Russia & Dubai : Day 3 (30 Apr 06)

The third day, as the tour programme changed the day before, we are visiting the famous red square.




We took the Metro (subway) to Red Square, we stopped at 4 of the stops to take pictures. Every stop is beatifully decorated like a musuem. At Victory Park Stop, the station is so deep that it took around 3 minutes to reach the bottom by escalator. Begun in 1935, the system has 12 lines and more than 171 stations. The system is one the world's busiest, with seven million passengers every day and trains every 90 seconds at peak times.



Red Square (Russian: Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad) is the most famous city square in Moscow. The square separates Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter, known as Kitay-gorod. As major streets of Moscow radiate from here in all directions, being promoted to major highways outside the city, the Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and of all Russia.

The name of Red Square derives not from the colour of the bricks around it, nor from the link between the colour red and Communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya) can mean either "red" or "beautiful" (the latter meaning is archaic). The word was originally applied (with the meaning "beautiful") to Saint Basil's Cathedral, and was subsequently transferred to the nearby square.

Next, we went to Old Arbat Street which is a cultural street with small or make-shift stores, buskers are there to earn a living too. The Moscow Hard Rock Cafe is also here.

After lunch, we took a train to St. Petersberg.
Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, Sankt-Peterburg) is a city located in northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is informally known as Питер (Piter) and was formerly known as Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924) and Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991).

Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 as a "window to Europe," it served as the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (the capital was moved to Moscow after the Russian Revolution of 1917). With about 4.7 million inhabitants (2002), today Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city, Europe's fourth largest city, a major European cultural center, and the most important Russian port on the Baltic.


The Baltic sea is just behind the hotel. In the evening, there are a lot of people enjoying the sunset there.

I will cover the tour in St. Peterberg in the coming blogs.

P.S. : In Russian tongue, thank you is 'Spicy bar' while I love you is 'yellow blue bus'.