The first and last time I visited Moscow during Christmas was in 2003 when I was 7 years old. Even though I was so young, I had fond memories of my two weeks there. Memories that I thought about often. Nineteen years later, I finally got the chance to go back for Christmas. I was excited and no amount of travel restrictions were going to stop me. Yes, the travel restrictions were beyond confusing for my mom and I to understand. This country needs this, that country wants that test, my mom doesn’t need that document because of this, but I need that document and it must be done in this time frame. Ugh. It was a confusing mess. More on that later. Let’s get to the fun stuff.

Day 1

My first official day in Moscow I was itching to see some flipping Christmas lights. I was still exhausted from the long flight and 12 hour time difference. I don’t adjust to new timezones like I used to in my younger years. After 23, you get sensitive to everything. Time changes, alcohol, bad mattresses… you’re gonna feel it in the morning …I do at least. Because we were tired, we decided to stick to something close to home. So we went to Park Sokolniki, which is a short bus ride from my babushkas apartment where we were staying.

We got to the park and soon after it started proper snowing. It was magical with all the Christmas lights surrounding us. My first time watching snowfall in YEARS. We spent a few hours walking around the light displays, taking pictures, and drinking a coffee from one of the food kiosks in the park while snowflakes covered us.

Day 2

I slept in pretty late, which was fine. Most of our plans for this trip was to see holiday lights at night anyway. So I spent the day making pelmeni (Russian dumplings) with my babushka.

After lunch, we got bundled up in our winter clothes since we would be spending a few hours walking around the Tverskoy District. This is the heart of Moscow. It’s where the best shopping malls are, the best views, and the cities most iconic monuments.

We got off at Lubyanskaya Square to see the Christmas lights there first. After that, we walked down Nikolskaya Street towards the Red Square.

The Red Square is always beautiful; decorated for Christmas, it’s magical. The Christmas market in the square was my first time ever visiting a European Christmas Market. I don’t know if I’ll ever visit any better than this. It’s a hard one to top.

We didn’t spend a lot of time walking around the market since it was FREEZING and slippery! Beware of the cobble stones in Red Square during the winter! XD Although, if you get too cold, there’s a huge shopping mall called GUM (goom) that will warm you right back up. I didn’t walk inside on this trip because my mom was paranoid we’d catch Covid-19 if we went in. *sigh*

While we were at the Christmas market, I did get a kebab and hot berry tea. However, the hot tea turned into cold tea rather quickly so it didn’t help warm me up much. If you’re visiting Moscow for the first time, I recommend trying the traditional pancakes called blini when you are in the market. Or trying them at least once while you are in Russia.

Day 3

On this day, my babushka showed us around some churches. The first one we went to was where her and my late grandfather got married. It’s also where I saw my first Russian church cat. I was excited to pet a cat because I was missing mine a lot. I’m sure everyone in church thought I was weird for attempting to befriend a cat the entire time.

After that church, we walked through the park to another church that we’ve never visited. It was really beautiful to see in person as the sunset was hitting the gold onion domes.

The inside of the church was beautiful and it had multiple floors we could walk through.

All these buildings are next to each other in the Sretenskiy Monastery. The Cathedral of the Vladimirskaya Icon is known for having the Our Lady of Vladimir 12th century icon and one of the five copies of the Shroud of Turin. We went down stairs into what felt like a wine cellar to look at it. I’m guessing the dim lighting and location was for the purpose of preserving and protecting it.

I’m excited to share the rest of my trip with you in the coming weeks. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

-Ayla ♥