Russian Holiday

St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square

We have just returned from a week in Russia! This was a trip off Tim's bucket list. It was a holiday full of surprises for Tim and Lisa and a lesson in history for Max and Simon.

It was surprisingly warm. The temperatures were in the mid 20s and it was sunny every day. The locals called it an Indian summer and we were grateful because it meant we could walk freely around the city without sweaters and rain gear. The changing Fall colours was also a surprise. The countryside is full of trees familiar to us: silver birch, maple, oak, beech in their various stages of yellow, gold, and red.

with our amazing tour guide Alexander

The accents were surprisingly different. We had expected to hear people speaking with a thick Russian accent but it was not the way it sounds in the movies! Tim and Lisa realized that their assumption of Russian speech probably came from episodes of "Get Smart" and the KAOS agent called Siegfried.

Metro subway station underground St Petersburg with crystal pillars

Moscow and St. Petersburg were surprisingly clean and luxurious in public places. Our hotels and the Metro subway were built in the 1920s, just after the Soviet era began. We therefore expected the city to look quite functional and bland. But the Metro was purposely created to be beautiful in areas where the local people could enjoy its luxury.

Afternoon cruise on the Moscow River

The food was no surprise! We ate delicious Russian traditions like borscht (beet and cabbage soup served hot with sour cream), vareniki and pelmeni (dumplings stuffed with meat and spices or potatoe and cheese), olivier (potatoe salad with peas and bologna), bliny (crepes served with sweetened condensed milk!), morss (fresh cranberry juice), and Beef Stroganov (with lots of mushrooms and sauce).