This past weekend, all of us went to Moscow for one of our vacations. It was pretty stressful to start out with. We couldn't find a cheap train that left when we wanted it too. Finally Andrew was able to find a train that was perfect. We were set out to leave Thursday night at 10, and it only cost 868 rubles. Which is about 30 bucks. Not half bad for a night train to Moscow. The only problem was that we couldn't find a train to get back. We could only find trains that would be over 2000 rubles, or we would have to leave Saturday night. Or worst, we would have to fly, which would be over 3000 rubles. It was pretty stressful. But good news, we found a train that left Sunday night at 9:27 and arrived at 5:30 Monday morning. So we booked that train, and it was only 1250. It was more than the other one, but it was what we needed.
I experienced quite a few new experiences. The first one was a night train. I've never really been on a train before, so this was my first time. We were almost late because Jess was with her host family, and we were waiting for her. Megan and I went and got Subway, while the others got blini. That was an adventure. We had a hard time ordering our sandwich. But luckily enough, there were some pretty understanding people behind us, and things worked out.
We get on the train, and I found out that my bed, was a table too, and it was occupied by two guys. They guessed that was my bed, so they moved for me and Andrew. Those guys were super chatty. I think that they talked the whole entire train ride, except for when they were sleeping. People on the train also had to smoke so much. I think they have a problem here with smoking. We had fun on the train ride until they turned off the lights. Then we went to sleep. My bed was just slightly too short for me. I managed to sleep the majority of the time. The only real big problem was that it was super hot, and I was wearing long pants. It made things a little miserable. But we survived.
We finally made it to Moscow, and got our train tickets to go back so we were all set. We were pretty productive because this was all before about 5:30. We then found a cafe where they had wi-fi, and food. I got freshly squeezed orange juice that was super good. Andrew got freshly squeezed apple juice. I didn't have it, but he liked it. We finally found the address to the hostel that we were stayed at, and we were off. We had to take the metro to it, and we were astounded by Moscow's metro. It is HUGE, and super confusing. Andrew is a gem. He is the one that really helped us with finding things because he could actually read and figure out where to go. It was super nice.
New experience #2, staying in a hostel. I had never even heard of a hostel before Marci talked about them. They are like hotels, but not as classy. Usually backpackers stay at them while traveling. The hostel we stayed in was called Za Za Zoo. There were about 10 rooms, and in each room there are 4 beds. There was also 2 shower/ toilets, and then one toilet, and then a kitchen, and a tv area. It was an interesting experience staying there. The first night there was a party for like 50 year old women or older there. While we were standing waiting to check in, we probably saw about 12-15 of these ladies come in. According to Marci, most people to stay in hostels are in their mid twenties to thirties, not fifty. Haha, oh well.
After checking out the hostel, we went walking around. While we were walking, we lost Courtney, and Sydney, but we found them about 20 minutes later. It was all fine. After we were all together, we walked to Red Square. There we saw St. Basil Cathedral, The Kremlin, the State Museum, the Kazan Cathedral, and this huge mall galled GUM. We had lunch, and took a nap at the hostel. After that Jess, Megan, Andrew and I went inside of the St. Basil Cathedral. It was pretty cool in there. Jess took a lot of awesome pictures, so did Andrew. After we left the Cathedral, we went past the State Museum, and saw a mini market. looked at that, and then another mall by there. Then we went to the GUM, and walked around there and looked at the stores. After that, we went back to the hostel and just chilled and then went to sleep.
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