Back in Moscow on the 7th day...
State of Being : Blogging "live" from Swissotel Moscow Executive Lounge
After three wet and freezing days in St Petersburg, I was so looking forward at returning back to Moscow on day 7, where the sun will be shining brightly at temperature ranging between 23-26 degree celcius (i.e. the temperature when I first arrived in Moscow last Saturday).
But unfortunately, that was not the case as somehow the temperature must have changed over the past 4 days while I was away in St Petersburg. In fact, the wind was just as chilling in Moscow on day 7 as the temperature was in St Petersburg, only sans the rain. Luckily, we have already covered most of the attractions in Moscow over the previous weekend and had only left to explore the metros and the markets.
To make matter worse, not only were the weather in Moscow "unviting", we were stopped by the Moscow police for some routine check and had to pay them some "coffee money" to be let off. Thankfully on the advise of one of my colleagues, I had carried photostated copies of our passports rather than the actual ones, so that the police could not hold us random but alas they still asked that we pay them 2,000 rubles!!! just to get back those papers. I acted pitiful and surrended only 250 rubles in the end, claiming that we have already spent the rest and were leaving Russia the next day. Sigh, we have read so much about these corrupted police in the travel guide and online forum and were hoping that we would not run into them but still...
Having survived such an eventful day in Russia, I definitely hope that tomorrow will be a better day!!
p.s. I can't wait to go back to Singapore in two days time so as to bitch more about those cops and our close encounters with some pickpockets in St Petersburg (yes the nerve of those pickpockets!)
But unfortunately, that was not the case as somehow the temperature must have changed over the past 4 days while I was away in St Petersburg. In fact, the wind was just as chilling in Moscow on day 7 as the temperature was in St Petersburg, only sans the rain. Luckily, we have already covered most of the attractions in Moscow over the previous weekend and had only left to explore the metros and the markets.
To make matter worse, not only were the weather in Moscow "unviting", we were stopped by the Moscow police for some routine check and had to pay them some "coffee money" to be let off. Thankfully on the advise of one of my colleagues, I had carried photostated copies of our passports rather than the actual ones, so that the police could not hold us random but alas they still asked that we pay them 2,000 rubles!!! just to get back those papers. I acted pitiful and surrended only 250 rubles in the end, claiming that we have already spent the rest and were leaving Russia the next day. Sigh, we have read so much about these corrupted police in the travel guide and online forum and were hoping that we would not run into them but still...
Having survived such an eventful day in Russia, I definitely hope that tomorrow will be a better day!!
p.s. I can't wait to go back to Singapore in two days time so as to bitch more about those cops and our close encounters with some pickpockets in St Petersburg (yes the nerve of those pickpockets!)
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