Oh, Moscow. My second home. I know some people call places they’ve visited their second home but I actually mean it. I’ve spent countless summers (countable by my mom because she has a freakishly good memory) and one winter in Moscow since I was an infant. I feel like my post on Moscow should be some big epic tale of my life and all the times I’ve spent there. But knowing me, I’ll probably go back again and again so I could make future blog posts full of stories and facts about my past lives in Russia. This first one we can keep more like my other destinations. A little story maybe, a picture or two, some random facts, another picture. You know. Typical travel blogger fashion. The pictures in this post will also all be from my most recent trip in Moscow.

Red Square

The Red Square is home to many famous places in Moscow. Probably the MOST famous. It is also right in the center of this huge cosmopolitan city. Which is nice for travelers since no matter where you are staying in the city, it wont be too far from you. 

On the day we went, the square was celebrating the history festival. There were rides, food stands, lots of souvenirs and cool decorations.

I didn’t get a chance to go inside any of the museums or churches in the Red Square on this trip, mostly because my mom didn’t want to wait in line and pay for something she’s already seen, but I did get to go inside GUM. GUM is pronounced like goom and it’s a huge mall with famous designer stores from all over. My mom’s bought some of her favorite clothes from there way back in the 80’s and 90’s. We bought some gelato while we were there, but that’s about it this time around.

I hope next time I go to Russia it’s in the wintertime. I would love to see the beautiful ice sculptures and holiday lights in the Red Square like I did when I was eight. 

I don’t always remember the history of the places I visit but the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was easier to remember since my mom was the one telling me about it. 

It’s the tallest Christian Church in the world, which is hard to tell in photos, but it was complete destroyed by Joseph Stalin and turned to a massive swimming pool at one point. My mom actually swam in the pool when she was 10 years old. Obviously, it was later rebuilt and is once again the tallest Christian church. When you’re walking around, it’s hard to imagine it was once a swimming pool.

The area inside and right around the Business Center isn’t that nice (maybe because there was construction and cars), but from a distance, it’s a cool place to take pictures. It’s also right on the Moscow River so it’s worth walk around the area and along the river. But I wouldn’t go out of my way just to see the Business Center.

Kuskovo

Kuskovo was far from where we were staying in Moscow but it was worth all the subways and buses we had to take to get there. It’s a beautiful estate with a palace, museum, pond and cute buildings. We saw a lot of Russian girls having photoshoots in the park and a few people painting views of the palace.

VDNKh Park

What’s great about many of the parks in Moscow is they aren’t just ponds, gardens and rides. There’s museums, art, royal estates, stores, restaurants, aquariums and more! You could spends a weekend just walking through one of these huge parks.

VDNKh Park, or VDNH, or Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva, or All-Russian Exhibition Center, is one of these parks. There is SO much to see, do and learn in this one park. It’s a park which has the purpose to teach its visitors Russia’s achievements in language, culture, history and even space!

I was very excited to get the chance to go inside the Museum of Cosmonautics. I mean, it was the Russians who basically invited outer space, right? Jokes aside, they did make groundbreaking discoveries and inventions when it comes to space and space travel. Going inside a museum that shows you some real life inventions and machines from the Space Age was incredible. I don’t have dreams of going up into space, but going inside this museum made the thought of it so cool. Sometimes it even felt like I was in a real space station.

Besides the space museum, we also walked inside the aquarium and basically the entire park. Our feet hated us by the end of the night.

I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading a bit from my 2016 trip to Moscow. I’m trying to convince my mom to have us go in winter next time. Fingers crossed she misses the snow and ice enough to say yes!

-Ayla♥