Hello, my lovelies,
This is a slightly unusual post comparing to what I've wrote about until now. Aside from fashion and beauty posts, one of my all time favorite activities is travelling, hence the title. I've always encouraged people to go to different cities, countries as it is an incredibily constructive experience which helps us expand our horizons of thinking in ways we coudn't imagine. Aquiring knowledge about others culture and habits is a very nurturing process - it makes us to willingly consider new ideas,be less prejudiced. Another reason of why I like going to new places is admiring their architecture, their buildings, those disctinctive and beautiful views you get just by looking right and left. It is wonderful.
"I'VE LEFT MY HEART IN /(...)" will be a series of posts about the places I've been to recently.
The first one I chose to talk about is Moscow, Russia as it was the most interesting culture shocks I've been through and I loved it completly. One might be wondering "Why Russia?" and I would reply "Why not Russia?" - I remember my mom being so scared, but happy at the same time when I gave her the news that I was going to Moscow. To be mentioned is that I went there on a faculty matter along with one my friends. It was so funny because before that I was going through a bit of rough patch and this was a spur of the moment kind of decision, nothing was planned in advance, reason why my mom was happy that I was doing something for myself, but did it have to be Russia? Well, in retrospect, it seems it had to be.
When I first stepped foot on Russian soil, my immediate reaction was "It is so freaking cold out here!" And it was October, I believe, but it felt like winter in January (Romania), minus the snow. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience a snowy Moscow, but that would have been marvellous.
After landing, we managed to take the train to the city where two Russian students were waiting for us to arrive. They helped us get Troika cards for their Moscow Metro as we were going to stay for quite a while and getting that is mandatory, especially if you're planning to visit a lot of the city. Understanding their Metro was not hard at all, mostly because I am familiar with their language and cyrillic letters. One thing that appeared as a culture shock was the following: my friend and I are happy looking entities, we smile, almost constantly, which felt wrong as most of Moscow's inhabitans don't really smile, especially in the Metro, fact which provoked a few stares back at us, but it wasn't bothering, it was just unsual. Fortunately, the two Russian students sent from the faculty to help us settle in, were all smiley and cute. We've enjoyed their company very much and we still keep in touch today.
After we settled in, during the following couple of weeks we've visited as much as we could of Moscow. We also booked a train ticket to Saint Petersburg as we don't go to Russia on a daily basis, so we figured we might as well visit Saint P. In the first day, I remember rushing to the Metro station, which was very close to where we stayed at, to go in the heart of the city and get a first glimpse of what Moscow has to offer, and of course, we hit the most iconic Red Square, the psychadelic St Basil's Cathedral, the fortified central complex - Moscow's Kremlin, their ginormous Mall and other impressing landmarks.
We also visited three museums: The Puskin Museum, Mikhail Bulgakov House Museum ( the author of "The Master and Margarita" novel) and Tetryakov Gallery. I don't have any photos from Tetryakov Gallery as we had encountered some technical problems and some of the photos got lost. But below you can see a few photos from the Pushkin Museum which were saved.
And a few photos from Bulgakov's House:
There would be a lot more to say about this beautiful place, but if you're interested in more details, just ask and I will do my best to answer.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Moscow. It is a great city, filled with a lot of history, royaly constructed metro stations, beautiful architecture and vibrant, astonishing buildings. Everything seems higher there. It is just wonderful.
If you ever get the chance to visit Moscow, don't be afraid of the cold weather. If you get too cold, just go somewhere and warm yourself up by drinking some good mulled wine. Personally, I liked the one they have at Gogol Club. After a glass of that thing, I can assure you that the cold weather will be elegantly defeated and you will have more fun. As a side note, you must have your ID with you everywhere you go because you'll be asked you hand it over, so they can verify if you're underaged.
Thank you so much for reading!
Next travel post will be about Saint Petersburg.
I hope you are having a nice weekend!
-V
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