Trip to Russia -- continued

Then, we just fooled around in the Alexandrovsky Garden, the first public garden in Moscow.

And then, the Red square where the famous St. Basil Cathedral is located.

We wanted to see how Red square looks like in night time. But the sky became dark at around 9pm. So, we had a walk in the first shopping mall in Russia, the GUM.

It's 9pm we longed for. Red square was really beautiful.

And then, we got back to hotel for rest.

Trip to Russia -- continued

We arrived at Moscow in the morning and then went to the Kremlin, which is a must-go for tourist. Outside Kremlin, it's flame on the ground again. The flame was to glorify an unkonwn soldier during WWII. "Your name is unknown, your deeds immortal." But I don't know what was happening. Maybe Russia is truly a country full of natural gas.

The Kremlin is actually not that open to tourist. Still, we went to the Armoury and the Diamond Fund Exhibition, where photo-taking is strictly prohibited.

Trip to Russia -- continued

The last day at St. Petersburg. We went to the Catherine Garden, which required us to take suburban train for around 30 mins. The weather was quite bad. But upon arrival of Catherine Garden, the bad weather had no impact on the beauty of the Garden. The Garden was super large and super beautiful. I think if I have a girlfriend, I will bring her there. That should be a nice place for dating.

The Catherine Palace was also there and was different from the Hermitage. The Hermitage is now a museum, so it's more or less like a museum instead of a palace. But Catherine Palace was truly a palace. It's again showed the extravagant life of the imperial family.

Insider the Catherine palace, there's an amber room. It's difficult to imagine there's a room wholly made of amber. I can say Catherine Garden is a must-go for people planning to go to St. Petersburg.

We then got back to St. Petersburg and had our last dinner there. After that, we took overnight train back to Moscow.

Trip to Russia -- continued

On the train from Vladimir to Moscow, we met a Russian guy who lived in Yaroslav. He was very enthusiastic to share more Russian information to us. On the way, he told us a place that is very beautiful near St. Petersburg. That's Kronstadt. Kronstadt is basically a Naval base, though there's normal people living there. It's rather remote, which spent us around 1 hour to get there. But it was a nice place in general. Very tranquil.

At 3pm, we got back to St. Petersburg. This is a memorable day because an unprecedented event happened on me.

In the Metro station, we were waiting for train coming. Our queue was a little bit longer than others. Though it's just a little bit longer, it indicated something. The train finally arrived. At the first sight, the compartment was rather empty. Just stepped into the train, the man in front of me stopped suddenly and obtructed from getting in. I tried to get round him to get in. But another man obtstructed me from doing so. I tried to turn myself back, hoping to enter the train through another door. Again, another man obstructed. That moment, I felt my zip on my trousers started moving down. I knew there's nothing inside, so I let him zip it down. I then found a line between the two men in front of me and I squeezed myself through it. Yes, they are pocket-pickers. And I found my bag was also opened, though all stuff are still inside. That process took around 20 seconds. When the door was about to close, these gangs got out of the train.

I was lucky to have nothing lost and it was really a good experience for me. But that of course spoiled my mood that day.

We then had our first Georgian dinner in our life.

Trip to Russia -- continued

So we started our second day at St. Petersburg with free breakfast at hotel. Discovered that so many elderlies chose our hotel.

We then went to the Hermitage Museum, a must-go for St. Petersburg. It was actually a Palace where the Emperor lived. Though it is now a museum, it can still give me a taste of extravagance of the old Russia. We met a super beautiful Russian girl there, who is a guide for 4 Chinese. Super super beautiful, different style compared with Anna at Vladimir.

The Hermitage

The State Staircase

Almost all rooms can show the extravagance of the old Russian life.

Outside the Hermitage was the Alexander Column which is built in commemoration of victory over Napoleon.

The Alexander Column

There are so many columns in St. Petersburg. Maybe they like columns very much. Just very close to the Hermitage, we saw another two columns, Rostal Columns. Actually, they were just lighthouses.

Rostal Columns

We then went for boat trip, which spent us at least 30 minutes for waiting. At last the boat trip lasted for 1 hour. But that was a nice experience, as we can see St. Petersburg from a different angle.

That ended our second day at the lovely St. Petersburg.