Moscow, Russia

Dustan and I chose to visit Russia for his birthday b/c we wanted to say we had been there. Well, we can say we have been there!! That's about all I got out of the trip...I decided to make a top ten list of all the things I hated about Russia.



10. Moscow is a very dirty city. I would like to blame it on the winter, but I have seen pretty harsh winters in the states & the city wasn't disgusting once spring hit. There was trash everywhere and everything seemed very nasty. There were workers painting the railings and light posts all around the city. I don't know if that is a annual thing or not, but it showed promise. There were trucks that drove around the city & sprayed water on the streets. I have NO idea why, but I think it had something to do with the dirt. I tried to google it, but nothing really came up.



9. The men in Moscow were horribly unattractive. I've never really seen people so incredibly rough looking. The hair trend for men in Russia appeared to be a horrible version of the mullet. It's sort of a rat tail/mullet, actually. It was hideous! I'm usually not one to judge somebody based on their appearance, but I couldn't help myself in Moscow. Picture the most horribly scary & unattractive man. Yep, that's all of the male population in Russia. The young women were beautiful. I can completely understand why there are so many Russian mail order brides.



8. Moscow was not designed for tourism. It's a big city & everything is very spread out. If you don't know where you are going, you don't get to see much of anything. Luckily, we had a few major things mapped out. After we saw those things, we were pretty much done! We spent a lot of time sleeping. The time difference & jetlag got to me.

7. Moscow was very expensive. It felt like a very poor city, but everything was pricey. The vodka was the only thing that was reasonable!! It only cost about $2 for a decent sized bottle of vodka! Vodka was a big deal in Russia. People were taking shots for breakfast! It was a little insane. Most of the American restaurants like McD's were about the same price, but any Russian place was very expensive. Needless to say, we stuck to American restaurants.



6. Besides the extreme cost of food, places to eat were VERY hard to find. I'm used to restaurants and fast food joints to be peppered along any street. In Moscow, everything was very spread out & hard to find. We had to walk around forEVER to find a frigging McD's [or any kind of food]! Do you know how difficult that is in a foreign place? It's no picnic!!

5. There was an hour line for Lenin's mausoleum. It was cold & I wasn't really interested in seeing a preserved dead guy, but my hubby wanted to see it & it was his birthday trip...so I went along. They didn't allow cameras or bags in the mausoleum. You couldn't talk & you had to walk briskly thru the area two at a time. There were 6 Russian guards standing around and watching every move. It seemed a little extreme. The body was pretty well preserved, but I was disgusted by it. A dead guy in a glass bubble? Ew. I still don't understand why Lenin was celebrated. He started communism!! I wouldn't celebrate a communist leader. No way!

4. Unlike most cities we have visited, Moscow was not 'English' friendly. NOTHING was in English & nobody wanted to help us. I felt like some of them probably understood us, but still refused to help us. The people at the hotel spoke a little English, but they were not that helpful. It was super difficult to read the metro & street signs. If I didn't marry such a smart and adaptable guy, I would have been totally out of luck. I was expecting Russia to be a breeze since Japan was easy peasy, but it was by far the most difficult place we've been to.



3. The airport was pretty nuts. They were very strict and picked on certain nationalities. They seemed to have NO problem with racial profiling in Moscow! To get thru security screening, you had to scramble for a box on the floor of a tight room with dozens of other people & hold everything in your hands until you got to the x-ray machine. There was no table, just the machine. It was something I would expect to see on a game show. It was actually kind of amusing! Stressful, but amusing.

2. The plane rides were terrible. We got stuck on very old Continental planes each way. The TVs only had a few options & the movies only ran every 3hrs...so there was plenty of dead time. Luckily, I was able to sleep most of the time. On the way to Amsterdam [from Moscow] our flight got incredibly delayed due to a drunken idiot. He wouldn't sit still or stay buckled in his seat, so the plane had to turn around & have him escorted off. Since we had to turn around, the plane had to be refueled. It took quite a bit of time!! If it had not been so entertaining, I would have been pissed. The female Dutch flight attendant and the guy's family members beat the hell out of him for being drunk & acting up. I was surprised! In America, that kind of abuse would be considered assault and those people would have been arrested for it. Instead, the drunk guy got arrested for delaying the flight. After we got off the ground, everything was fine.



1. The worst part of Moscow was the weather!! It was cold...super cold! Cold & windy. I've never been a fan of the cold, unless there's falling snow involved. I can pretty much handle any amount of cold if there's a pretty snowfall. It wasn't snowing in Moscow!! It was the start of spring, but it was still VERY cold. After a long and oddly harsh winter in the states, I didn't want to deal with more cold weather. Especially after experiencing 80+ degree weather in Houston before the trip! I don't know how people survive long, harsh winters. I guess if you were born in a cold climate & grew up with it, you are more accustomed to it. I was born & raised in Houston...I want warm weather! I am happy to be back in Texas and I'm counting down the day until my cruise! Sun, sand and a drink in my hand. YES, PLEASE!!

The best part about the Moscow trip was spending time with my wonderful husband. It's never a bad trip with him by my side. He's simply amazing! I'll never, ever visit Russia again, but at least I can say I have been there, done that! I know this blog is mostly bitching and complaining about my trip, but I wanted to paint an accurate picture of Moscow for everyone who reads this. The hotel we stayed at was pretty much amazing, but I think that's the only positive thing I can say about the trip [besides spending quality time with my hubbs]! We're happy to be back home & we're not as jetlagged as we expected to be. However, I think it's time for bed now!

Thanks for reading.
XOXO