Travel to Orenburg

Well we got up and, not wanting to venture far from the hotel, decided to eat breakfast there. It was a very nice breakfast, but the price came out to about $30 a person -- that was steep! Oh well, sometimes travelers get gouged.

Our flight from Moscow VNukovo on OrenAir was alright. The plane was fairly new a 737 and the flight was relatively smooth. My only complaint was the seats are very cramped, and the plane was near full. The Vnukovo airport is very small and only has 10 gates. I am pretty sure that they all are domestic only. We were able to check in and wait for our plane, though the waiting area was really crowded & had very few shops or amenities or anything. Even though there was a big sign on the mens bathroom that said "no smoking," there was about 5-6 guys in there smoking, and it really reeked, even for a bathroom. Finally, we boarded a bus to take us to our plane and drove out to the far reaches of the tarmac for our plane. The plane was alright but boarding was chaotic. They even gave us a lunch, not much but at least it was something for the flight over. Flight time from Moscow to Orenburg is just under two hours. Before we left the driver told us that there was another couple in Orenburg that had flown straight through. After landing, we discovered that the Orenburg airport is about as small any I have ever been through. We did not even go into the building -- We left the plane and just exited the tarmac and got our baggage from a building off to the right. Once we got to the hotel, (Hotel #2), we relaxed for a while as Vera our translator had to get our dossier notarized locally, due to the craziness about needing all new documents.

After a few hours they came by our room and took us to dinner downstairs at the hotel. We met Jim and Jennifer who are also adopting with CHSFS. They flew in straight, so they got in about 1am rather than spend the night in Moscow like we chose to do. They are also on their first trip. Jim is adopted also, and they also have a daughter who is 3 ½ and is staying with Jenn's sister. Vera and Alex (our facilitator) both seem very nice. Well we had salad, dumpling soup, and blini for dinner and it was all very nice and the bill only came to 400 Rubles for the two of us a little more than $10. Our hotel is also very reasonably priced at 2500 rubles a night ($75). Strange to us, though, the hotel only accepts cash. Our room is sort of a suite with a separate living/dining area and bedroom. Well so far Orenburg looks very run down. We see a lot of pipes running above-ground. And everything is very muddy. I don't know if the climate is too poor for grass seed to take or foot traffic kills it or if they just don't have the money (or don't want to spend it that way) re-seeding areas that need it. But since there are huge areas with no grass cover, mud gets tracked everywhere, streets, floors, etc. Maybe things will look different on our return trip.