Mighty Moscow

After getting lost in the back and beyond of Russia yesterday we decided to play it safe and actually look up how to get to train station in order for us to travel the 715km on the Sapsan Train to Moscow. It was another early start, having to be out of the hotel at 5.30am to catch the first metro of the morning ensuring we had enough spare time if something happened to go wrong before our train left the terminal at 7.05am. I'm starting to think that I was way too eager when I booked all of these early morning trains to ensure our time was maximised everywhere. The only thing that is maximised right now is my tiredness (I know, boohoo to me 😢).

We found the train station and the train with relative ease and jumped on board eager to see our next Russian City. We had booked two window seats on a four seater table berth and sat down to shortly be greeted by a hungover Russian guy named Kiril who was 5 months older than Jamie, was an Event Planner from Moscow who had been in St Petersburg for an event, and, had had a hard night the night before and offered his leftover beer as if to prove his point. Now you might think that Kiril knew amazing English however, you'd be wrong. We quickly determined that he couldn't speak much English nor us Russian and the conversation took place via hand gestures and google translate. Jamie and Kiril hit it off and they giggling like little school girls writing each other love notes on their phones while I watched on from the opposite side of the table like a third wheel on a date. Things got a bit more intense when, after watching my episode of Grey's Anatomy, I looked up and Kiril was now fast asleep on Jamie's shoulder to which he remained for the remainder of the trip. Cue dramatic heartbreak.

We arrived at the Train Station and Kiril made a quick getaway, not saying goodbye to his new friend. Jamie, saddened and feeling used, had to resort to hold Teemu until he regained his composure. Teemu just gave this blank stare like he didn't care but Jamie was too busy wiping away the tears to notice. Once composed, we made our way to the Metro Station and after the ease of navigating the metro stations in St Petersburg we thought we had this business down. We proceeded to stand in line for a ticket machine until we got to the front and realised it was only for recharging a pre-existing card, we then thought "no worries, it must be these other machines" and again stood in another line until we realised the different looking machine was actually just a newer version of the same one we stood at previously. We then decided to actually go to a ticket kiosk, and when we finally got to the front - the lady couldn't understand us. Flummoxed and still reeling from his earlier heartbreak, Jamie proved a common male notion wrong and asked the information people for help. Fortunately, they spoke English and wrote down our requirements on a piece of paper to hand to the ladies at the ticket kiosk.

After the better part of an hour mucking around trying to work out how to get our metro tickets, we were on our way and walked to the ticket barriers to find that they are actually tap and go, and we could have used a credit card..... I don't think words can do justice for the looks that came over our faces so I will let you use your imagination. The prices are fairly reasonable for a metro ride at 30 rubles a trip regardless of where you end up in town. I know Russia is big and ginormous, but Auckland could learn a thing or two about affordable and efficient public transport from this place.

On our brief metro trip, it was now Teemu's turn to make a Russian Friend and was accousted by a lovely Russian lady in her 50's, pointing and cooing over Teemu which he later told me translated to "you are so super adorable". The men in my life are obviously a hit with the Russians.

When we finally got to our metro station, we had a brief walk through our hotel neighbourhood which can only be described as the Shoreditch (for those familar with London) or Kingsland/Ponsonby (for those familiar with Auckland) of Moscow with random Russian girls posing all artsy like for other girls with big fancy cameras everywhere. I felt like I had just walked into a Vogue fashion shoot looking all casual in my quicksilver hoodie, no make up and heavy bags under my eyes.

After dropping our bags we made a beeline for lunch at a place called Pinch which had the most amazing lemon drop cocktail (gin, lemoncello and prosecco) I've ever had for a casual 7 pounds or so.. it was so good I forgot to get a photo. I'll probably go back so I'm not worried. The food was delicious albeit small so obviously dessert was a must. Fortunately, Jamie "knew" a place and had already identified the location of a cake cafe aptly named "I love cake" near our hotel. Upon arrival at the cafe there was a big glass window fill of cakes to choose from, the selection was too tough but in the end we went for a coconut raspberry angel cake. The filling was a condensed milk icing which was super sickly sweet and dense and didn't really do it for me but Jamie was a big fan.

After the heart attack inducing dessert, we went for a walk around the local neighbourhood and came across a photographic exhibition documenting industrial scenes from power plants to welding complete with beautiful flowers and hedge sculptures. I'll give the Russians this, they certainly are eclectic.

In desperate need of fruit to feel healthy again, we found the local supermarket and spent most of the time perusing the vodka section (it's healthy, it's made of potatoes). We ended up buying some actual fruit but more importantly picked up some red Georgian wine from the Kakheti region and some Spanish rose (it's healthy, it's made with fruit). The Georgian wine was absolutely delicious and for €5 pounds we will probably pick up some more for our trans-siberian train journey in a few days time.

Our days events ended with a dinner at a local Shawarma restaurant (very Russian I know) which had the most delicious moutabal and shawarmas we had ever tasted and a wander through the illustrious neighbourhood lit up by fairy lights adjacent to our hotel.

Current distance between us and Auckland: 16,100kmRead more