From Russia with love. End of the year in Moscow

Happy New Year, everybody!

I have taken two weeks break to have a small holiday, taking a break from the routine and be once again on the road. In the last twelve months, I didn’t have the time to travel, or when I had it, it was when I’ve lost my job, and I could not do it… I guess you cannot have it always your way, although, it would be great. However, this time, as I promised I am back telling you about another amazing city, Moscow, the capital of Mother Russia, a place that can surprise you, amaze you and make you want to see it again. 

A few facts about the city:

Moscow is the major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of whole Russia and Eastern Europe, besides being also the largest city entirely on the European continent.

Moscow has been classified as the ninth most expensive city in the world, even if I considered the general prices very low for being the capital.

Christmas transforms the city into a sparkling light and color show, not only in the red square, where most of the celebrations are kept but also around every corner of the city. 

The only minus is that the weather is generally quite merciless, and we were cursed by a grayish sky for our whole stay, which was a pity. 

If I had to suggest you a season when to visit Moscow, I would say that this mostly depends on what you are interested in. If you aim for long walks to the discovery of the monuments, parks, and cafeterias, and lifestyle then go on summer.

If you are interested in discovering the museums, winter activities and you want to see how a city can change its appearance between night and day, then you need to check it out during the Christmas period. At that time Moscow resembles a beautiful woman, busy and austere during the day. Charming, sparkling, and ready for the party at night.

The red square, is the main attraction in Moscow, particularly for the Christmas and New Year period, which offers many things to see and to do. Nevertheless, also the parks and the other parts of the city might offer a great insight of the lifestyle of the ordinary people.

Something that really intrigued me was the St. Basil Church; that has one of the most beautiful architectonic art. I could stay for hours to admire it without feeling tired, but this is just me.

Like I said it before, the transformation from day to night can be so impressive to make you doubt you are visiting even the same city.

For the New Year’s celebration, we asked around where it would be the best place from where to see the fireworks. Most of the people tried to dissuade us from going to see it from the Red Square. From their point of view, it was too crowded, too dangerous because of the criminality and not really enjoyable.

Needless to say, that we choose instead to go right to the Red Square, and it turned out to be the best choice, not only because it was even less crowded than people depicted it, but also the safety issues were taken care of, and we didn’t have, not even for a second, the impression of being in danger.

This is how it looks like by night:

Not to mention that the Red Square is considered the Times Square of Russia, so why to choose a different location to enjoy the fireworks?

The only difficult thing was to enter the metro station  to reach our hotel, the trains were themselves almost empty, but the entrance to the station was possible only by one door, which meant that hundreds of people tried to fit one single door at the same time...
And that's all folks, at least for this week. have a great weekend wherever you are!