Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Moscow, Russia - Part 1

Definitely a day late and a dollar short with this one. I took this trip back in March and have yet to post about it. Sheesh! I act like I'm busy or something - 3 kids, pregnant, and finishing grad school... Nope not busy at all :-) :-)

I had the extremely fortunate pleasure of taking a little girls trip to Moscow over the long weekend we had in March. We left the kiddos home and headed out on one of the longest domestic flights in the world. Yuzhno-Sakhlainsk, Russia to Moscow, Russia is an 8 hour flight. I know! I could have flown from JFK to Berlin, Germany in that time frame... Nope... Just straight over the Russian Siberian Tundra. It was pretty from up there though. However, I did not anticipate how long 8 hours actually is when you do not have children with you. We are frequent fliers on United Airlines flight 6 from Tokyo to Houston (12 hours) and United Airlines flight 7 from Houston to Tokyo (13 hr 40min) and have that down to a science with the kids. Easy peasy! But this "short" 8 hour flight to Moscow seemed like the longest flight in the world. We flew Aeroflot Russian Airlines and it was a really nice plane. HUGE seat back entertainment selection and economy seats were actually pretty comfortable. I had heard so many horror stories about this particular plane that goes to Moscow from Yuzhno so I was not thrilled at first. I'm not a good flier on the best of days so when I board planes that still have ashtray's in the arm rests, like the plane that takes us form Tokyo to Yuzhno, I begin to have a mild panic attack. But I was pleasantly surprised! Great plane! In a few weeks were getting on this flight again with the kids so we shall see ow they feel about it :-)

We left on a Saturday morning and landed on Saturday afternoon and stayed in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow right across the street form Red Square. It was AMAZING! We lucked out with this one. It pays off being loyal to certain hotels. You can stay in the fancier ones for next to nothing. We ALWAYS search for Marriott brand hotels when traveling. 

Inna and I headed to Arbat Street to look around and do some shopping. This street was incredible. Filled with little cafe's, bakery's, and random souvenir shops. 


One thing I did not anticipate seeing was an actual Crusty Crab restaurant from Sponge Bob Square Pants! 


Today was actually exhausting. We obviously had not adjusted to the time change and desperately needed our beds by 5 pm! We struggled our way through dinner and let me tell you... we basically sat there in silence wobbling back and fourth trying not to pass out on the table. People had to have had a good laugh over us. 

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