Memorable Russia

     After my wife’s endless persistence, here I am writing about my trip to Russia recently. By right, I should have written all the trips I had gone to these couple of years. But laziness got the better of me. What to do, kann but thinking back, probably there was too much thought to put in words and other affairs got the better of me.

berjemaah

It was the 14^th September and everyone was at home. How happy and thankful I was. That night, after solat berjemaah, we went for dinner at Prime Steak House. Everybody ate to their heart’s content. And later we had ice-cream treat. It felt good to be able to take everyone for dinner and have a quality time with the family. But around 11pm I had to force myself to sleep because I needed to wake within three hours from then. Susah bebeno nk tido nyaa. Well, good luck! 

dinner timeee

At half past 1 am, I was awakened and quickly took my shower. Since everything was already packed in our luggage, I prepared a simple alas perut before my wife and I left the house at 2.30 am. By 5.40 am after a piece of canai n a glass of nescafe kurang manis at a nearby cafe, and parking the Odyssey, we were already at the Salak Tinggi ERL station. We reached KLIA around 6.30 ++ and met up with the rest of the tour members. The flight which was scheduled at around 10.20 was delayed to 11. I just couldn’t wait to board the plane because I felt so sleepy. And true, once I was inside I fell asleep immediately and only woke up an hour before reaching Abu Dhabi for an hour or so layover before catching another plane to Moscow. 

Abu Dhabi

By now I was wide awake and had my meal in the airplane while watching a couple of movies. It was a long flight lasting over 12 hours in total but worth the time. We landed around 7 pm local and met with our Russian tour guide Elana, and a bus waiting outside the airport. It was quite cold outside, and we had our dinner at the hotel’s room which was a pack of nasi with mutton and pita bread and some salad. Sedappp je. Especially so because I gulped down everything with a mug of Nescafe. I guess we were hungry kot. Then it was sleep tight time since we were rather tired and jetlagged from the long flight.  

Moscow Airport

  

First nite dinner!

16^th - The next day, after a fitful sleep, we started late, around 9.30 am, which was to my liking. Unlike the trips I had had before, we would normally leave the hotel latest by 7.30. So it was a welcome change. We went to Red Square, which is famous for the St Basil’s Cathedral. Standing in Red Square, you can see the most significant buildings in the capital: the Kremlin, GUM department store, the State History Museum, Lenin's Mausoleum, and of course, St Basil's Cathedral. We spent like three hours there taking endless photos and having ice-cream at one of the many parlors.

welcome to Moscow!!

After lunch, it was time to visit the Kremlin, which is a citadel that holds four churches, a few palaces and also the official residence for the Russian president. The buildings were all magnificent and dated back hundreds of years ago. Finally we went to the Armoury Chamber which preserves ancient State regalia, ceremonial royal garment and coronation dresses, vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church Hierarchs, the largest collection of gold- and silverware made by Russian craftsmen, West European artistic silver, ceremonial arms and armour, carriages and horse ceremonial, and many more. It is amazing that they have been able to keep everything preserved. We were not allowed to take photos there, but we managed hahaa. Pardon me. By 5pm, everyone was tired and so we went for dinner and headed back to our hotel. 

one of the many beautiful cathederals 

Armoury Chamber

Moscow at dusk

 

17^th- The next morning, we were taken to Moscow Metro. It was underground, probably more than 50 metres deep I guess, (83 metres deep actually) but the design was both extravagant and unique. And it’s clean too. I was amazed with the artwork found on the walls there. And I was told that the escalator that took us down at the Park Pobedy station in the Moscow Metro is 126 meters (413 ft) long and have 740 steps. 

 

It is one of the longest escalators in Europe and the world. Very impressive engineering and craftsmanship, I must say. Later that day, we went to Arbat Street to do a little shopping before having lunch. What fascinated me about these Muscovites is that they are so relaxed, not in a rush to do or go to places. At 5.30pm we boarded a train heading to St Petersburg. The train was supposed to be a bullet train but I found it to be in the same league as the ETS we have back home. Nevertheless it was a comfortable journey. By the time we arrived at St Petersburg it was at 9.30pm but the city centre was still bustling with crowds. St Petersburg looks more hectic compared to Moscow. After dinner, we were taken to our hotel for a well-deserved rest. By the way, both hotels’ rooms in Moscow and St Petersburg are large and comfortable. Even the breakfast had abundant foodstuffs to choose from. But this Cosmo Hotel in St Petersburg is so huge that it has approximately 4000 rooms. Pehh!  

lunch today -

18^th-  The next morning, after breakfast and a 40 minutes bus ride, we reached  the most amazing and most beautiful palace called Peterhof or Summer Palace. It had a spectacular garden in front of the main entrance with a fountain in the middle of it. It was built during the time of Peter, around the 1700, one of the kings of Russia. It was built beside the Gulf of Finland and actually there are a few galleries that hold memorabilia and other mementos received from dignitaries many years ago. The palace was astonishingly beautiful and I was impressed by the luxurious landscape and fountains that face the gulf.

After lunch we went around St Petersburg and prayed at a local mosque there. At night, we were entertained to a royal dinner at the palace of Grand Duke Nikolay, complete with an accompanying pianist, and later we watched a folk show which I must admit was quite entertaining. Seeing the artistes dancing made me feel so vibrant. Albeit the language barrier I was still thrilled to watch a live show here in St Petersburg. That wrapped up our day, and night. 

to be continued..