Marios Travel: Famtrip in Moscow!

Text-photos: Tsaousidou Eva (http://omorfataxidia.gr/)

Marios Travel has launched the new year with the best conditions. An office based in Kavala has a representative in Thessaloniki, and recently opened a branch office in Athens, he organized his first educational trip to the capital of Russia in the prestigious Moscow. The destination Moscow-Ag. Petroupoli has been added to the Marios Travel program. Already since 2018, where 8 excursions took place and were crowned with absolute success. So, as the owner of Magda Athanasiadou told us, it was time to share Moscow’s travel experience with partner travel agents. From Mytilene, Alexandroupolis, Komotini, Thessaloniki, Karditsa and Athens, to give his mark on this destination. By emphasizing both the historical complexity of the city and the religious one. Helper on this trip was Aegean Airlines. Sponsor of the Thessaloniki-Athens-Moscow transport and vice versa offering guaranteed and safe flights despite the difficult weather conditions of the time.

Moscow welcomed Marios Travel with snow and negative temperature signs, touching -18th in the evening. Escort of the group was from the very first moment the local guide Ms. Elli, who with its pleasant mood and humor made us forget the polar cold. But the scenery of the city has compensated everybody. The first visit to Red Square and the well-known Gum Shopping Mall left the agents speechless with the decorations and windows of world-renowned companies for many shots. The mission enjoyed an evening walk on Nikolskaya Street with the spectacular lights above forming a sky.

The next day started by visiting the cooperating hotels, touring the temple of Savior Christ. We continued with the necessary shopping on the famous Arbat Street for souvenirs, furs and local flavors. The evening was the right time for a guided tour of the Moscow Metro. There where a total of 222 stations serve 10,000,000 people every day. Many stations carry the history of a state since 1935, which was inaugurated on Stalin. They are monuments of cultural heritage of particular aesthetics, with chandeliers, mosaics, statues and frescoes that every visitor must admire. Despite the bitter cold and using the metro as locals, the travel agents put a fire on the camera clicks outside the brilliant Balshoi. The evening ended with a drink and a pleasant conversation at the Metropolitan Hotel’s bar.

The third day the tour began from the hills of Lenin and the labyrinth of Lomonosov University, where opposite the highest point of Moscow at 300m offers panoramic views. It was followed by a visit to the Museum of the “Great Patriotic War” dedicated to the Second World War. It has a different kind of exhibit, the dioramas, which are panoramic frescoes with complementary three-dimensional elements.

Then it was Kremlin’s time the most famous tourist attraction in Moscow. It is located on the banks of the Moskov River and tradition says that its fortification began in 1156. Today it includes palaces, administrative buildings and cathedrals and is the seat of the President of Russia. The three churches visited by tourists were the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel. This busy day closed to shopping malls and an evening trip report to the Izmailovo Vega Hotel, which was staying in the group all the time. The impressions were only positive for a destination that many people may not be among the first places on their travel list, but they have to revise.

The last breakfast the Russian winter felt its presence in the snow but there was no obstacle to a short visit to the nearby Izmailovo Market. A fairy-tale market is open but also with shops for the latest souvenirs. We left behind a Moscow with its own character, with a different culture and behavior of people and with a history that knows how to honor it. It was undoubtedly a special experience and as in every trip we left all the richer, more full and with the slogan ‘does not get cold in Greece’!

Info: The next departures of Marios Travel for Moscow are scheduled on March 23-27 and April 27 – May 2. By the end of the summer there will be a total of nine excursions and the first one including St. Petersburg will take place on 25 May – 3 June!

All with Aegean Airlines connecting directly Moscow and St. Petersburg to Athens and Thessaloniki.