Russia: Moscow

Another work-trip to a new destination. I have been to Russia once, to St. Petersburg, years ago. In fact, except Finland and Sweden, it was my first trip abroad. Moscow tho was new for me and quite interesting to explore.

St. Basil's Catherdral

For some reason I have always really really wanted to see this one. It looks straight out of a fairy-tale.

 Its official name is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat. The cathedral is actually 9 churches at once, as it consists of 9 different chapels. In 1990, it became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in 1555-1561 by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible to commemorate his victory over the Kazan Khanate. Legend has it that Ivan had the architects blinded so that they could never build anything comparable. 

Altho it was march, (central) Moscow was in full lights like at christmas time.

The tomb of the unknown soldier. 

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains the remains of a soldier (or soldiers) who died in December 1941 in WW II.  It's a national pilgrimage spot, where newlyweds bring flowers and have their pictures taken. And well tourists too, lots of tourists. 

Kremlin.

The Red Square. 

It was formerly a market square and the home for parades. The square is where you’ll find many of the city’s most recognisable and significant relics including the walls of the Kremlin, GUM shopping centre, the State History Museum and the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin. 

Our trip to Moscow began well as we were called to the counter in the airport. We had a thousand ideas what could be wrong with our quickly obtained visa, but we never learned the actual reason, they just double checked a few facts. And off we were on the Aeroflot. Moscow is only an hour away from Tallinn so we had a full day of discovering before net day's meeting. Or.. we would've had a full day, but the hotel had lost our booking, and they were also sold out. After a long argument with a completely rude and indifferent concierge we managed to get an apartment in the hotel-owned building nearby. He very unwillingly offered us breakfast in the hotel the next morning and until the end refused to admit it was the hotel's fault the booking was lost. Welcome to Russia. 

Moscow has horrible traffic. Luckily, there run aeroexpress trains from airports to town. We almost managed to get stuck between the doors while entering, both of us at the same time. I guess these trains don't wait for no-one. 

Gum!

Gum and Tsum are the largest, quite over-the-top and overpriced shopping malls in Moscow. Both are reminiscent of the New Russian joke about the two oligarchs: Boris Nikolayevich is walking down the street when he runs into his friend Andrei Ivanovich. "That's a lovely tie," Boris Nikolayevich tells his friend. "Thank you," says Andrei Ivanovich. "I spent $900 on it in Paris." To which Boris Nikolayevich replies: "You fool! You could have stayed in Moscow and paid $2,000." 

A huge mall for kids stuff only! 

Tsum!

Bolshoi Theatre. 

The oldest theater in Moscow, rebuilt several times in history, e.g after a fire, war and storms. On 28th of October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. It is magnificent both inside and out. It's amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers.

They are ready for the MM. I'm excited too!

Red square at night! 

Could not resist buying this lovely matryoshka doll as a souvenir, and candy, lots of Russian candy!

In the end of our trip we almost managed to leave ourselves to Moscow. We were in the airport ahead of time, sat down in a cafeteria, ordered food, chilled, until saw a tablo showing the Tallinn flight 2 hours later. Angry, we were gonna get home so late again, I went to check the situation. Came out, the tablo in the cafeteria was wrong (?!?). Live flight info said everything is ok, in fact, boarding had started, somehow so comfortably when we thought we still have a lot of time, we definitely would have forgotten to go to the gate at the right time. Thankfully, food came quick and we could literally see our gate from the table, so, finished our dumplings quickly, packed the garlic bread to go and did not miss our flight after all.