24 hours in Moscow

Before flying back to the states, we had a small layover in Moscow, so we took advantage of it (as you do).

More of our trip after the break

Our flight from Volgograd landed around 10a.m and the flight to JFK wasn't till the following morning, so we booked a hotel near downtown Moscow, just a few tram stops away from the Red Square. 

This was outside our hotel and we ended up walking under it

Everything went smoothly with the hotel picking us up and we were able to get into our room early. After dropping our bags we made for Red Square.Apparently in Moscow, it's big to have underground crosswalks for their streets. About a block or so from our hotel was the subway station, that had a massively long escalator down to the tracks.

It felt like a couple hundred feet deep.

Thanks to some great scout work from Katie and a little deciphering of the signs and diagrams, we were on the subway toward the red square, only about 15 minutes away.

A point of reference for the Moscow tram system, we were on the orange line

We decided to hop off just outside the square and walk the rest of the way to the center of the city, just to take in as much as we could. This might of made things easier because unbeknownst to us there was some kind of parade going on and the square was sectioned off by security. 

Rows of cops and troops marching 

A parade is all well in good but we weren't even sure what it was for lol

Since we couldn't get into Red Square at the time, we ducked into a nearby mall, called GUM.

Multiple long halls with vaulted windows, gorgeous architecture 

This mall was really high scale. We hadn't seen a collection of big marquee brands like this since Vegas. Mostly, it was just kind of nice to get out from the snow and catch our bearings. 

The decorations were a lot of fun too.

We checked on the Parade and it was still going strong.

You could see groups waiting their turn in the parade

So we found a massive toy-store and explored that. 

Now, I say toy store, but really, this place was like a mini city in 6 floors. It has everything from clothes, shoes, bikes, and every toy brand to virtual reality or really anything you could think of. It kind of reminded me a little of the Childrens Museum in Indianapolis in it's structure.

They hadn't decorated their tree yet except the very top, we weren't sure why

We really liked the massive mechanical clock though

And of course we found the Lego section

with huge builds

And creepy Play-Doh pal

One of my favorite finds, the unique covers for Harry Potter

From what we could find out, Russia doesn't really celebrate Christmas like we do in the states, but this area seemed to ignore that and embrace the spirit of the holiday with the massive tree in the center of everything and even elves to take pictures with. 

You can't see them but I swear there are elves down there

The top floor was a food court with a wide variety of food, ranging from classical Russian to Burger King to Sushi, and about everything in between. The top floor also had a big movie theater and if you know where to look, stairs that lead to the roof with a great view of Moscow.

Ton of fun, really didn't know what we were going to find here, and it was a great time.

We wanted to try the Red Square again, so we made our way back.

Russia likes to keep their buildings warm

Just an awesome pink church we stumbled upon while walking back to the square

And the square had been opened!

Everyone had flooded in after the parade, and man was it impressive. 

This is actually the outside of GUM

We even got to see floats from the Parade.

Once we saw the Square, we retraced our steps back to the hotel and just relaxed having explored Moscow in the snow.

Our coats hung together from our adventure.(I just thought it looked cute)

Wall-E and Eve overlooking the city, you can see the massive Radio tower in the background.

We got to see so much of Moscow in a short amount of time, we really got the feel for the place despite being there so shortly. And seeing it in the snow just felt right. 

P.S.

Took another picture of our coats with the flash on it's a much different outcome.