a 12-inch tall Raphael…
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Saint Petersburg and the Ballet
Morning time After a late night, I barely dragged myself out of bed in time to get dressed and have breakfast before the tour guide arrived. The weather has been warmer, so at least my layering routine is slightly more brief. Though my level of exhaustion is making me just forgetful and I put my socks on before my tights and put my camera in my coat pocket, then move it to my backpack, then panic when I can’t find it. It takes a lot of effort to just get myself together. Yusupov Palace I met with the tour guide and we walked half an hour to Yusupov Palace. We…
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Saint Petersburg
Arrival My train arrived at 8:30 a.m. in St. Petersburg. Breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt was served on the train at 7:30 a.m., so all-in-all, I might have slept 6 hours. After 3 weeks of otherwise going hard and not sleeping…waking up at 2 a.m. and posting here, getting up at 7, walking around the city for 2 hours before my tour starts at 10, crashing at 9 p.m. to start over, I just…am exhausted. So my guide picks me up at the train. Her name is Sophia and she is blonde and beautiful and very put-together. We walked to the car, where our driver took us to breakfast at…
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Day 2 in Moscow
Tour Guide Antics Ok, totally a story I forgot to tell yesterday: When we visited St. Basil’s Catheedral, they have blocked off lots of the walking path around it, including the shortest path to GUM. Before lunch, she just leads me around the barricades, between metal barriers and the brick wall, obviously circumventing the intent of the barriers. Then, after lunch, we are trying to get back. We have passed between this barricade and the wall, 3 times. But now, there are 2 policemen there, guarding the passage. We walk over, and I assume we’re just going to go take the long way now. But oh no. This lady is…
