From Russia with Love

My mom and I recently went on holiday to Russia. Why Russia, you ask? Well, my mom had always wanted to go there because of its extremely rich cultural history. I, on the other hand, heard from a friend of mine that Russia is arguably just as, if not more, beautiful than a lot of other more popular destinations in Europe. Since both my mom and I have had the fortune of traveling to many countries in Europe before, it was about time for us to visit the largest country in the world.

This trip was about 6 years in the making. When I was still based in Sweden, my mom took two weeks off and paid me a visit. She was thinking about swinging by Russia during that time but I told her that she was better off touring the different Schengen countries instead. That way, she could visit multiple countries without having to get another visa. I told her that I was also interested to visit Russia so we could just go together some other time. It wasn't until some of my mom's colleagues joined a package tour to Russia two years ago that our plans got reignited. We started thinking about it a bit more last year and finally, we made it there in late April this year.

Now that I have been there, I can definitely say that Russia is worth visiting. We spend six days in Moscow, visiting a couple of cities outside of Moscow on what is called the Golden Ring, then we traveled by overnight train to St. Petersburg where we spent another five days. During these two weeks, we got to visit some incredible cathedrals both in Moscow,

St. Petersburg,

and the Golden Ring.

Influences from both Asia and Europe mean that you get to see a lot of striking architecture.

The military has also featured heavily in their rich cultural history...

...and the best metro stations in the world can be found here.

Opportunities are available to see and experience Russian involvement in the Space Race.

There are also a lot of must-see museums that feature beautiful art.

Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham by Adriaen van der Werff

And of course you cannot visit Russia and not see a ballet!

Obviously, I will be writing about this trip in more detail over the next several blog posts, starting with my visit to the Kremlin and Red Square. Stay tuned!