Thank you to my readers!

I want to thank my readers very much for viewing and reading my blog! When I started to write in July 2015, I only intended to share information with others who want to go to Russia and furthermore I wanted to keep my family updated in a better and more interesting way than skyping or mailing.

However, as I can see on the blog's statistics there has been a shift in the audience.
In 2015, by far most of the views came from Austria. Other countries were only merely present.
Now, since I am in St. Petersburg, most of the readers clicked on my blog ling in Russia followed by Austria, the States and Kazakhstan. The high % rate for Russia can be explained by the number of exchange students who are present and may click on the blog link. However, it is impossible to track back and find out whether Russian citizens or others clicked.

Proportion of views in % by country

Great weather = great views

Finally the snow has almost completely melted, the sunshine is bright and the wind blow is not that strong anymore. It almost feels like a summer breeze, however, without a winter jacket you are still poor in this city. From my window I can observe the surrounding well since my window faces towards the South and therefore lets a lot of sunlight in. Everyday I can see more from my flat which is located on one of the highest floors, everyday one more building that is recognizable as the day becomes longer and the sun brighter!

So what to do on a sunny day? Climb high places!

Pictures from top of Saint Isaac's Cathedral:

On this picture there are most of the famous sights of St. Petersburg. Can you find them all? (Solution at the end!)

View of the harbor and the sea in the far back

ВДНХ and other places (Moscow)

ВДНХ 
In my last post of my Moscow trip last weekend, I am showing you some pictures of a place called "ВДНХ". This place consists of a huge park where you find the "economic achievements" of Russia. There are also several museums, an art gallery (really bad one, no interesting), an Aquarium called "Mosquarium", a Wostok rocket (the same as Gagarin and his followers used), an airplane, rollercoasters and so on. I really did not get the actual focus of this mix of theme park, Russian culture and art, and technical projects. I wonder if there is a actually a way. However, it was interesting to have a walk there and see all that stuff!

Entrance to ВДНХ

Museums and helicopters... 

Alley to the awesome Wostok rocket

Close up of the Wostok! 

There is also this plane (why they put everything together, it makes no sense!?)

And of course, there is also an aquarium!

And a museum of illusions (no photoshop!)

And that awesome fighter

Other places: 
Saint Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square:

Cathedral of Christ the savior:

We had a night walk through the city where I made some pictures:

That is a hotel!

And that is the Russian jurisdiction ...

Kremlin at midnight

Four Seasons hotel in front!

Kremlin and the Lenin Mausoleum (Moscow)

Kremlin 
The Kremlin next to the Red Square is a very interesting place to visit and was a highlight of my trip. It is is the oldest part of the city and looks like a castle. Its area is around 28 h and there are 5 churches and several governmental buildings on this area. I was always curious to see the Kremlin at least from outside since a lot of times I have seen the building on TV (especially when there were news from the Russian government). In order to get into Kremlin you have to buy a ticket, leave your luggage at the wardrobe and get checked thoroughly by the security. However, since it is not high season, there are almost no tourists, so the process was quick. Once inside the red walls, I was overwhelmed especially by the governmental buildings. A lot of guards were securing them and I still wonder how much security staff there actually is hiding in the buildings and on top of the roofs. I was stopped by the guards twice who were signaling me by whistling and hand signs to stop and turn around. I recommend you not to approach the governmental buildings as I accidentally did, but to better only watch the churches which are easily recognizable by their golden roofs.

The churches themselves are typical for Russian architecture (as far as I can judge) as you will notice on the pictures, but include elements of Italian architecture. What makes them really interesting is the history behind them and the Russian tsars who ordered these (e.g. one of the churches was ordered by Ivan the Terrible). Furthermore, most of them are already more than 500 years old and provide you with good examples for comparing with much later constructed churches (many of the Russian churches are not older than 20 years!).

Lenin Mausoleum 
If you go to Kremlin or the Red Square, you can easily find the Lenin Mausoleum. The opening times of this "highlight" are very restricted. There are only 3 days in a week where it is open to visitors from 10 am to 1 pm. You will find there other graves and monuments behind the Mausoleum for example Stalin's. However, I would not recommend to go there. There is nothing interesting to see, especially for those who do not worship the fathers of communism and its "mutations".

Walking along Kremlin's wall

Entrance for visitors

Better do not approach these buildings

I doubt it was ever used effectively 

This building is just overwhelming and impressive!

Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (Moscow)

Journey to Moscow...
... so two of my new friends and me decided rather quickly to plan a journey to Moscow and it really paid of! My two friends went one day earlier than me, but I followed on Saturday evening. We stayed in the same hostel, close to the city center for roughly 8-9 € per night including breakfast. Of course, it was not a luxurious palace, but it was clean and somewhat cosy.


Link to the hostel: http://ugolok-hostel.ru

Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics
I have always been very interested in the first spacecrafts and in general in space missions. Therefore this museum was by far the greatest reason to go to Moscow. The museum is focused on the achievements of the Russian space program such as the first animals and humans in space, first space walk, first satellites, first lunar landing vehicles or the great Mir space station. The museum presents a lot of original models of capsules of Wostok and Sojus missions, space suits and other equipment. There are 1:1 mock ups of satellites and even the conserved bodies of the first two dogs who returned from space. However, the museum is especially dedicated to the pioneer Juri Gagarin, the first man in space. I highly recommend this museum to anyone who is interested in cosmonauts as well as to everybody who got some extra time of 2-3 hours available. Visitors who are not familiar with the history of Russian space crafts should rent an audio guide at the museum.
The price for students is actually 50 Rubles, however we got in for free (we do not know why, but we got the tickets when we showed our Russian student ID cards).

In the upcoming days, I will post more about the other sights that we visited!

Only a few of the attractions in the museum:

Monument on top of the museum

Air gate for the first space walk 

(attatched to the capsule; one of the two cosmonauts remained in the pressurized capsule while air gate served the second cosmonauts to safely leave and return to the capsule

Space suit for the first space walk

Space suit for  extravehicular activities at the space station "Mir"

Refrigerator for long space flights

Original Sojus capsule

Model of the Buran shuttle program

Interior of Gagarin's capsule

Gagarin's ejection seat in his capsule