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| St. Basil’s Cathedral |
We’re pretty much done with our trip to Russia and currently in Saint Petersburg. I’ve been so busy and tired that I haven’t had a chance to write about our trip so far.
Our flight to from JFK to Moscow with Delta went really well. Delta might just have some of the best infant- friendly travel policies. Due to traveling with a lap baby, we needed to go to a counter to check in and were then allowed to bypass a very long security line. Boarding was even more impressive. Families traveling with infants get to board first. I was beyond surprised that we got to even board before business class! I give Delta a BIG thumbs up for being so understanding to families traveling with babies! (Lucas, thanks you too!)
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We got to our hotel-
The Radisson Royal Hotel earlier then regular check in time and got very lucky- our room was available right away. The hotel and room were beautiful. We were upgraded to a better room which had plenty of space for Lucas to crawl around in (and lots of things for Lucas to try to destroy, like an expresso machine.) The one negative would have to be the location. It was a bit of a trek to the nearest metro and we found out the hard way that the taxis that are always available and waiting at the hotel charge 25% more then the standard rate. Our second hotel,
Park Inn Sadu was not as fancy as the Radisson Royal (but still very nice) however the location made it a much better place to stay for us.
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Moscow is an odd city to say the least. I can’t say that I don’t like it but it is difficult to get a true feel for it. People rarely smile and seem to be extremely pushy- literally. Getting around and communicating is also very difficult. We’ve had an easier time pretty much everywhere else in the world that we’ve visited. It was shocking to us that few locals spoke English.The weather was also much colder than expected. We figured it would be chilly but not so cold and snowy. It basically snowed the whole first three days of the trip. We were told that this was the coldest it’s been in years and the most snow they’ve had in the month of March, in years.
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On a positive note things are not as pricey as people say they are. Cheap food can be found pretty easily and sites with admission fees were reasonably priced.
We also noticed that Russia seems to love American fast food chains. We saw locations of McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and a few others around the city.
Some Highlights:
With the Super Bowl being held in the New York City area at MetLife Stadium, (home to the New York Giants & Jets) there are lots of free special events going on around the city.
