Up Close and Personal with Moscow

We're in Moscow for about 5 days. Initially I was rather worried on how to handle the kids during the long flights (we had 3 continuous flights, the longest was around 9 hours), but luckily it all turned out rather well. SY was kept entertained by the little doodle that I bought (I actually went to buy 2 sets - one for each girl in case they fight over it), and they sure came in handy. SY loves doing maths and drawing things in it - and I was amazed at her drawing and math skills, really. Where as SJ was still scribbling most of the time, but she enjoyed it too. Then there were those in-flight movies and games which kept them entertained, so I didn't need to worry that they would get bored with my very limited handphone games.

What else did we do in Moscow? The pictures that I shared in the previous post were on Red Square. Here are more...

Our transportation mostly were metro, bus, and walking most of the time. We also had a boat ride in St. Petersburg, so Sze Yi was very happy that she covered all types of transportation while we're there. We used to promise her to take her for a bus ride when we're in Penang, but never had the chance to do so. Now she got to experience all in this trip.

The escalators to the metro - it was so high and fast! SY and Daddy counted until 100 before it actually ended! How scary!

A closer view at the metro station (all metro stations have their own unique design and architecture)

We went to see a Cat Show on the 2nd day there. 

It seems that only Russian can train cats very well

This activity was mainly planned for the kids. Unfortunately, they were rather afraid, especially when the clowns started throwing the balls to the audiences. Sze Yi got scared and cried :) Then, Daddy and Chew Chew were called up to the stage to perform with the cats! I only managed to capture that with my handphone, so it's a bit blurry.

Well, the cat's claws accidentally scratched my brother's legs when it climbed over him to the poll, they sure were sharp! Honestly, I was more impressed with the 2 dogs there than the cats :)


The third day was my sister's convocation. The whole event was organised by the students themselves.
 

Many people got attracted to the kids maybe because they were the youngest audiences there. Some graduates asked to take photos with them. When SY refused, one even gave her a flower until she agreed!

After that we adjourned to the Malaysian Embassy for a garden luncheon. It was a very nice environment. We tasted the traditional Russian rice cooked with mutton. It was delicious, but the rice was rather oily.

This is the place where we stayed, we're neighbours to a souvenir shop. The shop lady liked the kids so much that she gave them a souvenir each :) And we even got to take photos with her!

The last picture on the right bottom corner was taken at night. The day time there was longer since it's summer, it's still very bright until around 10pm. In the morning, it would start to be bright as early as 4am. So for the first few days there, I woke up at 3-4am in the morning! Well, maybe it's partly due to jetlag too, coz it's 4 hours behind Malaysia.

Here's the places and scenes that we'd pass thru each time before we get to the metro.

It was quite a long walk. In fact, we're really tired from the walking, and my back was aching from carrying SJ most of the time. I only let her walked along the Arbat Street, as that's the safest place to walk on her own.

This is the post office. We actually sent postcards back to ourselves, but we still haven't received them yet.

Finally here's the Metro Station. If you look carefully, there were two policemen on duty. The security were not as strict as last time, after the bombing event.

The following day would be our last day in Moscow before we flew to St. Petersburg. So my sister took us for some souvenir shopping. Not that we had a lot of space for souvenirs, because our luggages nearly reached the max limit (39.8kg, our limit was 40kg!). Anyway, it's fun to see the types of souvenirs sold there, right?

We had Russian Kebabs for lunch that day. Even though I packed lunch for the kids, they didn't always want to eat. They were more excited to try the food that we had. For our lunch/dinner, we normally cooked 1 meal and ate out for another meal. Unless we're too tired that day, or the outing extended till very late, we'll just eat out for both meals. The kids were satisfied with just potatoes, so I just had to make sure that their porridge or mee suah had potatoes in it. And surprisingly, they even ate chicken or pork with their porridge/mee suah there! Maybe it's softer? They hardly eat meat in Malaysia!

The Russians were very particular in culture and arts. Their works include a lot of details, which can also be seen in their buildings' and churches' architecture. They are also very good in painting and potraits. I couldn't help admiring the Russian ladies there too. Their features were sharp and nice, which were very well accentuated by their great taste in dressing. Even their main souvenirs - the matryoshka doll were very unique - each were hand-painted and not 2 sets were the same.

Well, that's all on Moscow. Too bad we didn't get to visit my sister's university, as she excluded that from the itinerary towards the last minute since my parents were tired from all the walk (actually we're really tired too, especially when carrying the kids along while they're sleeping). But a good thing was that we got to see it from the outside. This trip would not have been easy without my sister's bf's help. He helped a lot in many many ways, especially in helping to entertain Sze Yi most of the time. He's the most patient guy I've ever seen, and he's also a good cook. The meals that we had at home, mostly were prepared by him and my sister, while some were by my dad and elder sister.

Ok, stay tuned for my next update on our St. Petersburg trip.