Shai and I are at it again. About a year ago the itch for adventure and craving for something other than our lovely Cali bubble hit us. So we sat down with our schedules, a calender and started making plans. Needless to say we decided on Russia in the winter. Many of you have asked why? To be honest our first reasoning was: "we did a beach last time, this will be different" and "if we're going to go somewhere that has a winter, why not go somewhere that is in winter, so therefor has things to do that aren't outside when it is butt cold".
There you have it folks, we are a little impulsive when it comes to traveling outside of the US. A few things we learned/realized after we had bought our tickets to Russia:
- -The 2014 Winter Olympics are happening in Sochi Russia in February
- -A law passed banning homophobia (no bueno)
- -My ancestors on my fathers side, the Germans from Russia, left Russia December 28, 1913. Making our visit to Russia exactly 100 years and two days from when they left.
- -There is a winter festival in Moscow the first couple of weeks of January. What the entitles, we're not completely sure, but I'm excited to find out.
and finally
- -Since the country is a northern country, it is dark much more than we are used to.
That final one was in the "I know" category, but right now I am sitting in my hostel kitchen blogging at 9:30am and there has yet to be a change in the sky from when we landed yesterday around 5:00 pm. It is dark, cold and beautiful.
After Shai and I landed yesterday and got to our cute little hostel, we bundled up with empty stomachs and headed out in search of food and the Red Square for New Years Eve. Did I mention that I am borrowing a full length mink from a friends mother? I'm not so used to wearing a dead animal, and feeling super weird fancy, so I didn't wear it out last night. I realized after the fact that I would have fit in completely. I have never seen so many fur coats in my life.
To continue to blog in bullet points, here is a list of a collaboration of first impressions of Moscow, Russia (and some pictures):
- -High fashion vs New Years Eve (I'm sure this will come up more later) The ladies are serious. It's a good thing I had a hair plan and some really good red lipstick.
- -It is a beautiful city, and has tons of festive lights up, fulfilling Shai's love of Christmas festiveness
- -The music in the cab on the way to our hostel was a great cultural moment. Think hard rock and gay boy dance music with lots of Russian gravely smoker vocals that would put Tom Waits to shame.
- -The Moscow Metro isn't playing around and puts our dinky little commuter trains to shame.
- -Police presence is just as prevalent if not more than in the Bay
- -Two words. Meat Pocket. We did finally find food and to my excitement I found something similar to what I consider from my food heritage, Kraut Broca
- -To both of our pleasant surprise, it's not too cold. It's still COLD, let's be real, but as long as our skin is covered, it's not bad.
Finally, here are some pictures from last night walking around. We send you an early Happy New Year! Love from Mother Russia.
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| "All the lights!" |
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| Meat Pocket! |
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| Just outside of the Red Square |
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| The line to get into Red Square |
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| The obligatory selfie |
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| The mile long escalator in the Moscow Metro |
Send comments, and or suggestions of places/ideas for photos/food suggestions (and just to let us know your reading).
More love from Russia soon!
xoxo
Em and Shai
