Solo Travel in Moscow I

Arbat Street - Sokolniki Park - Teremok - Izmailovsky Market - VDNKh - Flacon Design Factory

"Why Russia?"
"Why not?"

Hello, you!

I am here to share with you (and my future self) my recent trip to Russia and The Netherlands! Just the thought of it makes me giddy with excitement already.

This trip marked my first solo trip ever and boy, am I glad I decided to make this a solo travel (pat on my back). I'm a huge advocate for such a liberating and eye-opening experience.

My favourite thing about traveling in general (besides trying local cuisines) is delving into different cultures and observing how other societies live and behave. During this 3-week trip, I got to do exactly that...and ate too, of course.

For the most part, I didn't feel lonely. Occasionally when I did, that's when my local friends came into play. Their presence injected some sort of life into my trip and I'm all geared up for exploring on my own again. (It probably sound like having them around reminds me why I enjoy being alone, but that's really not it hahaha I just like a balance between being by myself and being with people).

Special shout out to those to took time to meet me, I deeply appreciate it and feel damn happy that I got to meet you all again.

So. My trip route went like this:
Kuala Lumpur - Moscow - St. Petersburg - Kazan - Nizhny Novgorod - Moscow - Amsterdam & Utrecht - Kuala Lumpur

Now that you have your bearings on how my blog posts will flow, shall we get started?

Disclaimer: I will probably mention my usage of the Russian language one too many times in these blogs with a whole lot of excitement. You can roll your eyes and skip pass it, or you can be excited with me.

Moscow

Day 1

7 August 2018

My arrival at the Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) at 7:30am was greeted by a stern-looking Russian immigration officer. He asked where I'm from, "Kuala Lumpur", I said. With a confused face, he shook his head and tried rephrasing his question which got even more confusing for me. His gestures then seemed like he was asking for my travel destinations in Russia, so I told him "Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, and Nizhny Novgorod". He shook his head again. Confused with what he's asking, I just handed him my boarding pass and he nodded with relief from no longer having to try to convey his message. So actually, he was asking where I came from before Moscow...which was Abu Dhabi, where I transited.

Knowing I was going to Kazan at some point in my travel, he asked for the purpose of my visit. It was to visit my friend, which led him to ask for my friend's name. Was he just being curious or he didn't trust my word? I told him my friend's name and he exclaimed, "Oh, Airat! I know Airat!". Well, I'm sure you do, Mr. Immigration Officer.

Thank God 'Airat' is a distinctive Tatar name. He was excited because he's from Kazan himself. We had a short conversation where he asked if I'm Muslim since I'm from Kuala Lumpur, and I asked if he's Tatar to which he just smiled and winked. With the only Tatar word I have in my stash - "rakhmat" (thank you), I whipped it out before leaving and he chuckled. The person after me is one lucky ass cz I left the officer in a good mood.

Passing through the arrival gate, I realized Airat was right about the wifi issue. Wifi is pretty much everywhere, BUT...you will need a local number to connect to it *insert Jackie Chan meme*. My plan was to purchase a SIM card at the airport as I usually do in other countries, but man, capitalism at it's max! SIM cards were sold for 4 times the retail price and there's no way I was gonna spend that much. So instead, I booked myself an airport taxi for 1800 rubles (RM106) to my hostel.

The hostel of my choice was Vinegret Hostel on Old Arbat Street, the main pedestrian street with lots of souvenir shops and restaurants. Superb location, English-speaking staff, good facilities, easy access to food, and may I add - super comfortable mattress! If I were to go back to Moscow, it will be the hostel of my choice again.

6-bed dorm room

Washed up and rushed out the door with excitement to get my local SIM card from around the corner, literally. I got my Tele2 SIM card from Связной, a phone shop that sell a variety of telcos. Prior to my visit, I was provided with a list of phone plan recommendations (thanks, Airat), so I already knew what I wanted as I stepped into the shop. I got the Tele2 Мой онлайн plan - 15GB data, 200min call, and 50 SMS for 400 rubles (RM24).

Ah, the security of having internet on hand felt like I could take on the world! Rushed off to Sokolniki to meet my friend, Anton. I think I was a bit nervous and in a hurry that I didn't notice Roman alphabets on the metro signage, so your girl here read the station names in Cyrillic. Way to go! Case in point, it will be helpful for foreigners who cannot read Cyrillic.

It was at Arbatskaya where I said my first "zdrastuvuyte" (formal hello) ever! I thought I was at the wrong line, so I had to ask the security guy. OMG, it was nerve-wracking!! He understood me, but for me to spit out Russian words to a real Russian person for the first time...intimidating to the max!! After that I just zdrastuvuyte everyone, no biggie.

Met up with my friend, Anton at the Sokolniki station and it was really easy to spot him because he's really tall. In fact, he's the tallest person I know. Anyway, we went for a walk around Sokolniki Park which was hugeeee. Many people were out at the park on tandem bikes, skateboards, and scooters. There's even an open-air cinema there, which functions at night in summer time.

The Malaysian in me thought we would have lunch and just talk (as how Malaysians hangout), but instead we just walked around the park. While that was great, I was starving. Good thing I had some muffins in my bag to alas perut (snack...sorta). I'm really glad that I got to catch up with Anton for a bit despite his tight schedule. Then, we bid farewell.

The one-hour walk probably drained me of all the energy I had left from traveling 17 hours with 3 hours of sleep, so I decided to have early dinner and call it a day as I needed to gear up for an start the next day.

First meal was Russian fast food, Teremok on New Arbat Street. Teremok specializes in bliny (pancakes with sweet or savoury fillings). My orders were salmon & sour cream bliny, cherry bliny, and kvass. Kvass is a fermented rye bread drink.

The guy who took orders asked where I'm from, guessing that I'm Japanese and I said "Ya iz Malaizi (I'm from Malaysia)". Omg, I used a sentence from my exercise book!! Thinking that I'm only spitting out textbook sentences (which I pretty much was) and not actually knowing the language, the auntie who was making my bliny told the guy that I'm krasivi (beautiful). Gurl, I know what you saying! Spasiiiiiba (thank youuu)!

cherry bliny, kvass, salmon & sour cream bliny

Geared up with energy only enough to walk the street and head back to the hostel, I took my own sweet time to look around New Arbat Street. There's many book stalls and ice creams stalls with beanie bags. Very cool! I would've gotten an ice cream and chill on one, but it was a chilly evening. Then! I stumbled on a supermarket and of course, Auntie Naomi had to check out what they had to offer. OMG. Three aisles of dairy products - yogurt, milk, sour cream, cream cheese! If I wasn't keeping my dairy intake to a minimal, I would've bought a few of everything. Extra much?

I saw chak-chak in real life too and burst out laughing because I made some last year in the U.S. and my version was gigantic. Well, no wonder it looked...off and unrecognizable to the local. At least I tried. My best find was hands down the Kinder products that I've never seen anywhere else. They're cakey snacks in the cold section. It was so damn delicious. Why don't we have them?!!

legit chak-chak

Called it a night pretty early on the very comfy bed and fell asleep in no time.

Day 2

8 August 2018

Thanks to jet lag, I was bright and awake at 4:30am. My scheduled wake-up time was 5:30am, so it was kind of perfect. Why so early? Because I wanted to be out by 7:00am to beat the crowd. Being out that early meant I could take photos with less or no one polluting my background cz everyone would be still asleep! Buses and metro starts at 6:00am, so it was perfect.

Old Arbat Street

What's not-so-perfect was...my knee. Barely a day into the trip and my knee was already busted. My right knee has always been an on-and-off issue if I walk too much or sit too long. The long flights were probably the cause, and my shoes didn't help as I hoped it would. Boo.

Ain't no busted knee gonna stop me from exploring though! I made it work by basically limping around all day and avoiding staircases as much as I could.

Plan for the day was souvenir shopping at Izmailovsky Market, walk around VDNKh (All-Russia Exhibition Centre), a visit to the Ostankino TV Tower, and being a hipster at the Flacon Design Factory.

Izmailovsky Market looks like it came out of Hansel & Gretel. It is the place for souvenir shopping, where you can haggle for lower prices...if you can get past the frustration of using English, that is. The market is only open on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am to 6:00pm.

All sorts of souvenirs can be found there. Zhostovo trays (trays with flower painting), Palekh boxes (small painted wooden boxes), Gzhel porcelain (white and blue porcelain), scarfs, Ushanka fur hats, keychains, magnets, and a lot of Matryoshka Dolls (Russian dolls)...and more!

Quite an intimidating experience for me, I must say, the haggling as I don't haggle in general. I just don't have the flair for it (or maybe just the lack of practice). The fact that I don't even haggle in English, imagine haggling in Russian. I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and bury my head in it! I managed to get a few items for reasonable prices though. Yay me!

Zhostovo trays

Ushanka fur hats

The All-Russia Exhibition Centre, also called VDNKh (Russian abbreviation for Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) is some sort of amusement park/exhibition centre which is hugeeeee. I mean, everything is bigger in Russia, right?

This place is hands down one of my favourite places to visit (entrance is free too!). There are so many pavilions to visit, fountains, and a Cosmonautics Museum. Perhaps if I were to go on a date in Moscow, I would choose this location. Sooo many benches/chairs/sitting area to just chill at and enjoy the nice weather! What's even cooler - it turns into an ice skating rink in winter.

While at the entrance, for some reason I wasn't allowed to set up my tripod. I was a little annoyed cz it's not even a selfie stick that could potentially get in someone's way. Hence, I couldn't take nice photos of myself. Oh, the woe of solo traveling.

Anyway, I walked around the park and took a coffee break cz I was tired and sleepy and my knee was killing me. The cafe didn't have an English menu, so I forced myself to read the Russian menu and got myself a latte! I mean, it's not that hard to spell out latte, but at least I understood what's on the menu and could make my choice! Nothing brightens up my day more than such feeling of achievement.

The Friendship of People Fountain

Vostok 1 replica, the first spaceship in space

Leaving VDNKh, I saw the Ostankino TV Tower from afar. Decided to give it a miss as I was too tired to walk over just to see a tower. Saw it from afar...boleh lah.

My next and final destination of the day was Flacon Design Factory, an old perfume factory refurbished to be a hipster area filled with cafes and muraled walls. It's slightly on the outskirts of the city, but if you like chill and you like hipster, this is the place to be. It's also not crowded with tourists, which was nice.

Unsurprisingly, things were quite overpriced. Hence, I didn't have a meal there...but I stupidly spent 250 rubles (RM15) on a freaking ice cream that looked like Chucky, the killer doll. Seriously, I need to make better spending decisions. Chucky ice cream over a meal? Hello?

my attempt of the slav squat

My end-of-the-day routine was to hang out at the hostel's common area. I like that there's almost no one there all the time, so I don't have to be confined in the room, on my bed. Wifi is impossible in the room too.

When I got hungry, I dragged myself to dinner at Kroshka Kartoshka, another Russian fast food place which sells baked potatoes with a variety of toppings.

I got the French option from the light menu cz I didn't know what else to order. The toppings were basically mushroom with chicken broth (I think). Since it was from the light menu, it barely filled my stomach but I was too tired to decide what else to eat. Instead, I went on a hunt for a knee guard. Thank God the second pharmacy I went into had an affordable option and may God bless the maker of knee guards as it really helped my busted knee.

Midnight snack. So bloody good.

***

The next two days in Moscow were spent visiting the iconic Red Square and visiting a luxurious toilet. I assure you there's more exciting stuff to read about in the next post (aside from the toilet)...like my experience at a Russian banya!

I will be right back.