The other girls decided to go to the souvenir market early in the morning, but since I already had most of my souvenirs, I decided to sleep in and go a little bit later. I kind of enjoy having some travel time to myself and don't mind doing things on my own. It's nice to not have to follow another person's schedule. So, I left the hostel at noon and headed over to the souvenir market. I still had to buy some things for myself and needed to get Ella her gifts. The market was very cool! It was incredibly huge and I didn't even see most of it! I basically went through the main area and that was enough for me! The market is all outside and lined with booths. There are lots of matrushka dolls (nesting dolls), scarves, mittens, hats, decorative boxes, ornaments, and so many other things! I found a beautiful medium sized matrushka doll for myself that was decorated with shiny gold leaf, blue paint, and wood burned. It was so different from all the other ones, and I just loved it! I also found Ella a penguin matrushka doll! It was the only one I saw so I snagged it! She loves penguins and I was so excited when I found it! I also got a bunch of beautiful matrushka doll ornaments that I just love. I got Ella another matrushka doll that she could paint herself and some other little gifts. The fun thing about the market is that people are so eager to sell their stuff that you can usually just start to walk away and they will shout a lower price! That's how I got Ella's penguin for 150 rubles less!
Once I took some pictures of the lights, I went back across the street to get a mcflurry at the McDonald's. Let me tell you, you will not find a fancier McDonald's in all the world than the one in Moscow by my hostel. It was insanely fancy! I really should have taken a picture, because it was so huge and so clean. It had 3 levels! Seriously! And big i-pad like screens where you could order yourself, Also the food was a bit different. They had spring rolls with shrimp! Seriously. I'm not kidding you, it was an experience.
After I got my McFlurry, I went down the street to my hostel and waited for the other girls to get back. They took 2 trips to the souvenir market because they had so much to buy! We shared the room with this hilarious guy from Turkey, he became our unofficial best friend, because he was really goofy and so entertaining! He thought we were so interesting and asked us tons of questions and even read Kelsey's journal haha! We ended up taking some pics of each other and talked to his friend from America. Later that night, the girls and I all decided to have a little souvenir show and took out all of the things we had purchased that day and sat in a circle like it was elementary school and had a little presentation! It was fun to talk about what we bought and who we were giving them to!
I had a great second day in Moscow and enjoyed spending time by myself and also hanging out with the girls in my group and some of the people in the hostel!
After a bit of shopping, I decided to grab some lunch. I walked over to a local mini mall and went to a little coffee house and ordered a caprese salad with salmon and a small cup of hot cocoa. It was delish! After a bit of relaxing, I headed back to the hostel.
I have to say, I was really proud of myself for finding all of the correct metro stops and areas! Once I got to the hostel I decided to go to the park just across the street and wait for all of the Christmas lights to turn on. The park was all decorated with tons of lights once the sun went down and I just waited for about 45 minutes for them to come on. I sat on a park bench for a while and got some weird looks because it's not really customary to sit on a bench when it's really cold out. So, I'm sure everyone could tell I wasn't a local!
Once I took some pictures of the lights, I went back across the street to get a mcflurry at the McDonald's. Let me tell you, you will not find a fancier McDonald's in all the world than the one in Moscow by my hostel. It was insanely fancy! I really should have taken a picture, because it was so huge and so clean. It had 3 levels! Seriously! And big i-pad like screens where you could order yourself, Also the food was a bit different. They had spring rolls with shrimp! Seriously. I'm not kidding you, it was an experience.
After I got my McFlurry, I went down the street to my hostel and waited for the other girls to get back. They took 2 trips to the souvenir market because they had so much to buy! We shared the room with this hilarious guy from Turkey, he became our unofficial best friend, because he was really goofy and so entertaining! He thought we were so interesting and asked us tons of questions and even read Kelsey's journal haha! We ended up taking some pics of each other and talked to his friend from America. Later that night, the girls and I all decided to have a little souvenir show and took out all of the things we had purchased that day and sat in a circle like it was elementary school and had a little presentation! It was fun to talk about what we bought and who we were giving them to!
I had a great second day in Moscow and enjoyed spending time by myself and also hanging out with the girls in my group and some of the people in the hostel!
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