First Day in Russia

Our plane left at 4:50 in the afternoon on Saturday, due to arrive in Moscow at 10:45 am. No complications there. Ange got nervous when it got a little bumpy, but it wasn't really bad. We arrived in Moscow on time, made it through immigration and customs with no trouble. The immigration officer did not ask or speak one single word to us -- We just stood there trying not to look uncomfortable. Of course we were there for legitimate purposes, but it just feels strange to be standing there with someone silently typing away, and then finally she buzzed us through.

In the arrivals hall, we looked around for the CHSFS people and at first did not see them but on the second pass we saw him. We did have about 20 offers from unknown taxi drivers, but they scattered like pigeons, just kept having to say "nyet" & shake our heads at them. Well we got to the Marriott Tverskaya around 2pm. After getting settled we wandered out on the town. In the flurry of activity at the end we had forgotten a few things. Mainly an adapter plug and a phrase book which I meant to purchase on the way out. Well we started a stroll towards the Kremlin and Red Square. There are many beautiful sights in Moscow, but as with any major city there are run down areas as well. It certainly reminded us of other European cities. The main differences are there seems to be more block apartment buildings and also they have huge billboards up everywhere.

As we wandered the streets of Moscow in a drizzling rain and a few snowflakes, we were very hungry so we decided to stop. It seems that being Sunday many shops were closed and we did not see many quick stop restaurants on our side of the street, even though Tverskaya street is still pretty busy even on a Sunday. There are multiple underground crossings that allow you to cross the street but we figured we would explore the side we are on. Most of the underground crossings have little shops inside them, as we did venture down one or two to cross some semi minor streets on the way towards the Kremlin. We stopped for lunch at a Rostik (the Russian KFC) but we didn't want standard KFC food. Luckily, they had have a very nice kebab like thing called a shaslik which we ate so even though we ate a KFC we did not get KFC fare that you could get in the US. So we continued to wander and take in the sights. We did find some nice art statues and some dead dudes on Horses (old joke). We popped into a Metro Station and found our phrasebook. Of course the Metro stations are a little hidden so we actually thought we were headed into a small mall at first.

Rather than take the Metro at this point we decided to continue walking and enjoying the sites of the city. As we neared the Kremlin we decided to go down another underground passageway that had a mini-mall with an electronics store where we found our adapter. After having used British pounds and Euros in the past, it was a little more mental exercise to get used to converting between dollars and rubles. (About 33 rbl=$1) So at first things seemed really expensive that were actually pretty reasonable. But other things were still expensive, even after converting. The adapter that we purchased is good for anywhere in the world and cost about 600 rubles, which at the day's exchange rate was about $18. (That price was including 18% VAT.) This may be a little bit expensive but we will probably not need to buy another one. We had gotten rid of our European adapters when we left England, or at least didn't remember to look for the few that we still have lying around the house somewhere. The phrasebook was about 80 rbl or $2.50.

Well now we had our phrase book and power adapter, and we could just continue to sightsee as much as we liked. We wandered around the front of the Kremlin area and were headed towards St. Basil’s Cathedral and Red square but without a tourist map and only our Garmin GPS to guide us. I had downloaded the street maps of Moscow and a few geocaches but did not have time to download any POI’s. We started following the wall along the Kremlin. We wandered for quite a distance before deciding that we had taken the wrong direction. We would have gotten there eventually, but we had already walked at least 2 1/2 miles down Tverskaia street, and the cold wet weather was starting to get to Ange. So, we decided to abandon the quest for Red Square for the day and headed back towards the McDonald's, figuring we would get a drink and get warm and call home to let them know that we had arrived safely. Well the Kremlin McDonalds has to be about the most crowded one on the planet. There was not a seat anywhere, loads of people milling about, and very noisy. The Sbarro next door was not much better. So we ended up calling home standing on a bridge outside in the cold. Around that time, we found a street vendor selling sodas & ice cream. In spite of the cold weather, we had to get an ice cream, as it had been a long time since we'd had a Magnum. It wasn't as good as the Magnum Double Chocolates, but it was still pretty good. And we're hopeful that when we come back, with warmer weather, they'll have a wider selection of our favorite ice cream bars.

Then we wandered over to the vendor tents selling souvenirs. We really weren't interested in buying anything, since we knew we had another day in Moscow on the way back out of town. But I thought about buying a Russian hat. One guy started at 1000 rubles and came all the way down to 600 as we walked away -- Maybe he'd have even gone lower if we had turned back around. We also witnessed a strange sort of ritual going on right at the city center spot. A person would stand on the mark and throw a coin over their shoulder and then one of the old ladies nearby would grab it. I am going to have to ask about this or research it more. Obviously must be for good luck or something.

Well after that we decided to take the Metro back to the hotel. Since I can speak a little Russian I was able to get us metro tickets and we took the metro back to the hotel. Although we only saw two of the Metro stations and certainly not the nicest of them I can already tell that the rumors are true and that it is the most beautiful metro so far that I have seen. They had marble floors and walls and just fairly ornate. Although the trains themselves are still pretty typical metro train cars, but the stations are very ornate. So we found the station nearest to the Marriot Tverskaya. For those that may have trouble reading the Metro Map that the hotel gives you the station is Belorussaiya it is on the green line. And three stops from Teatlnaya station. I have fairly good vision and not sure if my eyes are starting to fail me or it was just tiredness or the print was too small but I had hard time reading the metro map that the hotel gives out.

So after arriving back at the hotel, we decided to try to catch an early dinner and head to bed. That was our intention anyway, but we fell asleep for about a half-hour, so by the time we got up & out again, it was around 6:30, a fairly normal dinner time. We were going to eat in the hotel but the restaurant was closed at 5pm on Sundays. The concierge directed us to a Japanese place close by. The food was very good but the portions were a bit on the smallish side. We also found a small shop on the way back where we could pick up bottled water and some kind of cookies that were in the same style as Jaffa cakes. Other than the strange experience of eating Japanese food in Russia, our first day had that "back in Europe" feel to it. Very pleasant.