to Moscow
We were very fortunate to have the experience of travelling in business class on the way from Ottawa to Moscow. And trust me, if you are going to do the milk run of seeing Toronto, Newark, and Stockholm before landing in Russia, it is worth it. A million thanks to my brother Chris for being so generous in providing these flights for Tanya and I.
Needless to say, it was long and exhausting on the way over. Emotions were running high prior to
leaving, and the sleep was at an all time low. The flights themselves were unremarkable...just long! Almost 26 hours after arriving at the Ottawa airport, we arrived in Moscow. I wasn't too certain what to expect culturally from Moscow as it really isn't a city I know a lot about. First impressions...bleak.
Most buildings here are grey, beige, light grey, light beige; you can see what I am getting at. There are interestingly not many smiles to be had from the people themselves either. It's not because they are unhappy, it is simply the way the culture works.
We arrived at the Best Western Vega in downtown Moscow, then managed some sleep at about 4:30AM. Sunday the 8th, we had as a free day, so we took the opportunity to travel by metro (subway) to the city centre to take a look around. It was quite an adventure as the language and alphabet are quite different in the Russian language. After looking at the tour map many times and matching the writing on the walls to the ones in the pamphlet, we got on the right subway and ended up in Red Square.
We jumped onto a hop on, hop off guided tour of the downtown area. Being from Canada, we really do have quite a poor sense of history as we've really only had a couple hundred years to build upon. It is always interesting to visit a city like Moscow, which has been existence a little over a thousand years! Quite amazing! After seeing the tour of the Kremlin, Red Square and looking at many grey and beige buildings, it was back to the hotel to wait until sleep would come...again sometime around 4:30AM.