Russia 10/05/2016 - 10/17/2016
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Russia 10/05/2016 - 10/17/2016
My Itinerary:
Leave October 5th
Lufthansa Flight 451
Depart LAX 7:15 pm
October 6th
Arrive Frankfurt FRA 3:00 pm
Frankfurt FRA Flight 1450
Depart 4:30 pm
Arrive Moscow DME 8:40 pm
shoot an ak-47 kalashnikov
http://www.moscow360.org/ak-47-tour...
Moscow Kremlin
Red Square
Saint Basils Cathedral
Stolby National Park
Banya
royal beach strogino
Snej.Com All Season Ski Complex
Formula 5D
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...
Horror-Quest
Lyublinskaya St., 107/10, Moscow, Russia
PandaPark Sokolniki Rope Park - Maybe
3-iy luchevoi procek, Moscow, Russia
Action Games Joyment
Tushinskaya St., 17, Moscow, Russia
Ice rink on Chistye Prydi
Izmaylovo Kremlin & Izmaylovo Flea Market
St. Petersburg
The Peterhof Fountains
St Petersburg’s Canals
Rooftop tours
http://www.sputnik8.com/ru/st-peter...
Leave Moscow October 17th
Lufthansa Flight 9741
Depart DME 9:05 am
Arrive 11:40 am at Zurich ZRH
United Flight 9730
Depart from Zurich ZRH 1:15 pm
Arrive at LAX 4:20 pm
My Check-ins
Б-Класс Серпухов. 5D
Дом Великана.
Arbat Street.
eating crabby patty at Красти крабс.
ДОСААФ· Kolashnikov
Царские Блины· With red caviar
Борщ/Borsch at Restaurant FermA.
Kunstkamera.
Amber Room.
Pushkin, Saint Petersburg.
Театр "Мюзик-Холл".
Охтинские Бани.
Дворцовый Мост.
Imax Формула Кино, Тц Галерея, Санкт-Петербург.
Крошка Картошка· Russian Fast Food
Галерея.
eating Вкусно жить не запретишь at Il Patio.
Fontanka river, Anichkov bridge, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Петергоф, Фонтаны.
Gulf of Finland.
Адмиралтейская набережная.
Zinger.
Двери Триумфальная Марка.
Санкт-Петербург, Васильевский Остров, 7я Линия Д. 4.
Стрелка Васильевского Острова.
Italian food at Marchelli's.
Bus Tour
Saint Isaac's Cathedral.
Казанский кафедральный собор.
Church of the Savior on Blood.
Nevsky Prospect St.Petersburg / Невский проспект.
St Petersburg.
burgers and fries at Макдоналдс.
Александровский Сад.
Saint Basil's Cathedral.
Red Square, Moscow (Красная площадь, Москва).
Московский Планетарий.
Парк им олега и Степанова.
Парк-отель Дракино.
Московская Область, Город Серпухов.
Serpukhov.
St. Petersburg Folktale
A brief history of Leningrad, how my dad told it to me. A long time ago, Leningrad was taken over by a country (I forget who) and they reigned there for a while. A man named Peter who was Russian and lived across the sea from Leningrad decided that he was going to take the city back. He started walking toward Leningrad and cutting trees. These trees he put onto the sea and made ships. He then asked people to help him make ships and fight the opposition. As they were getting closer, more and more people joined and more and more ships were built. They finally had an army and by the time they got to Leningrad, they fought with their hand made ships and won. They claimed the city and renamed Leningrad after the great Peter, St. Petersburg. As amazing as this story sounds, google states another story. Peter the great wasn’t so great. He had the city built by peasants and slaves. St. Petersburg was taken over by Mongols, Sweden, Communists, Nazis and more throughout history. As much as I searched, unfortunately nothing about ships made from the native trees to build an army.
Russia in 2001
Let’s go back to 2001. This was when I first went back to Russia with my family to visit Moscow and my place of birth, Kaliningrad. I was 15. Here are some of my critiques from my visit. From what I remember, it was pretty corrupt. One of my family members in Russia told us that about a month before we came, a thief stole his car, got his information and phone number. The thief then called my uncle to come collect his car for $200. The police were corrupt so he couldn’t call them and he really had no choice but to pay the thief to get his car back. Most of the buildings that I’ve seen were not finished being built and seemed abandoned but people still lived there. There was a person who seemed to be a lawyer came to us asking if we can be “spectators” to kick some people out of a building so he can collect his money. I didn’t quite understand it, but I knew that it was something shady. Going to a restaurant, I remember a few kids going to a table after the patrons left and finished the leftover alcohol before getting kicked out. These are just my critiques not all was bad, I still had a great time with my family. We were greeted with open arms by our uncles, cousins, and friends of my parents. We went to their houses, they fed us and showed us around. I remember they still had a car that started with a crank in the front. It reminded me of a Mickey Mouse cartoon when Mickeys car got stuck, and he had to go to the front of the car and physically turn the crank to start the car back on again. I thought it was neat how people were so self-reliant and the car actually still worked! Most Russians owned beautiful garden vacation homes to grow their own food. The food was so fresh, definitely the best vegetables I have ever eaten. I made a few friends in Kaliningrad and we still keep in touch to this day. I remember lots of trees and greenery. As much as I loved being outside and inhaling the fresh air, I didn’t feel safe at all. The roads were barely built and the driving there was insane. Plenty of times I thought we would fall off of a cliff or crash into head on traffic while using the passing lane. Our uncle drove us around and I remember he was trying to pass a truck, and as he was using the passing lane and going on the wrong side of the street, a car coming fast toward us didn’t slow down and neither did we. Needless to say, the other car had to go a bit off road so we can pass, it was like playing chicken, and this wasn’t an isolated incident people just accepted it and went off road if they had to. The final day in Kaliningrad, I remember going to what seemed like an outdoor swap meet to look at trinkets and maybe get some souvenirs. As soon as I picked up a trinket, a sales person comes up to me and very rudely says, “If you touch then you buy.” So I put it back and kept on walking. Point of all of this is, as much as I enjoyed my stay back in 2001 and it was nice to revisit where I grew up. Yet, I couldn’t ignore the fact that people I didn’t know were rude, lots of corruption going on, and abandonment where the people had no choice but to learn how to take care of themselves. I definitely became more aware of how great it was to live in a place where life is much easier.
This experience was imprinted in my brain and this is what I thought about going into this trip.
10/05/2016 - 10/06/2016 – Wednesday - Thursday
Lufthansa
I get to the airport and fly Lufthansa. Probably one of the best airlines I have ever used. The workers were very nice and there were many movies and tv shows to choose from. I watched Captain America 1 and 2. The food was great and it seems like they provided wifi, but I couldn’t connect to it. 7 hours later, I got off at Frankfurt airport to connect to a different flight. This has to be the biggest airport ever. It took me over an hour to get to my gate. While going through customs, I get pulled aside. A Tall German agent comes to me and asks me to empty my backpack. I empty it, and he asks me if he can use a swab on my bag to see if I’m having any bombs or something. He was very polite and apologized but told me that the police had to come and clear me. I’m thinking at this point, I’ve missed my flight. The police come with their AK-47s look at my bag and clear me. The agent apologizes again and tells me where to go. I made it, thank you Germany for being so efficient. My flight was Lufthansa again but this was a smaller plane. No movies here, so I tried to go to sleep. It still bothers me that when I book the flight, it doesn’t tell me what entertainment is available if any. They fed me again and 2 hours later I finally get to Russia.
Russian Customs
I get there a bit passed midnight the next day. As I’m going through customs, there is a group of Vietnamese people in front of me. There wasn’t any organization with the lines, people just tried to get to the front any way they can. After waiting for a pretty long while, a worker came up and said that there is a shorter line in another window. Some people left to get to the shorter line, but a lot of us were waiting such a long time in this one, we didn’t want to screw ourselves and decided to wait it out. After another long while, I was finally next in line. Of course right when I’m about to come up, the lady says this window is now closed. So I’m forced to go to another window. I wait patiently for my turn, and as I’m coming up next, one of the Vietnamese people cut right in front of me from the other line and go straight up to the window. I couldn’t believe it, this was the most unorganized line I have ever been to. After she was done, I finally come up and get the clearance to enter into Russia. Walking further a police officer comes to me and says, you are American yes? Yes, I respond, then he asks me how much cash I had on me. Here we go, I think to myself, the corruption begins. I had $300 cash, but I tell him that I have $200. He looks at me and decides to let me go. I still don’t know if he was stopping me because I was supposed to fill out custom paperwork for how much cash I had, or he wanted the cash for himself. I walk further.
My uncle Yuri spots me right away, takes my bags and leads me to the car. The traffic at the airport was chaos. Again, no organization whatsoever, people just stopped their cars where they wanted, and I have no idea how we got out of there. My cousin Serge was driving and it was nice talking with my uncle and cousin. The trip to Serpukhov, where they lived, took an hour from the Moscow Airport. The roads were actually very nicely built and smooth. We made it to the house where my aunt Odella was waiting for us. She made us all food and tea. I pretty much drank tea after every meal in Russia. As I head to the bathroom to wash my hands, the sink was a separate room than the toilet. The toilet water had a faint iron smell which quickly put me back to the time I visited Ireland. The food was exactly how my parents make it here in America. We talked about everything, Uncle Yuri showed me pictures on his laptop, and he told me on what to expect on my trip. Like always I couldn’t fall asleep for too long in the plane, so I was exhausted. I unpacked, took a shower and went to sleep.
10/07/2016 – Friday
Serpukhov
I woke up and looked outside the window. There was overcast but no rain. Onto my adventure in Russia.
I ate breakfast then Yuri and Odella decide to show me around the neighborhood. We first went to the beautiful St. Nicholas Cathedral. In all cathedrals in Russia, it is respectful for women put on a shawl and men take off their hats.
We go outside of the Cathedral, there was a nice garden. Here is a picture of Odella.
A picture of Yuri, he was the photographer so this is the best picture I can get of him.
Further on, we go through a little path on a grassy knoll that seemed to go through some backyards. This reminded me of the greenery from when I was in Russia back in 2001. It was beautiful, and there were also horses loose just running around on the streets. I ask my uncle do they belong to anyone and is anyone scared that they are going to be stolen? He responded with another question “They do belong to someone but no one would steal them, where would they put them?” It was actually nice to see that there was no sense of private property if you are in someone else’s backyard like we have here in the states. There were horses within a fence, and anyone can easily come up to them and pet them if they so wished to do so. I loved it.
We continued the tour of the neighborhood, and I was shown where my cousin Michael and his wife Ellen got married at Olega and Stepanova Park. It was beautiful. The colorful leaves were everywhere and I enjoyed every minute of it. This cannot be seen in Southern California.
We came back home, ate, drank tea, and hung out.
10/08/2016 - Saturday
Moscow
Serge drives, me, Yuri, Alex’ son Igor, (Alex I haven't mentioned yet) and Odella to the planetarium over in Moscow. Once again I notice that the roads were gentler than California. It reminded me of the roads in Germany. No cracks on the roads because there aren’t any earthquakes there so the roads are very smooth the whole way through. However, the driving didn’t change much since 2001. Just like at the airport when there wasn’t any organization going on while I was going through customs, same with the roads. If there was traffic, people went on the right most emergency lanes to get through. They also shoved themselves into the other lanes. As soon as a lane starts moving, all the cars need to get into that lane right away creating even more traffic. I was overwhelmed with their driving. Say what you want about drivers in Los Angeles, you can’t deny that they are very organized and maybe a few drivers would use the emergency lane to get through which is very frowned upon and illegal. Also in China, as crazy as the driving was, I still felt safe even though we went on the wrong side of the streets at times. The people were still patient and had a way to communicate with each other on the road. Not in Russia, anything goes and the funny part is, it’s what is expected. I didn’t hear much honking of the horns or people having road rage because everyone did it. I asked Serge, “How can people drive like this?” He responded with a catch 22, “If we don’t try to get to the front, then no one would get anywhere." Oh and to put the cherry on top, only people in the front wear seat belts in Russia, it’s not against the law to wear seat belts in the back of the car so no one does it. I absolutely did it the whole time and they always looked at me with a smile and said, “You know you don’t have to put the seat belt on in the back.” I still took my chances with it on. As I looked out of the window, I saw very tall buildings and I asked if they were hotels or businesses. Turns out they were apartment buildings that were up to 60 stories tall. These were the tallest apartment buildings I have ever seen. I didn't get a chance to take a picture but here is a stock photo.
Serge dropped us off a few blocks away and went to work. Yuri tried to get his bearings straight but lost his direction. He asked us to stay still and he would go and ask someone for directions really quick. He comes back with a beautiful tall woman in high heels. He tells us that she is going there too and we will follow. At this time I noticed that everyone in Russia is on the skinny side, tall, and for the most part good looking. Only the elderly seemed to have some fat on them. We follow this girl in high heels, and we can hardly keep up. It seemed like she was trying to get away from us but as we approached the planetarium she slowed down and pointed to it letting us know that it is right there. I realize later on that everyone in Russia walks absurdly fast, these are my people, because I also tend to walk fast for many people here in America. We go inside the planetarium museum and the most interesting thing that caught my eye were the meteorites. They looked man made, like computer chips, I’ve never seen them sliced in two like that.
Inside the museum, we go inside the planetarium room and take a seat to view the star and planet show. They talked about the constellations and the planets that we are looking at with our satellites. They also talked about how America is planning to send people to Mars by 2030. It has been a while since I’ve been to the planetarium here in Los Angeles, but Yuri and Odella have a few years ago when they came to visit our family. They said that the one in Los Angeles is better because you don’t have to turn your head to see everything as you had to here in Moscow. We headed out and went to visit the Red Square. Serge has met us there and we all explored.
Inside the red square is probably the most famous cathedral in the world, St. Basils Cathedral.
I was told that they just opened it up so you can see inside of it. None of my family has ever gone in yet. So, Serge, Odella, and I went inside. Igor and Yuri decided to stay outside and take pictures. It was beautiful.
There were narrow secret like passageways to get to some parts of the Cathedral. From what I understood, St. Basil was one of the Catholics who tortured himself and others to cleanse them of sin. This reminded me of the Game Of Thrones episode where the queen had to be locked in a room for some time before she acknowledged that she was a sinner then walked down the streets naked in shame to absolve her sins. In real life, this was the place where they kept people in rooms and gave them whips and chains so they can whip themselves. Also Odella pointed out that underneath every onion shaped roof was a church. Please someone tell me why a place needs to have so many churches inside? We then heard a nice hymm coming from one of the rooms. We approached and heard some very nice vocals and the room was perfect for projecting the sound.
After exploring the Cathedral we came out. We continue to walk on the outside walls of the Red Square. This is where the anonymous soldier’s grave is located.
And if you turn around there is a beautiful green garden.
This is a picture of Odella, Serge, Igor, and me.
Continuing down the wall there are statues and a few other things to see. On the other side of the garden there was a fountain which wasn’t turned on but there was a statue of an Old Russian Folklore. It was a man holding a fish. In the folklore, the fish asks the man not to eat him and in return he will grant the man a wish. So we touched the fish to get our wish granted.
As we walk back to the car, Serge turns to me and says, “You know, I have never actually visited the Red Square myself, thank you for giving me an excuse to come here.” I also thanked him for tagging along. As we approach the car, I couldn’t help but wonder how he got away with parking where he did. He parked in the center lane of an intersection behind a traffic light. His car would be towed in seconds if he did this in Los Angeles, but in Russia, anything goes. He tells me that there is never parking even paid parking in populated areas like this, so he has to be creative. He said that once he paid a firefighter so he can park at a firehouse for a full day because everywhere else was taken. Genius, I’d like to try that here.
10/09/2016 Sunday
Hanging out with Alex and his Family
We all went to visit my other cousin Alex’s and his wife Nadia's house. Alex, Serge, and Michael are brothers. Alex being the oldest, Serge in the middle, and Michael whom I haven't mentioned yet is the youngest and closest to my age, I would be 6 months older than Micahel. Yuri and Odella are their parents. Odella is my dad’s sister. As I enter Alex' house, I’m warmly greeted by Nadia his wife and her daughter Yasna.
In the picture is my cousin Alex, his wife Nadia, and their daughter Yasna.
As we waited for Alex to come from work, Nadas grandma comes in from the other room to greet me. We exchange hellos and she asks me the funniest thing. Grandma is at least 90 years old comes close to me and asks, “Did you have any problems going on the plane with your Samsung phone?” I laugh a bit and kindly respond, “I don’t have that version of the phone where it can blow up.” She smiles and responds, “Good.” I almost lost it. In walks Alex and his son Igor. We also exchange hellos and Alex and Nada take me out to see where they got married. It was also in a park called Otel Drakino. This park reminded me of a park in China. This park had pretty much everything. Go karting, animals, cabins to stay in, and so on.
Nadia was a brave soul and wanted to pet every horse even though Alex had warned her that some aren’t tame. It was fun, and great to be able to bond with my extended family. Little to my knowledge, this was just the beginning of my extended family bonding experience.
We drove back home and had dinner with even more of my relatives. I met Ellen’s mom Ola and her daughter Eugenia. Ola and I quickly became friends, everyone was drinking and I probably got more information than what was intended which I can’t even get into here. One of the family members made a toast and said, “Listen Leo, you have a whole mess of family in the United States but know that it is only half. The other half is here.” And correct he was, overnight I realized that my family was way bigger than I thought.
10/10/2016 Monday
Journey to St. Petersburg
I finally meet with Michael and his wife Ellen. They come with Ola to pick me up so we can make the 10 hour drive to St. Petersburg. I've never met Ellen we instantly become best friends with each other. This was probably the shortest 10 hour drive I have ever been on because we were having so much fun talking with each other. Also, the scenery was great. Colorful trees everywhere and people serving tea from “samavars” on the side of the road. We didn't get any tea because Ellen explained that many people who stop to get something on the side of the road may have an upset stomach. Of course halfway to St. Petersburg we stop at a McDonalds. I had the Tuscan burger, which I assume had beef from Tuscany. The burger had a pretty good zesty kick to it. Also I had the guava ice cream neither of which you can find in the United States. It was actually really good!
We ate and drove on. We finally get to St. Petersburg. My uncle Gena lives in the outskirts of the actual city. We meet him downstairs and go upstairs to his apartment. This was the weirdest building I have ever been in. First the elevator was tiny and shook like crazy coming up and down. Definitely not up to standards. You get out of the elevator and need a key to get in. I thought we were entering his unit but I was wrong. This is where we entered the hallway of the apartment complex. He needs to lock the hallway of the apartment complex and we head right and he uses the key for his unit and we go inside. My American senses tell me that this is a huge fire hazard. His unit itself was nice. The kitchen overlooked a school with a huge soccer field.
10/11/2016 Tuesday
Even more Cathedrals
We went on our way to downtown of St. Petersburg AKA Nevsky Prospekt. Ellen tells me that this is considered to be 1 of 3 of the most wondrous cities in the world. The other 2 are Rome and I forgot the other one. Although St. Petersburg is in fact probably the most beautiful cities I have seen. Sorry Ellen but a quick google search tells me that there are at least 50 cities that are even prettier. Maybe I got the wording wrong? Either way, we park and walk to our first destination which is the Church of the Savior on Blood, another cathedral.
This cathedral was actually built to mimic the famous St. Basils Cathedral that we saw earlier in Moscow. This one had all kinds of mosaics and much more modern colorful art. The story of this place is quite interesting. St. Petersburg had a war to ward off Britain, France, and Turkey. After, they had won, an emperor named Alexander II made reforms to free the serfs. This was the first time this kind of reform was attempted in Russia and didn’t stand well with many people. Revolutionaries tried to kill him by blowing up his winter palace, which didn’t work. They tried to derail a train he was on, he still survived. They finally succeeded in assassinating him by throwing a bomb into his royal carriage. They say that his leg was blasted off and a lot of blood was spilled and he died of blood loss. This Cathedral was decided to be built on top of the place of his assassination. Hence the name, Church of the Savior on Blood.
Right after we walked straight into Kazans Cathedral. At this point I thought this is all we are going to do, forget my itinerary, we are just going to visit Cathedrals all over the city.
Even though I was a bit tired of going inside cathedrals it was still beautiful. We step out and start walking to our next destination. This time we were walking for quite a while and I’ve noticed that the buildings were pretty much all the same size. No crazy 60 story buildings here. Turns out that there is a city ordinance where you can’t go higher than a certain amount. I’ve never seen such evenly built buildings in my life.
The streets were narrow surrounded by buildings where you can’t see the horizon or any mountains, I actually felt a tiny bit claustrophobic. However, after a few minutes of walking, I got used to it. We finally got to our next location. Take the wildest guess on where we ended up? Surprise! Another cathedral!
At least most of the cathedrals we went to had something unique about it and this one was no exception. In this one, you can get tickets to go on top and get a 360 view of the whole city. We had to climb up in circular steps. Remember how I said Russians love to walk fast? Even hundreds of steps couldn’t slow them down, I got a bit dizzy.
I have to give props to Ola. For a mother of 2 she kept up with us the whole time without any complaints. I was so grateful that everyone kept up so we can see everything. We finally get to the top and It was great to see a somewhat horizon again and beautiful colored trees from the top.
We came back down and went on a tour bus. The tour bus was a typical double decker you can see in LA, which drives around the city and has an audio guide talking about St. Petersburg. The problem was, that it either lagged or by the time it got to the subject, we were already past the point of interest. It was hard to keep up.
Halfway through the tour, we got off and went to eat at Marchellis. I know what you are thinking, why am I eating Italian food in Russia? My answer, Please keep in mind that I was eating home cooked Russian food this whole time. This is the very first time we went out to eat, it was a nice break from Russian food. I haven’t ever seen this kind of pizza before and I haven’t eaten ravioli in plum juice. This was the best Italian food I have tasted.
After we finished eating we went back on the tour bus and finished our tour. We walked even more throughout the city.
We stopped at a bookstore called Zinger so I could get my mom a book. I bought a book that I thought my mom would like. Part 1 was complete I told my group that part 2 was finding beautiful leaves so I can put into the book. Ola took this task seriously and was looking everywhere for the prettiest leaves throughout the trip. We continued on to the mall called The Galleria. Beautiful mall that reminded me of Hong-Kong. It was huge. Ellen told me that all of the malls in Russia were built to have the same things located in the same areas. The first few floors were for clothes, the next were for attractions and toys, and on top was food. I asked what a famous Russian Fast Food restaurant was. She responded with “Kroshka Kartoshka” “Little Potato.” Luck had it, that it was in the mall we were in. I had fried pilmeni, it was… fast food. Not that great.
We decided to go into IMAX and watch Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I’ve already seen the movie in America, but I was interested on how it would translate to Russian and how movie theaters were like there. The movie had to be one that I have already seen otherwise I don’t think I would have understood what it would be about in Russian. First the previews started, they had some awesome previews that I haven’t seen in America yet. Namely the new Assassins Creed movie which I was excited about. Then another preview, and another… and another! There were at least 8 previews before the movie even started. The movie was dubbed and it was exactly the same. I fell asleep for about an hour.
The next place was the nightly canal tour and we had to be there soon and had to leave the movie early. We had to walk all the way across the city to get to the canals. It was worth it. The city turned on their lights and it was beautiful. The whole city was lit.
We got to the Canal tour. This was a special kind of tour because in the middle of it, we got to witness bridges going up apart. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a site like this before.
10/12/2016 Wednesday
Petergoff Fountains
We woke up and took a small ferry to get to the Petergoff Fountains in the Gulf of Finaland.
It was even more north, so it was really cold.
The fountains didn’t disappoint.
Even though it was freezing, this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The park that was around the fountains was beautiful. Walking through colorful trees and walkways, felt like a fairytale.
After the scenic walk, we went to eat crepes at “Tsarski Blini” “Tsars crepes” I had mine with caviar and hot cocoa. Very tasty.
We decided to take a taxi back to St. Petersburg. This time we took a canal tour to go underneath the small bridges around the city. The bridges were so small, that it looked like our boat wouldn't fit going through.
After, we went to eat at Ellen's favorite restaurant. Il Patio. It had pizza and sushi!
It was really good. At this point I notice that water isn't free. Everytime you ask for water, it is served in a fancy bottle even in a fast food restaurant.
10/13/2016 Thursday
Russian Banya
Gena took me to the Banya “Russian Bathhouse.” In Russia, you sit in a hot sauna and hit yourself with a “venik” “small branches of birch” to get you sweating faster. It’s a pastime that my grandfather has taught me. This is probably the hottest I have ever been in the short amount of time. I looked at the temperature gage and it read 120 degrees. Now you Americans are thinking, that’s not too hot, my Jacuzzi gets that hot. Let me remind you, that you are thinking in Fahrenheit. This was 120 degrees Celsius!!! That’s 248 degrees in Fahrenheit. I took it as much as I could. I went in, Gena showed me the correct way to smack yourself with the branches, and I was doing it… barely. I couldn’t handle too much and had to leave. Everyone there were respectful, but I have a feeling that they were seeing how much of a wuss I was. Afterwards I jumped into a pool of cold water that was pumped in straight from the canal. The cold water I tolerated much better. Must be because I’m used to the Pacific Ocean. Gena, his friend, and I chilled in the main room and went back in two more times.
Genas friend tells me a joke I didn’t really understand and I kind of laugh but continued to keep to myself. He then asks Gena when the American was going to come and visit. Gena points to me and says, “This is him, he is family from Los Angeles.” He laughs and says, “No wonder, I felt that you weren’t understanding my humor.” He then tells us how he hates how everything is becoming Americanized and the Russian Culture is disappearing. He goes on to tell us how Bill Gates has monopolized on computers so Russians are now saying words in English like, “Message me.” And other words.
I had to agree with him. Americas businesses has taken over with McDonalds, Starbucks, Walmart, Androids, and Apple products everywhere. I’ve said it before, that it’s hard to find a country that isn’t “Americanized.” South China is the closest I have found so far. Even though I appreciate other cultures, this doesn’t bother me. Culture changes all the time and I believe that if we all start seeing ourselves as one instead of divided, we would be more at peace with each other. This isn’t being done by force. It’s done by choice and choosing the best option. There is no doubt that America runs businesses the best so other countries choose to offer American businesses. The Japanese have the best cars for the price, so other countries choose to drive Japanese cars. The Scandinavian Countries have the best healthcare in the world which I believe every country should follow. So now the whole world drives Japanese cars, builds American businesses, and the world enjoys Scandinavian Healthcare. The best of the best should always overpower the outdated. Once we see that we can benefit from each other and not call it “Americanized” but rather “Worldly” we would feel more united and get closer to being at peace with each other. Of course I didn’t say any of this.
After the third time we went into the dry sauna, we showered and headed back home. There, the gang was waiting for me so we can go to our next destination.
Music Hall
We decided to drive to the metro and take it to the theatre. The Metros in Russia are like a museum, very beautiful amazing designs.
We were late, so as usual we ran. The metro went downstairs for miles, it seemed to never end. I felt like I was going into an underground bunker. We finally got all the way down to the train we have to get into. It was packed, you can’t stand without being squished between people. The train went fast and guess what? They of course have Wi-Fi. I am still flabbergasted on how we don’t have Wi-Fi in California metro systems in 2016. Getting off of the train, we have to go all the way back up to get out and head to the theatre. There we meet with Genas daughter Yelena. We spoke a bit on the way there, she was so inviting that I felt like I knew her all this time. It’s great to meet people and not have the awkward stage, she was awesome. Luckily the play didn’t start yet even though we were about 10 minutes late… we made it on time. The play was called “Demons of Eugene Onegin.” A play based off of Pushkins novel. As soon as the play began, I fell in love. The sound was amazing and clear, even though we were a bit far away, we must have had speakers right by our seats. It’s as if the actors were whispering into our ears. The stage moved in a circle at times and the scenery was breathtaking. Having sat through the first half, I didn’t understand a word. The Russian was a bit too fast for me. During intermission, Ola explained the story to me so I can understand.
It is about an old man named Eugene who was a rich nobleman. In his youth he was a player and never really wanted to settle down. At 80 years old he finds himself to be alone and regretted the time he could have had with a girl that loved him. A demon who was with him his entire life makes an appearance and makes him have flashbacks before he dies on where he went wrong in his life. She loved him, he didn’t love her. After a while he finally understood and loved her but she was already married at the time and she didn't want to leave her husband. Her husband challenged him to a dual to fight for her love, he couldn’t back down. Even though Eugene didn’t want to shoot him and purposefully aimed the gun away from her husband, by chance he still got shot. This is why Eugene has to live with his Demons. After the intermission, Ellen’s mom was softly summarizing the play for me so I can understand it, and it worked. It was amazing. Of course after the play, they all told me that it was a play about me. If I don’t get a wife soon then I would be playing catch up in life and get lost. Also, just now as I am writing this, I've noticed that Eric and I made a video that was almost the same. We also had a duel to fight for Veronicas love.
10/14/2016 Friday
The Pushkin
We went into another museum called “The Pushkin” because he studied there. It was an Imperial palace. Another one of my favorite places.
This reminded me of the Imperial palace when I was in Germany. In Germany, there was a special room full of mirrors because back in the days, mirrors were hard to make so it was a luxury to have. This Palace had an Amber room. All the walls and ceiling was covered in Amber. Photos are prohibited in this room, but here is a stock photo.
The room looks like bland gold. Beautiful, but since the other rooms were filled with so much gold, this room looked a bit bland. I’m still glad I saw an Amber room, where there isn’t any like it in the whole world.
Afterwards, we went to yet another museum. Kunstkamera. It featured the native people in different countries and their technologies.
After the Pushkin and the fountains, this wasn’t very entertaining. They had one room full of jars. In the jars were preservatives of deformed babies and animals. This was a fad in the 1970’s where people were fascinated and studied unusual events. Two headed babies, animals fused together and so on. It wasn’t flattering at all. I’m all for science and we should have these things shown to the public, but a little bit of a warning would have been nice.
Afterwards, we went over to Tamara's house. She came to visit us in America about a year ago and insisted that I came to her place in St. Petersburg when I visited and so we did. I am related somehow but there is so much family here, I lost track on how I am related to most of the people that I met here. We stopped by for tea and met with her daughter Eleonora.
The house was beautiful. Tamara is a painter and you can really see an artist lives here. The place is huge with a green room and a lounging area. Very cozy. We had tea, a light snack, traded stories, thanked everyone, and left. Michael and I have promised to make a huge drawing of our family tree so we know who is who to us. After snacking we unfortunately had to leave and go straight to a restaurant where people were waiting for us.
Even more of my extended family were waiting for us at Restaurant Ferma. I met new people and said hello to those I have already met, like Gena and Yelena.
I had borsch.
I was talking to Igor and his wife Olga across from me the whole time. We have never met, but he was also very warm and inviting to have a conversation with. It was good to meet new family.
10/15/2016 Saturday
The drive back to Moscow
We woke up early morning so we can drive back to Moscow. We said our goodbyes and off we went on our 10 hour drive. Again, not a dull moment in the car. Ellen is an English teacher, she has been teaching English for 8 years so we pretty much spoke English with each other the whole ride there. Her mom was correcting homework because she is also a teacher, and Michael actually understood a lot of what I said so he chimed in at times. We stop halfway to eat. We went inside a mall in the city of Tver and had an interesting looking pizza.
It was really good. After the quick meal we went back on the road. About this time, Ellen had confessed that she thought she wouldn't like me. The reason why she didn't come to the first family dinner in Serpukhov with her mom was first because Michael wasn't available and the second reason was because she thought she wouldn't get along with me and a day less with me would be better. The reason she thought this was because her and Michael always talk with my parents on Skype and whenever they ask about me or ask to see me, I'm never there or never available. She thought I was some sort of delinquent American who will come to Russia and not understand their customs and be very Americanized. I also admited to her, that I didn't think I would nearly have as much fun as I did in Russia. I didn't for one second think that anyone would take any time off to be with me, I would just go on buses and Taxis to probably do half the stuff that I did this trip. I would get to meet a few people for a few seconds and thats it, no time to bond whatsoever. Luckily none of this was true and we got along amazingly. We safely get back to Moscow where the big family is again waiting for us with a table full of food upon our return. At night, I turn on my laptop that I brought to Russia with me and I was looking at addresses where I have been so I can accurately pinpoint on where I was because at some point my phone had died and I wasn’t able to check-in on facebook. I somehow got onto tripadvisor and it showed me a restaurant called Krusty Krab that was in Moscow. I was excited and immediately added it onto my itinerary.
10/16/2016 Sunday
Fun Museums
Michael, Ellen, and I went to a place called Docaaf to shoot a Kalashnikov. Ellen didn’t want to shoot, so she stayed back and had coffee while waiting for us. Michael and I put on our ear muffs and goggles and get into the room where people are shooting guns. The instructor tells us the safety tips and tells us great tips like if we shoot the wall or ceiling, we will be kicked out. He shows us how to aim, and reload the gun. Michael goes first to shoot. I look behind him onto the target we are supposed to shoot at. There were two rows of about 12 small different targets and really far away. I was up next, and I had no idea which target I was supposed to choose, so I just went for one. I have no idea if I was hitting the target, and I was actually scared that I was going to shoot at the ceiling or walls because it was so far away.
Needless to say I actually hit the target 15/30 rounds and got pretty close to the bulls eye. Michael was a better shot and got one right in the center.
I told Ellen and Michael about the Krusty Krab, and Ellen was a little bit skeptical but also excited. We decided to go. To get there, you need to walk through Arbat Street. It is like 3rd street in Los Angeles but smaller and prettier.
We get to the Krusty Krab. It didn’t disappoint, it looked and felt like we were in the actual SpongeBob cartoon.
I had the Crabby Patty with bubble gum shake. The burger was good, and the shake was probably the best I’ve had.
They had TV’s showing SpongeBob episodes and advertising things that were happening in Arbat Street. One of the advertisements looked like some fun exhibition you can go to, so we decided to go.
We bought a bundle of tickets where you can visit 4 museums. The first one shrunk us and everything was huge!
The second one turned off gravity so we were upside down.
It's overwhelming being upside down, so I took a little break.
The third one put us into fantasy land.
The fourth one put us into a horror house but we couldn’t take pictures. Ellen loves horror so she was excited about going in until a person came out and asked if we had any heart problems or pregnant? She wondered why they would ask such a thing, and had second thoughts in going. She ended up being brave and went in. It was a maze in a room where ghosts were roaming around and scary decorations were put up. All the ghosts of course went after Ellen and she thought the long maze would never end. I was laughing so much and unfortunately it ended. Even Michael said that he got scared turning the corners thinking something would pop up. I tell them that unfortunately, “I am used to all this and I don’t even flinch a bit. I would love to have the adrenalin I once had when I was scared, but I go to haunted houses every Halloween and it takes a lot to get me to even flinch.” They tell me that they have some more haunted houses in Russia, but they don’t celebrate Halloween so it’s rare that they go.
The fourth and final one was Animal Land. Here you can pick up, touch, and pet all sorts of animals. I was impressed. Here in Los Angeles if you would want to do a thing like this, it would cost at least $60. In Russia, however, just a $5 ticket.
After Arbat Street, I wanted to go to a 5D movie theatre that was in my itinerary. Ellen asked what that is because she had never been. Michael also has never been but knew about it. 5D movies are movies like we see here in Universal Studios and Disneyland. A first person experience where the seats move to the actions on the movie you are watching. Also, sometimes it sprays a little water on you so you can feel like you were there.
We get to the 5D movie theatre and you can also get a bundle here, 3 movies in 5 minute intervals. Right away, I say let’s do horror. Ellen chimes in, I’ve had enough horror for today, let’s do something more innocent. The first movie we chose was going down a snow mountain on a snowboard. The seats were moving, and as the character (you) jumps and lands, you feel the water spray as if the snow powder hit you. It was fun. Next one, Ellen once again becomes brave and decides to do a horror house. I think we enjoyed that one the best. The first person character is a woman, you can tell by her voice. She goes in what seems to be a nice sunny house, until she gets closer, then it becomes night and the house turns into a creeky old house. You get dragged in by a monster and she tries to escape. She falls through floors, runs, and what seems like blood squirts on you. Very cool. The third and final one was you racing with some pigs down the Texas desert. We got sprayed with mud on that one. I’m trying to Google 5D in Los Angeles, and I am finding some facebook pages, but nothing specific. If you know of a 5D movie that you can just walk into unlike Universal and Disneyland, please let me know, I’d love to go!
10/17/2016 Monday
Goodbye Russia
Serge, Odella, and Yuri drive me back to the airport. We say our goodbyes and I go inside. My ticket said that I was supposed to be flying with United. However, I tried to check in the night before, the website didn’t let me. I go into the airport and look for the United Air and cannot find it. I try to look at the directory screen but nothing there. I go up to information and ask where United Air is, and they told me to look in the directory. A bit peeved, I tell them that I already looked and United Air isn’t on there. They ask for my tickets and proceed to check for me, they tell me to go to section 8. Section 8 is Swiss Air not United, I had to get in line and was hoping that it is where I need to be because given my Airport track record, I didn’t want to miss my plane. Turns out I was in fact supposed to be flying Swiss Air. Expedia, you have done me wrong and gave me the wrong information. Either way, I get my tickets and fly out. This plane also didn’t have any entertainment and if you want to go online you had to pay. So annoying. This time my stop was at Munich, Germany. Again, I get off at the other side of where I need to be and the time is only a half an hour to get there. I’m hurrying down with a very fast pace that I’ve picked up in Russia. At the terminal where I need to be, they are checking baggage and there is a line. Great, I’m going to miss this plane. They clear me and I arrive, 10 minutes late. The plane hasn’t taken off yet, turns out they were waiting for everyone to get there. Germany, I have to say, I love you. Your efficiency is uncanny and I am very jealous of that. After another hour, we get inside the plane and take our seats. I am flying Swiss Air again. I sit in the middle row between 2 guys. I don’t think I have ever sat in the middle row in a plane before. It was very uncomfortable. Also, for some reason there was a separation pole right under the seat in front of me. So I couldn’t put my backpack underneath the seat directly in front, it had to go either more to the left or to the right. I put it to the left and after a little while, the guy to the left of me says, can you please move your backpack it’s in the way. I tried to pretend to move it, but there wasn’t really anything I could do, it was really annoying to have that separation there. Other than that, this plane had great entertainment and very good food where they give you a Swiss chocolate for desert! The flight this way took 12 hours this time instead of 10 on the way there because of the wind. I get to LAX and oh man what a difference. I almost cried seeing how organized the custom lines were and nobody cutting in. The line was probably 3 times as long, but I got through 3 times faster. My mom met me there and drove me home.
I miss you guys already!
What an amazing experience. It wasn’t at all like I remember from 2001. Everyone was nice and I felt very safe. People who were selling things on the streets didn’t say, “You touch you buy.” Actually the exact opposite. They encouraged you to touch and tried to sell you as you were holding the item. They still bartered, at the Pushkin I asked a man how much a painting was and he said something like $50. As I was walking away, he said I can have it for $40. Then he started following me, dropping it down to $25. I can’t stand bartering but I guess it’s a step from “you touch you buy.” Yet, the driving and organization still needs to be worked on. Please look to Germany on how to do that correctly. U.S.A, I'm talking to you too.
I did so much in Russia thanks to my family. Thank you Michael, Ellen, and Ola for taking the time to show me everything. Thank you Odella, Serge, and Yuri for giving me a place to stay, driving me around in Serpukhov and Moscow and feeding me very good food. Thank you Uncle Gena for giving me a place to stay in St. Petersburg. Thank you to everyone for greeting me and making me feel so welcome as if I knew everyone all along. It broke my heart leaving and I wish you could have all came with me. I miss you all and can’t wait for you to come visit!
Yee haw Texas, you’re next!
I still have to come back to finish my Itinerary and go to:
Hermitage
royal beach strogino
Snej.Com All Season Ski Complex
Horror-Quest Lyublinskaya St., 107/10, Moscow, Russia
Action Games Joyment Tushinskaya St., 17, Moscow, Russia
Ice rink on Chistye Prydi Izmaylovo Kremlin & Izmaylovo Flea Market
Rooftop Tours
I'm going to paint this whole map red!
Click here to view all the Russia pictures
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Russia 10/05/2016 - 10/17/2016
topgun92000- October 25th, 2016
My Itinerary:
Leave October 5th
Lufthansa Flight 451
Depart LAX 7:15 pm
October 6th
Arrive Frankfurt FRA 3:00 pm
Frankfurt FRA Flight 1450
Depart 4:30 pm
Arrive Moscow DME 8:40 pm
shoot an ak-47 kalashnikov
http://www.moscow360.org/ak-47-tour...
Moscow Kremlin
Red Square
Saint Basils Cathedral
Stolby National Park
Banya
royal beach strogino
Snej.Com All Season Ski Complex
Formula 5D
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...
Horror-Quest
Lyublinskaya St., 107/10, Moscow, Russia
PandaPark Sokolniki Rope Park - Maybe
3-iy luchevoi procek, Moscow, Russia
Action Games Joyment
Tushinskaya St., 17, Moscow, Russia
Ice rink on Chistye Prydi
Izmaylovo Kremlin & Izmaylovo Flea Market
St. Petersburg
The Peterhof Fountains
St Petersburg’s Canals
Rooftop tours
http://www.sputnik8.com/ru/st-peter...
Leave Moscow October 17th
Lufthansa Flight 9741
Depart DME 9:05 am
Arrive 11:40 am at Zurich ZRH
United Flight 9730
Depart from Zurich ZRH 1:15 pm
Arrive at LAX 4:20 pm
My Check-ins
Б-Класс Серпухов. 5D
Дом Великана.
Arbat Street.
eating crabby patty at Красти крабс.
ДОСААФ· Kolashnikov
Царские Блины· With red caviar
Борщ/Borsch at Restaurant FermA.
Kunstkamera.
Amber Room.
Pushkin, Saint Petersburg.
Театр "Мюзик-Холл".
Охтинские Бани.
Дворцовый Мост.
Imax Формула Кино, Тц Галерея, Санкт-Петербург.
Крошка Картошка· Russian Fast Food
Галерея.
eating Вкусно жить не запретишь at Il Patio.
Fontanka river, Anichkov bridge, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Петергоф, Фонтаны.
Gulf of Finland.
Адмиралтейская набережная.
Zinger.
Двери Триумфальная Марка.
Санкт-Петербург, Васильевский Остров, 7я Линия Д. 4.
Стрелка Васильевского Острова.
Italian food at Marchelli's.
Bus Tour
Saint Isaac's Cathedral.
Казанский кафедральный собор.
Church of the Savior on Blood.
Nevsky Prospect St.Petersburg / Невский проспект.
St Petersburg.
burgers and fries at Макдоналдс.
Александровский Сад.
Saint Basil's Cathedral.
Red Square, Moscow (Красная площадь, Москва).
Московский Планетарий.
Парк им олега и Степанова.
Парк-отель Дракино.
Московская Область, Город Серпухов.
Serpukhov.
St. Petersburg Folktale
A brief history of Leningrad, how my dad told it to me. A long time ago, Leningrad was taken over by a country (I forget who) and they reigned there for a while. A man named Peter who was Russian and lived across the sea from Leningrad decided that he was going to take the city back. He started walking toward Leningrad and cutting trees. These trees he put onto the sea and made ships. He then asked people to help him make ships and fight the opposition. As they were getting closer, more and more people joined and more and more ships were built. They finally had an army and by the time they got to Leningrad, they fought with their hand made ships and won. They claimed the city and renamed Leningrad after the great Peter, St. Petersburg. As amazing as this story sounds, google states another story. Peter the great wasn’t so great. He had the city built by peasants and slaves. St. Petersburg was taken over by Mongols, Sweden, Communists, Nazis and more throughout history. As much as I searched, unfortunately nothing about ships made from the native trees to build an army.
Russia in 2001
Let’s go back to 2001. This was when I first went back to Russia with my family to visit Moscow and my place of birth, Kaliningrad. I was 15. Here are some of my critiques from my visit. From what I remember, it was pretty corrupt. One of my family members in Russia told us that about a month before we came, a thief stole his car, got his information and phone number. The thief then called my uncle to come collect his car for $200. The police were corrupt so he couldn’t call them and he really had no choice but to pay the thief to get his car back. Most of the buildings that I’ve seen were not finished being built and seemed abandoned but people still lived there. There was a person who seemed to be a lawyer came to us asking if we can be “spectators” to kick some people out of a building so he can collect his money. I didn’t quite understand it, but I knew that it was something shady. Going to a restaurant, I remember a few kids going to a table after the patrons left and finished the leftover alcohol before getting kicked out. These are just my critiques not all was bad, I still had a great time with my family. We were greeted with open arms by our uncles, cousins, and friends of my parents. We went to their houses, they fed us and showed us around. I remember they still had a car that started with a crank in the front. It reminded me of a Mickey Mouse cartoon when Mickeys car got stuck, and he had to go to the front of the car and physically turn the crank to start the car back on again. I thought it was neat how people were so self-reliant and the car actually still worked! Most Russians owned beautiful garden vacation homes to grow their own food. The food was so fresh, definitely the best vegetables I have ever eaten. I made a few friends in Kaliningrad and we still keep in touch to this day. I remember lots of trees and greenery. As much as I loved being outside and inhaling the fresh air, I didn’t feel safe at all. The roads were barely built and the driving there was insane. Plenty of times I thought we would fall off of a cliff or crash into head on traffic while using the passing lane. Our uncle drove us around and I remember he was trying to pass a truck, and as he was using the passing lane and going on the wrong side of the street, a car coming fast toward us didn’t slow down and neither did we. Needless to say, the other car had to go a bit off road so we can pass, it was like playing chicken, and this wasn’t an isolated incident people just accepted it and went off road if they had to. The final day in Kaliningrad, I remember going to what seemed like an outdoor swap meet to look at trinkets and maybe get some souvenirs. As soon as I picked up a trinket, a sales person comes up to me and very rudely says, “If you touch then you buy.” So I put it back and kept on walking. Point of all of this is, as much as I enjoyed my stay back in 2001 and it was nice to revisit where I grew up. Yet, I couldn’t ignore the fact that people I didn’t know were rude, lots of corruption going on, and abandonment where the people had no choice but to learn how to take care of themselves. I definitely became more aware of how great it was to live in a place where life is much easier.
This experience was imprinted in my brain and this is what I thought about going into this trip.
10/05/2016 - 10/06/2016 – Wednesday - Thursday
Lufthansa
I get to the airport and fly Lufthansa. Probably one of the best airlines I have ever used. The workers were very nice and there were many movies and tv shows to choose from. I watched Captain America 1 and 2. The food was great and it seems like they provided wifi, but I couldn’t connect to it. 7 hours later, I got off at Frankfurt airport to connect to a different flight. This has to be the biggest airport ever. It took me over an hour to get to my gate. While going through customs, I get pulled aside. A Tall German agent comes to me and asks me to empty my backpack. I empty it, and he asks me if he can use a swab on my bag to see if I’m having any bombs or something. He was very polite and apologized but told me that the police had to come and clear me. I’m thinking at this point, I’ve missed my flight. The police come with their AK-47s look at my bag and clear me. The agent apologizes again and tells me where to go. I made it, thank you Germany for being so efficient. My flight was Lufthansa again but this was a smaller plane. No movies here, so I tried to go to sleep. It still bothers me that when I book the flight, it doesn’t tell me what entertainment is available if any. They fed me again and 2 hours later I finally get to Russia.
Russian Customs
I get there a bit passed midnight the next day. As I’m going through customs, there is a group of Vietnamese people in front of me. There wasn’t any organization with the lines, people just tried to get to the front any way they can. After waiting for a pretty long while, a worker came up and said that there is a shorter line in another window. Some people left to get to the shorter line, but a lot of us were waiting such a long time in this one, we didn’t want to screw ourselves and decided to wait it out. After another long while, I was finally next in line. Of course right when I’m about to come up, the lady says this window is now closed. So I’m forced to go to another window. I wait patiently for my turn, and as I’m coming up next, one of the Vietnamese people cut right in front of me from the other line and go straight up to the window. I couldn’t believe it, this was the most unorganized line I have ever been to. After she was done, I finally come up and get the clearance to enter into Russia. Walking further a police officer comes to me and says, you are American yes? Yes, I respond, then he asks me how much cash I had on me. Here we go, I think to myself, the corruption begins. I had $300 cash, but I tell him that I have $200. He looks at me and decides to let me go. I still don’t know if he was stopping me because I was supposed to fill out custom paperwork for how much cash I had, or he wanted the cash for himself. I walk further.
My uncle Yuri spots me right away, takes my bags and leads me to the car. The traffic at the airport was chaos. Again, no organization whatsoever, people just stopped their cars where they wanted, and I have no idea how we got out of there. My cousin Serge was driving and it was nice talking with my uncle and cousin. The trip to Serpukhov, where they lived, took an hour from the Moscow Airport. The roads were actually very nicely built and smooth. We made it to the house where my aunt Odella was waiting for us. She made us all food and tea. I pretty much drank tea after every meal in Russia. As I head to the bathroom to wash my hands, the sink was a separate room than the toilet. The toilet water had a faint iron smell which quickly put me back to the time I visited Ireland. The food was exactly how my parents make it here in America. We talked about everything, Uncle Yuri showed me pictures on his laptop, and he told me on what to expect on my trip. Like always I couldn’t fall asleep for too long in the plane, so I was exhausted. I unpacked, took a shower and went to sleep.
10/07/2016 – Friday
Serpukhov
I woke up and looked outside the window. There was overcast but no rain. Onto my adventure in Russia.
I ate breakfast then Yuri and Odella decide to show me around the neighborhood. We first went to the beautiful St. Nicholas Cathedral. In all cathedrals in Russia, it is respectful for women put on a shawl and men take off their hats.
We go outside of the Cathedral, there was a nice garden. Here is a picture of Odella.
A picture of Yuri, he was the photographer so this is the best picture I can get of him.
Further on, we go through a little path on a grassy knoll that seemed to go through some backyards. This reminded me of the greenery from when I was in Russia back in 2001. It was beautiful, and there were also horses loose just running around on the streets. I ask my uncle do they belong to anyone and is anyone scared that they are going to be stolen? He responded with another question “They do belong to someone but no one would steal them, where would they put them?” It was actually nice to see that there was no sense of private property if you are in someone else’s backyard like we have here in the states. There were horses within a fence, and anyone can easily come up to them and pet them if they so wished to do so. I loved it.
We continued the tour of the neighborhood, and I was shown where my cousin Michael and his wife Ellen got married at Olega and Stepanova Park. It was beautiful. The colorful leaves were everywhere and I enjoyed every minute of it. This cannot be seen in Southern California.
We came back home, ate, drank tea, and hung out.
10/08/2016 - Saturday
Moscow
Serge drives, me, Yuri, Alex’ son Igor, (Alex I haven't mentioned yet) and Odella to the planetarium over in Moscow. Once again I notice that the roads were gentler than California. It reminded me of the roads in Germany. No cracks on the roads because there aren’t any earthquakes there so the roads are very smooth the whole way through. However, the driving didn’t change much since 2001. Just like at the airport when there wasn’t any organization going on while I was going through customs, same with the roads. If there was traffic, people went on the right most emergency lanes to get through. They also shoved themselves into the other lanes. As soon as a lane starts moving, all the cars need to get into that lane right away creating even more traffic. I was overwhelmed with their driving. Say what you want about drivers in Los Angeles, you can’t deny that they are very organized and maybe a few drivers would use the emergency lane to get through which is very frowned upon and illegal. Also in China, as crazy as the driving was, I still felt safe even though we went on the wrong side of the streets at times. The people were still patient and had a way to communicate with each other on the road. Not in Russia, anything goes and the funny part is, it’s what is expected. I didn’t hear much honking of the horns or people having road rage because everyone did it. I asked Serge, “How can people drive like this?” He responded with a catch 22, “If we don’t try to get to the front, then no one would get anywhere." Oh and to put the cherry on top, only people in the front wear seat belts in Russia, it’s not against the law to wear seat belts in the back of the car so no one does it. I absolutely did it the whole time and they always looked at me with a smile and said, “You know you don’t have to put the seat belt on in the back.” I still took my chances with it on. As I looked out of the window, I saw very tall buildings and I asked if they were hotels or businesses. Turns out they were apartment buildings that were up to 60 stories tall. These were the tallest apartment buildings I have ever seen. I didn't get a chance to take a picture but here is a stock photo.
Serge dropped us off a few blocks away and went to work. Yuri tried to get his bearings straight but lost his direction. He asked us to stay still and he would go and ask someone for directions really quick. He comes back with a beautiful tall woman in high heels. He tells us that she is going there too and we will follow. At this time I noticed that everyone in Russia is on the skinny side, tall, and for the most part good looking. Only the elderly seemed to have some fat on them. We follow this girl in high heels, and we can hardly keep up. It seemed like she was trying to get away from us but as we approached the planetarium she slowed down and pointed to it letting us know that it is right there. I realize later on that everyone in Russia walks absurdly fast, these are my people, because I also tend to walk fast for many people here in America. We go inside the planetarium museum and the most interesting thing that caught my eye were the meteorites. They looked man made, like computer chips, I’ve never seen them sliced in two like that.
Inside the museum, we go inside the planetarium room and take a seat to view the star and planet show. They talked about the constellations and the planets that we are looking at with our satellites. They also talked about how America is planning to send people to Mars by 2030. It has been a while since I’ve been to the planetarium here in Los Angeles, but Yuri and Odella have a few years ago when they came to visit our family. They said that the one in Los Angeles is better because you don’t have to turn your head to see everything as you had to here in Moscow. We headed out and went to visit the Red Square. Serge has met us there and we all explored.
Inside the red square is probably the most famous cathedral in the world, St. Basils Cathedral.
I was told that they just opened it up so you can see inside of it. None of my family has ever gone in yet. So, Serge, Odella, and I went inside. Igor and Yuri decided to stay outside and take pictures. It was beautiful.
There were narrow secret like passageways to get to some parts of the Cathedral. From what I understood, St. Basil was one of the Catholics who tortured himself and others to cleanse them of sin. This reminded me of the Game Of Thrones episode where the queen had to be locked in a room for some time before she acknowledged that she was a sinner then walked down the streets naked in shame to absolve her sins. In real life, this was the place where they kept people in rooms and gave them whips and chains so they can whip themselves. Also Odella pointed out that underneath every onion shaped roof was a church. Please someone tell me why a place needs to have so many churches inside? We then heard a nice hymm coming from one of the rooms. We approached and heard some very nice vocals and the room was perfect for projecting the sound.
After exploring the Cathedral we came out. We continue to walk on the outside walls of the Red Square. This is where the anonymous soldier’s grave is located.
And if you turn around there is a beautiful green garden.
This is a picture of Odella, Serge, Igor, and me.
Continuing down the wall there are statues and a few other things to see. On the other side of the garden there was a fountain which wasn’t turned on but there was a statue of an Old Russian Folklore. It was a man holding a fish. In the folklore, the fish asks the man not to eat him and in return he will grant the man a wish. So we touched the fish to get our wish granted.
As we walk back to the car, Serge turns to me and says, “You know, I have never actually visited the Red Square myself, thank you for giving me an excuse to come here.” I also thanked him for tagging along. As we approach the car, I couldn’t help but wonder how he got away with parking where he did. He parked in the center lane of an intersection behind a traffic light. His car would be towed in seconds if he did this in Los Angeles, but in Russia, anything goes. He tells me that there is never parking even paid parking in populated areas like this, so he has to be creative. He said that once he paid a firefighter so he can park at a firehouse for a full day because everywhere else was taken. Genius, I’d like to try that here.
10/09/2016 Sunday
Hanging out with Alex and his Family
We all went to visit my other cousin Alex’s and his wife Nadia's house. Alex, Serge, and Michael are brothers. Alex being the oldest, Serge in the middle, and Michael whom I haven't mentioned yet is the youngest and closest to my age, I would be 6 months older than Micahel. Yuri and Odella are their parents. Odella is my dad’s sister. As I enter Alex' house, I’m warmly greeted by Nadia his wife and her daughter Yasna.
In the picture is my cousin Alex, his wife Nadia, and their daughter Yasna.
As we waited for Alex to come from work, Nadas grandma comes in from the other room to greet me. We exchange hellos and she asks me the funniest thing. Grandma is at least 90 years old comes close to me and asks, “Did you have any problems going on the plane with your Samsung phone?” I laugh a bit and kindly respond, “I don’t have that version of the phone where it can blow up.” She smiles and responds, “Good.” I almost lost it. In walks Alex and his son Igor. We also exchange hellos and Alex and Nada take me out to see where they got married. It was also in a park called Otel Drakino. This park reminded me of a park in China. This park had pretty much everything. Go karting, animals, cabins to stay in, and so on.
Nadia was a brave soul and wanted to pet every horse even though Alex had warned her that some aren’t tame. It was fun, and great to be able to bond with my extended family. Little to my knowledge, this was just the beginning of my extended family bonding experience.
We drove back home and had dinner with even more of my relatives. I met Ellen’s mom Ola and her daughter Eugenia. Ola and I quickly became friends, everyone was drinking and I probably got more information than what was intended which I can’t even get into here. One of the family members made a toast and said, “Listen Leo, you have a whole mess of family in the United States but know that it is only half. The other half is here.” And correct he was, overnight I realized that my family was way bigger than I thought.
10/10/2016 Monday
Journey to St. Petersburg
I finally meet with Michael and his wife Ellen. They come with Ola to pick me up so we can make the 10 hour drive to St. Petersburg. I've never met Ellen we instantly become best friends with each other. This was probably the shortest 10 hour drive I have ever been on because we were having so much fun talking with each other. Also, the scenery was great. Colorful trees everywhere and people serving tea from “samavars” on the side of the road. We didn't get any tea because Ellen explained that many people who stop to get something on the side of the road may have an upset stomach. Of course halfway to St. Petersburg we stop at a McDonalds. I had the Tuscan burger, which I assume had beef from Tuscany. The burger had a pretty good zesty kick to it. Also I had the guava ice cream neither of which you can find in the United States. It was actually really good!
10/11/2016 Tuesday
Even more Cathedrals
We went on our way to downtown of St. Petersburg AKA Nevsky Prospekt. Ellen tells me that this is considered to be 1 of 3 of the most wondrous cities in the world. The other 2 are Rome and I forgot the other one. Although St. Petersburg is in fact probably the most beautiful cities I have seen. Sorry Ellen but a quick google search tells me that there are at least 50 cities that are even prettier. Maybe I got the wording wrong? Either way, we park and walk to our first destination which is the Church of the Savior on Blood, another cathedral.
This cathedral was actually built to mimic the famous St. Basils Cathedral that we saw earlier in Moscow. This one had all kinds of mosaics and much more modern colorful art. The story of this place is quite interesting. St. Petersburg had a war to ward off Britain, France, and Turkey. After, they had won, an emperor named Alexander II made reforms to free the serfs. This was the first time this kind of reform was attempted in Russia and didn’t stand well with many people. Revolutionaries tried to kill him by blowing up his winter palace, which didn’t work. They tried to derail a train he was on, he still survived. They finally succeeded in assassinating him by throwing a bomb into his royal carriage. They say that his leg was blasted off and a lot of blood was spilled and he died of blood loss. This Cathedral was decided to be built on top of the place of his assassination. Hence the name, Church of the Savior on Blood.
Right after we walked straight into Kazans Cathedral. At this point I thought this is all we are going to do, forget my itinerary, we are just going to visit Cathedrals all over the city.
Even though I was a bit tired of going inside cathedrals it was still beautiful. We step out and start walking to our next destination. This time we were walking for quite a while and I’ve noticed that the buildings were pretty much all the same size. No crazy 60 story buildings here. Turns out that there is a city ordinance where you can’t go higher than a certain amount. I’ve never seen such evenly built buildings in my life.
The streets were narrow surrounded by buildings where you can’t see the horizon or any mountains, I actually felt a tiny bit claustrophobic. However, after a few minutes of walking, I got used to it. We finally got to our next location. Take the wildest guess on where we ended up? Surprise! Another cathedral!
At least most of the cathedrals we went to had something unique about it and this one was no exception. In this one, you can get tickets to go on top and get a 360 view of the whole city. We had to climb up in circular steps. Remember how I said Russians love to walk fast? Even hundreds of steps couldn’t slow them down, I got a bit dizzy.
I have to give props to Ola. For a mother of 2 she kept up with us the whole time without any complaints. I was so grateful that everyone kept up so we can see everything. We finally get to the top and It was great to see a somewhat horizon again and beautiful colored trees from the top.
We came back down and went on a tour bus. The tour bus was a typical double decker you can see in LA, which drives around the city and has an audio guide talking about St. Petersburg. The problem was, that it either lagged or by the time it got to the subject, we were already past the point of interest. It was hard to keep up.
Halfway through the tour, we got off and went to eat at Marchellis. I know what you are thinking, why am I eating Italian food in Russia? My answer, Please keep in mind that I was eating home cooked Russian food this whole time. This is the very first time we went out to eat, it was a nice break from Russian food. I haven’t ever seen this kind of pizza before and I haven’t eaten ravioli in plum juice. This was the best Italian food I have tasted.
After we finished eating we went back on the tour bus and finished our tour. We walked even more throughout the city.
We stopped at a bookstore called Zinger so I could get my mom a book. I bought a book that I thought my mom would like. Part 1 was complete I told my group that part 2 was finding beautiful leaves so I can put into the book. Ola took this task seriously and was looking everywhere for the prettiest leaves throughout the trip. We continued on to the mall called The Galleria. Beautiful mall that reminded me of Hong-Kong. It was huge. Ellen told me that all of the malls in Russia were built to have the same things located in the same areas. The first few floors were for clothes, the next were for attractions and toys, and on top was food. I asked what a famous Russian Fast Food restaurant was. She responded with “Kroshka Kartoshka” “Little Potato.” Luck had it, that it was in the mall we were in. I had fried pilmeni, it was… fast food. Not that great.
We decided to go into IMAX and watch Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I’ve already seen the movie in America, but I was interested on how it would translate to Russian and how movie theaters were like there. The movie had to be one that I have already seen otherwise I don’t think I would have understood what it would be about in Russian. First the previews started, they had some awesome previews that I haven’t seen in America yet. Namely the new Assassins Creed movie which I was excited about. Then another preview, and another… and another! There were at least 8 previews before the movie even started. The movie was dubbed and it was exactly the same. I fell asleep for about an hour.
The next place was the nightly canal tour and we had to be there soon and had to leave the movie early. We had to walk all the way across the city to get to the canals. It was worth it. The city turned on their lights and it was beautiful. The whole city was lit.
We got to the Canal tour. This was a special kind of tour because in the middle of it, we got to witness bridges going up apart. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a site like this before.
10/12/2016 Wednesday
Petergoff Fountains
We woke up and took a small ferry to get to the Petergoff Fountains in the Gulf of Finaland.
It was even more north, so it was really cold.
The fountains didn’t disappoint.
Even though it was freezing, this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The park that was around the fountains was beautiful. Walking through colorful trees and walkways, felt like a fairytale.
After the scenic walk, we went to eat crepes at “Tsarski Blini” “Tsars crepes” I had mine with caviar and hot cocoa. Very tasty.
We decided to take a taxi back to St. Petersburg. This time we took a canal tour to go underneath the small bridges around the city. The bridges were so small, that it looked like our boat wouldn't fit going through.
After, we went to eat at Ellen's favorite restaurant. Il Patio. It had pizza and sushi!
It was really good. At this point I notice that water isn't free. Everytime you ask for water, it is served in a fancy bottle even in a fast food restaurant.
10/13/2016 Thursday
Russian Banya
Gena took me to the Banya “Russian Bathhouse.” In Russia, you sit in a hot sauna and hit yourself with a “venik” “small branches of birch” to get you sweating faster. It’s a pastime that my grandfather has taught me. This is probably the hottest I have ever been in the short amount of time. I looked at the temperature gage and it read 120 degrees. Now you Americans are thinking, that’s not too hot, my Jacuzzi gets that hot. Let me remind you, that you are thinking in Fahrenheit. This was 120 degrees Celsius!!! That’s 248 degrees in Fahrenheit. I took it as much as I could. I went in, Gena showed me the correct way to smack yourself with the branches, and I was doing it… barely. I couldn’t handle too much and had to leave. Everyone there were respectful, but I have a feeling that they were seeing how much of a wuss I was. Afterwards I jumped into a pool of cold water that was pumped in straight from the canal. The cold water I tolerated much better. Must be because I’m used to the Pacific Ocean. Gena, his friend, and I chilled in the main room and went back in two more times.
Genas friend tells me a joke I didn’t really understand and I kind of laugh but continued to keep to myself. He then asks Gena when the American was going to come and visit. Gena points to me and says, “This is him, he is family from Los Angeles.” He laughs and says, “No wonder, I felt that you weren’t understanding my humor.” He then tells us how he hates how everything is becoming Americanized and the Russian Culture is disappearing. He goes on to tell us how Bill Gates has monopolized on computers so Russians are now saying words in English like, “Message me.” And other words.
I had to agree with him. Americas businesses has taken over with McDonalds, Starbucks, Walmart, Androids, and Apple products everywhere. I’ve said it before, that it’s hard to find a country that isn’t “Americanized.” South China is the closest I have found so far. Even though I appreciate other cultures, this doesn’t bother me. Culture changes all the time and I believe that if we all start seeing ourselves as one instead of divided, we would be more at peace with each other. This isn’t being done by force. It’s done by choice and choosing the best option. There is no doubt that America runs businesses the best so other countries choose to offer American businesses. The Japanese have the best cars for the price, so other countries choose to drive Japanese cars. The Scandinavian Countries have the best healthcare in the world which I believe every country should follow. So now the whole world drives Japanese cars, builds American businesses, and the world enjoys Scandinavian Healthcare. The best of the best should always overpower the outdated. Once we see that we can benefit from each other and not call it “Americanized” but rather “Worldly” we would feel more united and get closer to being at peace with each other. Of course I didn’t say any of this.
After the third time we went into the dry sauna, we showered and headed back home. There, the gang was waiting for me so we can go to our next destination.
Music Hall
We decided to drive to the metro and take it to the theatre. The Metros in Russia are like a museum, very beautiful amazing designs.
We were late, so as usual we ran. The metro went downstairs for miles, it seemed to never end. I felt like I was going into an underground bunker. We finally got all the way down to the train we have to get into. It was packed, you can’t stand without being squished between people. The train went fast and guess what? They of course have Wi-Fi. I am still flabbergasted on how we don’t have Wi-Fi in California metro systems in 2016. Getting off of the train, we have to go all the way back up to get out and head to the theatre. There we meet with Genas daughter Yelena. We spoke a bit on the way there, she was so inviting that I felt like I knew her all this time. It’s great to meet people and not have the awkward stage, she was awesome. Luckily the play didn’t start yet even though we were about 10 minutes late… we made it on time. The play was called “Demons of Eugene Onegin.” A play based off of Pushkins novel. As soon as the play began, I fell in love. The sound was amazing and clear, even though we were a bit far away, we must have had speakers right by our seats. It’s as if the actors were whispering into our ears. The stage moved in a circle at times and the scenery was breathtaking. Having sat through the first half, I didn’t understand a word. The Russian was a bit too fast for me. During intermission, Ola explained the story to me so I can understand.
It is about an old man named Eugene who was a rich nobleman. In his youth he was a player and never really wanted to settle down. At 80 years old he finds himself to be alone and regretted the time he could have had with a girl that loved him. A demon who was with him his entire life makes an appearance and makes him have flashbacks before he dies on where he went wrong in his life. She loved him, he didn’t love her. After a while he finally understood and loved her but she was already married at the time and she didn't want to leave her husband. Her husband challenged him to a dual to fight for her love, he couldn’t back down. Even though Eugene didn’t want to shoot him and purposefully aimed the gun away from her husband, by chance he still got shot. This is why Eugene has to live with his Demons. After the intermission, Ellen’s mom was softly summarizing the play for me so I can understand it, and it worked. It was amazing. Of course after the play, they all told me that it was a play about me. If I don’t get a wife soon then I would be playing catch up in life and get lost. Also, just now as I am writing this, I've noticed that Eric and I made a video that was almost the same. We also had a duel to fight for Veronicas love.
10/14/2016 Friday
The Pushkin
We went into another museum called “The Pushkin” because he studied there. It was an Imperial palace. Another one of my favorite places.
This reminded me of the Imperial palace when I was in Germany. In Germany, there was a special room full of mirrors because back in the days, mirrors were hard to make so it was a luxury to have. This Palace had an Amber room. All the walls and ceiling was covered in Amber. Photos are prohibited in this room, but here is a stock photo.
The room looks like bland gold. Beautiful, but since the other rooms were filled with so much gold, this room looked a bit bland. I’m still glad I saw an Amber room, where there isn’t any like it in the whole world.
Afterwards, we went to yet another museum. Kunstkamera. It featured the native people in different countries and their technologies.
After the Pushkin and the fountains, this wasn’t very entertaining. They had one room full of jars. In the jars were preservatives of deformed babies and animals. This was a fad in the 1970’s where people were fascinated and studied unusual events. Two headed babies, animals fused together and so on. It wasn’t flattering at all. I’m all for science and we should have these things shown to the public, but a little bit of a warning would have been nice.
Afterwards, we went over to Tamara's house. She came to visit us in America about a year ago and insisted that I came to her place in St. Petersburg when I visited and so we did. I am related somehow but there is so much family here, I lost track on how I am related to most of the people that I met here. We stopped by for tea and met with her daughter Eleonora.
The house was beautiful. Tamara is a painter and you can really see an artist lives here. The place is huge with a green room and a lounging area. Very cozy. We had tea, a light snack, traded stories, thanked everyone, and left. Michael and I have promised to make a huge drawing of our family tree so we know who is who to us. After snacking we unfortunately had to leave and go straight to a restaurant where people were waiting for us.
Even more of my extended family were waiting for us at Restaurant Ferma. I met new people and said hello to those I have already met, like Gena and Yelena.
I had borsch.
I was talking to Igor and his wife Olga across from me the whole time. We have never met, but he was also very warm and inviting to have a conversation with. It was good to meet new family.
10/15/2016 Saturday
The drive back to Moscow
We woke up early morning so we can drive back to Moscow. We said our goodbyes and off we went on our 10 hour drive. Again, not a dull moment in the car. Ellen is an English teacher, she has been teaching English for 8 years so we pretty much spoke English with each other the whole ride there. Her mom was correcting homework because she is also a teacher, and Michael actually understood a lot of what I said so he chimed in at times. We stop halfway to eat. We went inside a mall in the city of Tver and had an interesting looking pizza.
It was really good. After the quick meal we went back on the road. About this time, Ellen had confessed that she thought she wouldn't like me. The reason why she didn't come to the first family dinner in Serpukhov with her mom was first because Michael wasn't available and the second reason was because she thought she wouldn't get along with me and a day less with me would be better. The reason she thought this was because her and Michael always talk with my parents on Skype and whenever they ask about me or ask to see me, I'm never there or never available. She thought I was some sort of delinquent American who will come to Russia and not understand their customs and be very Americanized. I also admited to her, that I didn't think I would nearly have as much fun as I did in Russia. I didn't for one second think that anyone would take any time off to be with me, I would just go on buses and Taxis to probably do half the stuff that I did this trip. I would get to meet a few people for a few seconds and thats it, no time to bond whatsoever. Luckily none of this was true and we got along amazingly. We safely get back to Moscow where the big family is again waiting for us with a table full of food upon our return. At night, I turn on my laptop that I brought to Russia with me and I was looking at addresses where I have been so I can accurately pinpoint on where I was because at some point my phone had died and I wasn’t able to check-in on facebook. I somehow got onto tripadvisor and it showed me a restaurant called Krusty Krab that was in Moscow. I was excited and immediately added it onto my itinerary.
10/16/2016 Sunday
Fun Museums
Michael, Ellen, and I went to a place called Docaaf to shoot a Kalashnikov. Ellen didn’t want to shoot, so she stayed back and had coffee while waiting for us. Michael and I put on our ear muffs and goggles and get into the room where people are shooting guns. The instructor tells us the safety tips and tells us great tips like if we shoot the wall or ceiling, we will be kicked out. He shows us how to aim, and reload the gun. Michael goes first to shoot. I look behind him onto the target we are supposed to shoot at. There were two rows of about 12 small different targets and really far away. I was up next, and I had no idea which target I was supposed to choose, so I just went for one. I have no idea if I was hitting the target, and I was actually scared that I was going to shoot at the ceiling or walls because it was so far away.
Needless to say I actually hit the target 15/30 rounds and got pretty close to the bulls eye. Michael was a better shot and got one right in the center.
I told Ellen and Michael about the Krusty Krab, and Ellen was a little bit skeptical but also excited. We decided to go. To get there, you need to walk through Arbat Street. It is like 3rd street in Los Angeles but smaller and prettier.
We get to the Krusty Krab. It didn’t disappoint, it looked and felt like we were in the actual SpongeBob cartoon.
I had the Crabby Patty with bubble gum shake. The burger was good, and the shake was probably the best I’ve had.
They had TV’s showing SpongeBob episodes and advertising things that were happening in Arbat Street. One of the advertisements looked like some fun exhibition you can go to, so we decided to go.
We bought a bundle of tickets where you can visit 4 museums. The first one shrunk us and everything was huge!
The second one turned off gravity so we were upside down.
It's overwhelming being upside down, so I took a little break.
The third one put us into fantasy land.
The fourth one put us into a horror house but we couldn’t take pictures. Ellen loves horror so she was excited about going in until a person came out and asked if we had any heart problems or pregnant? She wondered why they would ask such a thing, and had second thoughts in going. She ended up being brave and went in. It was a maze in a room where ghosts were roaming around and scary decorations were put up. All the ghosts of course went after Ellen and she thought the long maze would never end. I was laughing so much and unfortunately it ended. Even Michael said that he got scared turning the corners thinking something would pop up. I tell them that unfortunately, “I am used to all this and I don’t even flinch a bit. I would love to have the adrenalin I once had when I was scared, but I go to haunted houses every Halloween and it takes a lot to get me to even flinch.” They tell me that they have some more haunted houses in Russia, but they don’t celebrate Halloween so it’s rare that they go.
The fourth and final one was Animal Land. Here you can pick up, touch, and pet all sorts of animals. I was impressed. Here in Los Angeles if you would want to do a thing like this, it would cost at least $60. In Russia, however, just a $5 ticket.
We get to the 5D movie theatre and you can also get a bundle here, 3 movies in 5 minute intervals. Right away, I say let’s do horror. Ellen chimes in, I’ve had enough horror for today, let’s do something more innocent. The first movie we chose was going down a snow mountain on a snowboard. The seats were moving, and as the character (you) jumps and lands, you feel the water spray as if the snow powder hit you. It was fun. Next one, Ellen once again becomes brave and decides to do a horror house. I think we enjoyed that one the best. The first person character is a woman, you can tell by her voice. She goes in what seems to be a nice sunny house, until she gets closer, then it becomes night and the house turns into a creeky old house. You get dragged in by a monster and she tries to escape. She falls through floors, runs, and what seems like blood squirts on you. Very cool. The third and final one was you racing with some pigs down the Texas desert. We got sprayed with mud on that one. I’m trying to Google 5D in Los Angeles, and I am finding some facebook pages, but nothing specific. If you know of a 5D movie that you can just walk into unlike Universal and Disneyland, please let me know, I’d love to go!
10/17/2016 Monday
Goodbye Russia
Serge, Odella, and Yuri drive me back to the airport. We say our goodbyes and I go inside. My ticket said that I was supposed to be flying with United. However, I tried to check in the night before, the website didn’t let me. I go into the airport and look for the United Air and cannot find it. I try to look at the directory screen but nothing there. I go up to information and ask where United Air is, and they told me to look in the directory. A bit peeved, I tell them that I already looked and United Air isn’t on there. They ask for my tickets and proceed to check for me, they tell me to go to section 8. Section 8 is Swiss Air not United, I had to get in line and was hoping that it is where I need to be because given my Airport track record, I didn’t want to miss my plane. Turns out I was in fact supposed to be flying Swiss Air. Expedia, you have done me wrong and gave me the wrong information. Either way, I get my tickets and fly out. This plane also didn’t have any entertainment and if you want to go online you had to pay. So annoying. This time my stop was at Munich, Germany. Again, I get off at the other side of where I need to be and the time is only a half an hour to get there. I’m hurrying down with a very fast pace that I’ve picked up in Russia. At the terminal where I need to be, they are checking baggage and there is a line. Great, I’m going to miss this plane. They clear me and I arrive, 10 minutes late. The plane hasn’t taken off yet, turns out they were waiting for everyone to get there. Germany, I have to say, I love you. Your efficiency is uncanny and I am very jealous of that. After another hour, we get inside the plane and take our seats. I am flying Swiss Air again. I sit in the middle row between 2 guys. I don’t think I have ever sat in the middle row in a plane before. It was very uncomfortable. Also, for some reason there was a separation pole right under the seat in front of me. So I couldn’t put my backpack underneath the seat directly in front, it had to go either more to the left or to the right. I put it to the left and after a little while, the guy to the left of me says, can you please move your backpack it’s in the way. I tried to pretend to move it, but there wasn’t really anything I could do, it was really annoying to have that separation there. Other than that, this plane had great entertainment and very good food where they give you a Swiss chocolate for desert! The flight this way took 12 hours this time instead of 10 on the way there because of the wind. I get to LAX and oh man what a difference. I almost cried seeing how organized the custom lines were and nobody cutting in. The line was probably 3 times as long, but I got through 3 times faster. My mom met me there and drove me home.
I miss you guys already!
What an amazing experience. It wasn’t at all like I remember from 2001. Everyone was nice and I felt very safe. People who were selling things on the streets didn’t say, “You touch you buy.” Actually the exact opposite. They encouraged you to touch and tried to sell you as you were holding the item. They still bartered, at the Pushkin I asked a man how much a painting was and he said something like $50. As I was walking away, he said I can have it for $40. Then he started following me, dropping it down to $25. I can’t stand bartering but I guess it’s a step from “you touch you buy.” Yet, the driving and organization still needs to be worked on. Please look to Germany on how to do that correctly. U.S.A, I'm talking to you too.
I did so much in Russia thanks to my family. Thank you Michael, Ellen, and Ola for taking the time to show me everything. Thank you Odella, Serge, and Yuri for giving me a place to stay, driving me around in Serpukhov and Moscow and feeding me very good food. Thank you Uncle Gena for giving me a place to stay in St. Petersburg. Thank you to everyone for greeting me and making me feel so welcome as if I knew everyone all along. It broke my heart leaving and I wish you could have all came with me. I miss you all and can’t wait for you to come visit!
Yee haw Texas, you’re next!
I still have to come back to finish my Itinerary and go to:
Hermitage
royal beach strogino
Snej.Com All Season Ski Complex
Horror-Quest Lyublinskaya St., 107/10, Moscow, Russia
Action Games Joyment Tushinskaya St., 17, Moscow, Russia
Ice rink on Chistye Prydi Izmaylovo Kremlin & Izmaylovo Flea Market
Rooftop Tours
I'm going to paint this whole map red!
Click here to view all the Russia pictures
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