Vacation in Russia - Visiting Moscow

In the fall of 2016, my cousin first suggested that we visit Moscow together. It started as a joke, but by the end of the year, the plans had become more concrete. Ultimately, it became a seven-day trip in August 2017.

Our journey began in Prague, where we flew directly to Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport. The outbound flight was a bit strange. Since the plane was overbooked, we almost had to sit in jump seats in the kitchen. Eventually, a few other passengers didn’t show up in time, so we ended up with the boring regular seats after all.

The city was a completely different experience to anything I had seen before. There were really impressive and well-maintained monuments everywhere, as well as decayed residential blocks all over the city. One of the first places we came across was the Red Square with the Kremlin.

Of course, we also visited the Lenin Mausoleum there. After waiting for half an hour in the line to the entrance, we finally got to take the few-minute tour through the mausoleum. Oddly enough, there was a guard checking our bags at the entrance and he took a bottle of Sternburg beer, which I brought from Germany, out of my backpack and examined it thoroughly - I was absolutely convinced he wouldn’t let me bring it inside - but then he just looked at me, nodded, and put it back into my backpack.

What impressed me most while touring through the city were all the beautiful and magnificent parks scattered throughout it.

The main entrance to the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, named after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky:

A monument to honor the fallen soldiers of the First World War in front of Victory Park

Welcome to Losiny Ostrov National Park, also called Elk Island. This is the view outside Belokamennaya station in the park. We didn’t see any elk, but we did come across several of their tracks.

Kolomenskoye, a former royal estate in Moscow.

Another attraction we visited was the Ostankino Tower. This was the view over the city from the observation platform at about 350 metres above the ground.