Russia, December 2017

9. Dez. 2017
3 Min. Lesezeit

One of the vacations that should have lasted way longer.

It all happened quite spontaneously, I managed to get my visa for russia just in time, few hours before departure.

The main purpose of this short trip was visiting Rada and Sasha, the two girls I met in Georgia this year. They invited me to visit them in Moscow/Tver.. and as I've learned from 'The Beach': "Never refuse an invitation..".

This is a short one, I just want to share some general impressions of my few days in Russia.

The people

First of all, I met some great people. This always makes a vacation special and is one of my favorite things! Radas flatmates and friends were

awesome and fun to talk to and the random other people we met were really nice in general.

Of course the main purpose of this visit was to see my friends.. and what can I say: Worth it. They made the time awesome, acted as travel guides, hosts, navigators, drivers,.. and so much more. Perfect!

The other random people.. well I've been to Russia before and this time was no different. Strangers don't want to communicate and many are not able to speak english, so communication is tough. Many times I was glad I had someone with me to translate :)

One positive thing I remember is that everybody seems to be walking the at the same speed (unlike Kuwait..). On the (freakishly long) escalators people stand on the right and walk on the left - a system that works (and that I truly appreciate for its orderly fashion).

Moscow

I didn't see much of Moscow, as I just spent one day there. But the parts I saw were as expected.. Grey sovjet-like buildings, built many decades ago. One afternoon I spent at the Red Square, where - lucky me - they had a christmas market. So I really enjoyed walking around the marked, drinking mulled wine and enjoying the snow (yeah, it was snowing. Happy me!)

Tver

So what Rada and Sasha told me in Georgia, Tver is "a village just outside of Moscow". I didn't expect that this village had a population of over 400k people and just outside means almost 200km. I guess distances are different in such a big country. If I drive 200km in Kuwait or Germany I'm in a different country. I spent two days in Tver, so I didn't see that much either. The buildings are similar to Moscow, just not as packed. And one thing I noticed is that the streets were always empty... somehow. The streets are big but there are hardly any cars around (especially compared to Kuwait..).

We visited several restaurants, cafés and bars and the food was great everywhere and the prices cheap (again - especially compared to Kuwait).

The weather

Sasha was in charge of the weather. I asked for cold weather and snow. And.. well, what can I say - she delivered. It snowed quite a bit, especially in Moscow. I loved it! The temperatures usually were around 0°C - perfect. I loved walking through the snow, although my feet were wet at most times. Putting on many layers prevented me from being cold although I didn't have any thick jackets.

Being in the forest with lots of snow was amazing. I missed snow!