Visiting Russia has been high on my travel list for a while now so I was super excited to finally get to visit! I had sent my passport off to get my Russian visa and was incredibly relieved when I got it back the DAY before I left for my trip!!! Whilst it’s a bit of a fussy visa process its 100% worth it!
First off I’ll start by answering a couple of the questions everyone always asks me about traveling to Russia!
1. Is it safe?
The biggest thing when traveling is to always be aware, use your common sense, and trust your gut! I always have to say that first since anything can happen anywhere but a lot of situations are avoidable if you take necessary precautions and learn to respond in the best way possible, which is mostly learnt by experience. That’s not specific to Russia, it accounts for everywhere, even your home town! But to answer the question, yes. I felt 100% comfortable the entire time I was in Russia, even when I was wandering around by myself! As a Westerner, my appearance doesn’t massively stand out as I do in other places like Asia, so I never had anyone react negatively to me being there which always makes me feel a bit safer. Even when I was speaking English I never felt like I had to hide the fact that I was a foreigner, and no one was ever rude to me when speaking (Not that I noticed anyway).
2. What are the locals like?
The stereotype is that Russians are very serious and never smile, this is somewhat true but not in a bad way! I felt a little intimidated before I went and I was told to not laugh or smile too much on the streets or people will think you’re crazy! That’s not the case at all, well not in the big cities of St Petersburg and Moscow anyway, remembering they’re the only spots I visited so my experiences only account for there! Whilst Russians are very blunt, most I met were smiley and up for a chat – but perhaps this is a bit of Americanisation, especially with the younger people. Generally though, they prefer to get straight to the point, and small talk and humour is kept more private with their family and friends. There were a few times when I was by myself and I got pretty lost, and every time there was always someone walking past that I could ask for help, and they were always happy to help me out!
3. Isnt it freezing?!
The weather was one of the things I was most concerned about before I left!! And whilst it is important for you to consider it and make sure you pack appropriate attire, it was definitely not something that would stop you from traveling there, or that you even need to overthink! I travelled Russia in January, and to be honest, it was definitely not as cold as I was expecting it to be! I mean by Australian standards it was chilly! But it probably only averaged about -7c and got down to -15ish. The key is your layering and good boots, as long as your toes are warm and you can easily add/ remove layers then you’ll be fine. There’s no such thing as being too cold if you’ve got the right layers!
Now I’ll get into what I did when I was in Russia! But if you have any other questions about Russia or any other travel questions, you can leave a comment on this blog, email me or message me on Insta (@alexxsadventures)!
St Petersburg!
I stayed near the Galleria Shopping Mall and Moskovskiy Train Station which was a fab location to get around the city from! The biggest must do in St Petersburg is the Hermitage Museum, one of the oldest museums in the world and it’s actually inside the Winter Palace!
Fun fact, if you spent a minute looking at every piece, it would take you 11 years to look at everything the museum has to offer!!
I obviously didn’t have a spare 11 years to do so, so I opted to go with a guide who could show me around the most important and notable pieces inside the museum! This still took many hours but oh wow, I’m usually not a big museum person but this one literally took my breath away!!
The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood is another must see in town, unfortunately they were doing renovations on it when I was there, so it was covered in scaffolding! Still great to see anyway!
Saint Isaac’s Cathedral – the largest orthodox basilica in the world and offers the best views over the city! I accidentally bought the wrong ticket first as I only wanted to go up to the top not inside, and that was the best mistake I made!! Inside was absolutely breathtaking, one of the most stunning cathedrals I’ve ever been in! The intricacy and detail is just incredible, I really could have spent hours in there as well!
Nevsky Prospect is the main street that runs through the whole city, and whilst it’s fun to walk down, it’s twice as fun just to say the name hahaha. Go on try saying in, Neeeeevvvskyyyy. Add the twang and a little Russian accent, its just so fun!
Moscow
I took an overnight train from St Petersburg to Moscow, and it definitely had to be the easiest way to transfer!! I love a good train ride and with a bed too!! There’s nothing better than the gentle sway of the train rocking you to sleep.
The train arrived at around 7am and we jumped on a tour bus to do a quick driving tour of the city before we could check into the hotel that afternoon. The first stop on the driving tour was of course St Basils Cathedral in the Red Square! There’s something so special about seeing that iconic symbol of a country, right in front of you.
We then drove around the city to get our bearings a bit and get to hear all about Moscow’s history from the warmth of the bus!
The next day I toured around the Kremlin, which includes Putin’s office and helicopter pads (instead of a carpark or course), wandered down Nikol’skaya ulitsa which still had the gorgeous lights hanging down the entire main street, had a delicious Russian pancake for lunch which is basically just a savoury crepe but just so yum!!
That afternoon I took a Moscow subway tour, which was the perfect way to get to see as many of the stunning underground stations as possible, in a few hours!! Moscow has some of the most elaborate metro stops Ive ever seen!! I felt like I was walking through a palace!! They all have a different theme, whether it be stained glass, mosaics, gold ect. And the loooongest escalators which seem to go on forever you can barely see the end!! It was great going with a guide as not only could I get to see lots of the stations but I also learnt heaps about them! There’s different opinions on why the metro stations are so extravagant, some being that it was an idea to decorate them like palaces to share some of Russians wealth with the public so they too felt like they had a palace of their own. Others say that the leader of the Soviet Union at the time planned that it would serve as an advertisement of the soviet workers paradise. Either way I very much appreciated exploring them and definitely felt like I was walking through palaces whilst in transit!
That night was super special for me as I got to experience the Russian ballet and the Bolshoi theatre!! The show was La Bayadere performed on the Historic Stage and the ticket was a Christmas present from my parents, and I felt so lucky to have already had the ticket as the show was completely sold out!
The theater inside was absolutely stunning, I had a box seat to the left of the stage so I had a perfect view over the stage, orchestra and the rest of the theater! The show was just incredible, each dancer almost robotic in their perfectly choreographed movement! I was in absolute awe of the moment!!
The last day included a little photo shoot back in front of St Basil’s Cathedral, I just had to! And then we just spent the rest of the day wandering around the gorgeous city! Shout out to Aurora and Shannon, some epic gals I met and became good friends with in Russia!! Lots of laughs and its always fun to get to share these incredible travel experiences with friends!
I think I babble a bit too much in these blogs but I’m obviously so passionate about traveling!! I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Russia!! Stay tuned for my upcoming epic adventures!!
Signing off,
Alexx
Alex's Adventures 