Day 1: Towards Moscow

Worked through the night to finish my coursework and prepare for my trip. As the flight was at 0840h, we took the first tube towards Heathrow terminal 5. It would have been great if not for the signal failure (typical of London's transport) which resulted in us stranded halfway from the airport. Vying with other passengers, we booked a cab and swiftly arrived to meet up with WH.

On-flight breakfast

Pardon my pathetic geography knowledge as I thought Moscow would be far from London. However, the whole flight journey was only 4 hours long and it came with the standard British breakfast. The only qualm was the lack of any on-flight entertainment.

Arriving in Moscow

Upon arriving in Moscow, we were met with our driver who brought us to our hotel, Katerina City. Memories of the bomb blast in January was calmed by the sight of security checks even upon leaving the airport. Ah, clear skies contrasted with grit-coated cars.

Katerina City

Katerina City is a 4 stars hotel and sure looked that way. Plus points included the beautiful receptionists, free mini bar (topped up daily) and free green apples. Together with XY, we were banished to the 'snoring room'. Btw, a medium room costs 14000 rubles per night! (That is about 300 pounds!) No wonder Russian hotels are the most expensive around the world.

Free mini bar

A good thing for the minibar as the water in Russia is not potable. Still, the lack of water got us going to the supermart. Gosh, the import stuffs were extremely expensive. For instance, some cereals cost 1400 rubles or equivalently, 30 pounds! Maybe I read the price wrongly since I knew nothing about Cyrillic alphabets.

Menu at Planet Sushi

Tired and jet-lagged, we explored the vicinity for dinner. With nothing much to offer, we settled for Planet Sushi. The menu was rather interesting as it featured Singapore names. One must not mistaken that a single dish would suffice as the serving size was rather small. Even though the total cost was comparable to London, the quality was slightly disappointing. Then again, this wasn't Japan.