Trip 2, Days 2 & 3: Sweat, sweat, and sweat

Thursday, July 22

Happily, the answer to yesterday's questions was no. We were not part of an international incident, we merely needed to wait while they made room for us in the airport. The airport itself (Domo arrigato, Domodedovo) was very nice and modern. The Russian immigration authorities actually made eye contact and smiled, and when we went through security with our checked baggage, I motioned towards the Xray machine to see if they wanted to scan for illegal contraband.

{shrug} “Nyet”.

And with that, we had arrived in Russia.


Our driver from Peace Travel, Paul, was there to pick us up right on time. We loaded up his vehicle, and off to Moscow we went. The trip from DME to Moscow was very different from our first flight from Sheremetyevo (SVO) to Moscow. On that trip, there were many small exits and shops all the way along our route (both airports are approximately 20 miles outside of Moscow). On our trip to DME, it appeared we had landed in farming country. The highway exits were very small, very spread out, and there was almost no developed land along the highway. We traveled very fast for about 30 minutes, passing a large sign welcoming us to Moscow.

And there we stopped. The entire distance we traveled inside the city limits of Moscow, we never broke 15 mph. In some places, we were stopped for minutes at a time. One major road had construction in the middle of it, so 6 lanes needed to merge into 2 (one on either side of the construction). There was no warning about this, apparently everyone just knows. In total, our trip took almost 2 hours, with 80% of the mileage coming in the first 30 minutes of the trip.

Once we arrived at our apartment, we discovered just how hot Moscow was. They have been having record heat for the past month, and Thursday was no exception. The high was 97 degrees, with high humidity to go along with it. After traveling for the previous 20 hours, we weren’t terribly happy about this. To make matters more complicated, our early arrival meant that our 2pm check in time was still an hour away. So, after unloading the ungodly number of bags that we had, we got to sit in an un-air conditioned lobby, with a not so happy looking concierge, for 60 agonizing minutes.

When the apartment managers arrived, we both were a bit amused. We figured neither of them could have been more than 20 years old. They showed us around the apartment, which was laid out differently than our Garden Ring apartment just up the street. For one, the kitchen was on the opposite side of the apt. from either the living room, or the air conditioning. So with the current temperatures, doing any cooking was out of the question. The toilet was separate from the shower and sink, and also was nowhere near the air conditioning. This posed a bit of a problem later on.

The luxury shower with spa jets built into the walls was nice, except that it was installed incorrectly. When Alan turned on the jets, it automatically plugged the drain. Unfortunately, there was no way to unplug the drain when the jets were turned off. His plan to relax in the shower after the trip was cut short, and necessitated a visit from a well meaning but clueless building superintendent. He was able to drain the shower, but unable to fix the jets. Kathy was quite disappointed. The next day, one of the shower door runners came off, which left Alan attempting to once again diagnose a construction issue in a less than ideal clothing situation.

Dinner that first night was intended to be a simple affair. Due to the heat and length of walk to the supermarket we knew of, we decided to eat in the nearby British pub, then head to another nearby Supermarket. After we each ordered, we were discussing the cost of the meals, and realized that Kathy’s Steak and Eggs was almost $30. It was good, but not $30 good.

Moscow lesson for the day: Steak is ridiculously expensive, order the chicken.

The supermarket we went to was in the basement of a very upscale department store. It was quite odd, and we equated the experience to shopping at a Whole Foods tucked away into a Macys. The prices were also appropriate to that scenario. The night ended early, as we were suffering from jet lag, hadn’t slept well the night before we left, and we were excited to be leaving for Kirov the next day.


Friday, July 23

With the knowledge that we would be leaving for Kirov soon, we did not make any plans for our time in Moscow. The temperature was again over 95 degrees, so any type of walking outside was an instant recipe for sweat.

Soon, our coordinator’s son Ilya picked us up to take us to the train station. There were plenty of spots, but they were tucked into the inner row, with no apparent way to get into that area. So what did Ilya do? Found a partially empty spot, pulled perpendicular to it, and then he managed to back THROUGH the spot, to the inner area. Now, mind you, this was with traffic speeding next to us, just inches away from his door. Alan was in the passenger side, and estimated there was less than 2” on that side of the car to get through. Well Done Ilya!

On this trip, we found out we would be traveling with two other couples. One couple (Stefan and Manu) are from Hamburg, Germany. We met them during the drive to the train station. We found out they were also adopting an 11 month old little boy, also named ‘A’. Luckily, we confirmed that we were NOT talking about the same child!

The other couple (Joan and Sean) are from Dublin, Ireland. They are adopting a 2 year old boy they are naming Elliot. They were given the fast track on their trip, as their plane landed, they were shuttled to the Moscow train station, and then put onto the train all in less than 4 hours! With temperatures so high, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity or desire to talk while we rode the train to Kirov. We mostly sat inside the sleeping car, with our door closed so that the AC would be active. We were able to bond with the other families plenty over the next few days.

Trip 2, Day 1: Flying the friendly skies

Tonight I write this blog as we travel by the Trans-Siberian Railway from Kirov to Moscow. I’ve got a few days’ worth of travel to catch up on, so here goes.

Wednesday, July 21^st

We left Casa deCarda South early in the morning to catch our 9am flight. Although we had 3 seats for this journey, we were unable to get those seats together for our 1^st segment to Chicago. Alan played the gentleman, sitting in a single middle seat, while Kathy got the aisle and middle seat directly behind him.

The flight was uneventful, as was the flight from Chicago to Washington. On that flight, we were able to sit together, and enjoyed having the extra room. In Washington, we loaded up at the Duty Free shop, purchasing some of the gifts that we would be expected to provide to the various Russian officials we would be in contact with over the next few days.

At this point, let me break into the story and tell you about our luggage situation. It’s not easy packing for a 3 ½ week trip. It gets more difficult when you’re carrying 50 lbs of 'gifts' for court dignitaries and orphanage officials; add an 11 month old at the end of it, and you've got quite a mess. Between us, we had: 3 checked bags, 2 computer bags, 2 personal bags, a purse, and now 4 bottles of alcohol and a box of chocolates. The worst part of the trip was attempting to board and disembark from the Kirov train with all of this stuff. Run Forrest, Run!

Back to our story. As we waited for the flight to Moscow, there was an interesting dynamic. Over and over, United was announcing that Economy Plus seats were available for upgrade. We considered this, but since we already had an extra seat, we didn’t feel it was worth the extra money.

There were a number of surprises on our flight, both good and bad. The good was that each seat had a built in monitor, with 9 movies to choose from that played on a 2 hour loop throughout the flight. I was able to watch Toy Story 2, Clash of the Titans (Release the Kraken!) and a very heavily edited National Lampoon’s Vacation. It was also nice that the seats reclined about 50% more than Delta seats.

The bad was that the seats reclined about 50% more than Delta seats, which meant that when the large Russian Mamushka in front of me decided to sit back and relax during dinner, I was just about eating her blue tinged hair. Not that I was too interested in my meal. Whatever meat they had been distributing was long gone by the time they reached our row, so we had our choice of pasta or air. Kathy felt she should have chosen the air.

Perhaps the oddest feature of this flight was the waiting. We arrived early, despite delays both in our departures and arrivals. After we pulled out of the terminal gate, we sat on the tarmac for a few minutes. We taxied to another part of the airport, and waited longer. Moved again, and this time the wait was on. I’m not quite sure how long we waited (both of us fell asleep), but they had the engines completely shut down while we were waiting.

Nearly the same event occurred when we arrived in Moscow. Despite the completely sunny skies, we circled Moscow for nearly an hour before we were given clearance to land. Once we did, we had a few nervous moments. Everywhere on the sides of the tarmac, we saw plane after plane with the doors open, and stairs pushed up to them. Had something happened while we were in the air? Were we going to be making the news as part of an international incident?

The next blog post should go up in about 8 hours, so you won't need to wait long to find out!

Since last we danced the dance..

Greetings blogosphere, it is time for another glimpse into the lives of the Carda family. When last we left you, trip #1 had just concluded. Since then, a lot has taken place, but only a few items worth noting.

Before we left Moscow, we were given a potential week that we would be heading back to Kirov for our court date. About a week later, we got some additional info, but it didn’t make the trip any clearer. We would have court on a Thursday, Friday, or Monday. After court, there would be a 10 day waiting period. Once that was done, we could finalize our adoptive son’s Russian passport. After we received the passport, we would travel back to Moscow, spend two days filing paperwork with the US embassy, and then back to the US with our new son.

Unfortunately, there were lots of questions still to be answered. Did the 10 day period start on court day or after? Was that business days, or all days? Could we start the paperwork on day 10, or did we have to wait? As we pondered all of these ‘what ifs’, we realized that we were far away from being able to book our travel. Depending on what day we had court, and when the waiting period stopped and started, we would be staying anywhere between 13 and 18 days in Russia. Not quite solid travel plans yet.

Despite this, we decided to cover a ‘worst case’ scenario, and began looking for flights. Since we are located in an old Northwest hub, most options we had went through Delta. We had flown out on Delta, and our experience on their plane wasn’t very good. However, we forged on, figuring that the local carrier would be more sympathetic to our cause. We could not have been any more WRONG.

Our first attempt to book through Delta left us with a travel cost of almost $6000. This was close to double our first trip, and was due solely to requesting that 'A' have his own seat (rather than travelling on our laps). One way Moscow to MN fares are TWICE the price of a round trip ticket (just try to figure that one out). We thought about booking him a round trip ticket, but weren't allowed; he wouldn't be travelling the first part, so they would cancel his ticket. It was possible to book an "adoption fare" on his ticket, but it added almost $1000 to each of our tickets. After struggling for a few weeks, we decided to pull in a travel agent.

Jamie, our travel agent, spent many long hours over the next few days, trying to get a straight story from Delta. Each time Delta changed their story, and the seats got more expensive. We weren’t even allowed to book on Air France and KLM, as many of their flights required an overnight stay in Amsterdam or Paris.

In addition to all of this, we still did not have a court date. Eventually, we received word from Russia, our court date was the Monday option. However, the travel plans were still different from what we were told to expect. We would leave for Russia on a Wednesday; spend Saturday and Sunday visiting our child, with court on a Monday. The waiting period somehow extended a day, which delayed us by 3 days because of a weekend. All told, we would be in Russia a total of 17 days.

With this info in hand, we pushed Jamie to finish our tickets. By this time, we were less than 1 week from our departure date. Jamie made one last push with Delta, and received the bad news: He could NOT book any flights for us, because Delta would require us to show up, in person, with supporting documentation, at the airport to book flights through them.

We were absolutely furious with Delta, so we called up United and said "find us a flight". They found one. Not ideal, but not bad. The United rep was able to set us up with an extra round trip ticket for the same price as ours, and “A” was now considered a lap child (10% of normal fare). This gave us 3 seats each way. Not terribly efficient or cheap, but it worked for us.

Final trip #2 Stats (estimated):
Nights outside the US – 17
Different places to sleep – 8
Moves during the trip – 15
Flights (including transfers) – 6
Train rides – 6
Total miles traveled – 15,000

We were finally booked, quickly set up our hotel accommodations and travel plans, and soon we were off! How would it go from there? Check back soon, as we will be blogging live from Russia the next few weeks!

Das Vidanya!

-- The Project Baby Carda Team

Part 5 of 4: Overtime

Last night's blog post ran long, so we're going into overtime!

As we emerged from the sun-filled but subterranean mall, we saw our final destination, Red Square. Directly in front of us was the Dark Red (with white tile) Historical museum. Off to the left was the gigantic state-run shopping center GUM, and in the distance, the most iconic of Russian buildings, St. Basil's Cathedral. Kathy wanted to head directly there, but Alan insisted that they get pictures of all of the features of the square. Alan was a bit disappointed to see that Lenin's Tomb was closed for viewing by the time they arrived. However, as we worked our way around the square, we were surprised at how many buildings there were, squeezed into a relatively small area.

After crossing half of the square, we both realized that our feet were starting to get very sore. The cobblestones are not very flat, and some of them are laid out a bit uneven, so walking can be a bit tricky. The cobblestones would have a nasty effect on our feet, legs, and backs, when we walked back to our apartment.

Since we knew we would be coming back to Moscow in about a month, the only feature of Red Square we spent a fair time investigating was St. Basil's Cathedral. Way back in April, our second blog entry featured a picture of this onion-domed, multi-colored church. Now, just a few months later, we were standing in front of it, snapping pictures from every angle. Although the cathedral is small, there are so many interesting features, your eyes are constantly drawn back to it, over and over again.



As we walked back to the Square entrance, we commented on the large number of wedding parties that we saw. Many suits and dresses, and every type of obnoxious "Limo" you could imagine seeing in the US. The next day, we learned that it is considered good luck for a marriage to come to the heart of Moscow.

We were very tired and hungry as we walked back to the apartment. We had stopped at a small breakfast cafe on our way out (Alan had meat-filled crepes, yum!), but hadn't eaten anything since then. Now into our 6th hour of walking and sightseeing, we were ready to eat anything. Our final destination for the day was... TGI Fridays. Yeah, it's not very Russian, but after walking for hours and hours, we just wanted some comfort food.

As we went to bed Saturday night, Kathy figured out that the "broken" air conditioner in the bedroom, just had an additional light switch attached to it. So Sunday morning, we awoke to a sunny (but cool) bedroom.

Sunday would be our last day to explore Moscow, and we were a little sad. After our initial discomfort being in a foreign country with a very foreign language, we had grown accustomed to the city. Soon we were ready to head out, and we met our tour guide for the day, Anatoly.

Anatoly had picked us up from the airport on the first day, and inquired how our trip had gone so far. We spoke of our joy with the new chap, the oddness of the train rides, and our adventures exploring the city. We mentioned that one area of the city we really wanted to go to was Victory Park, a large park and memorial to the victory over Germany in WWII. He agreed to take us there, along with the Moscow Hill, and a souvenir shop he recommended (reasonable prices and higher quality). Anatoly was being paid well for the sightseeing trip, and came highly recommended by other adoptive families, so we were not worried that the souvenirs would be overpriced.



Our first stop was the tallest point in Moscow. On the way there, Anatoly pointed out a number of buildings that had a similar style of build. These are known as Stalin's Seven Sisters. The largest of the sisters is Moscow University, (in the background of this picture).




Our next stop was Victory Park. Built to celebrate the Allied victory of World War II, it is very similar to the National Mall in Washington DC. There is a long, paved walkway, flanked by statues and fountains dedicated to those who fought to protect Moscow from the invading forces. At the Western end of the walkway, there is a gigantic Onyx Obelisk that towers over the park.


At the base of the obelisk, there is a large statue of St. George, slaying the dragon.





Nike, the Goddess of Victory watches from the top of the obelisk.


The obelisk is 141.8 meters tall (almost 400 feet), which is 10cm for each day of the war. At least, that's what Wikipedia says.


We looked around a little while longer, looking at both the indoor museum (it arcs behind the obelisk) and an outdoor museum that contained captured or damaged military equipment from World War II. They had Russian tanks, German artillery, even a very small Japanese tank.

After spending a few hours exploring the park, we decided it was time to move on to the souvenir shop. Kathy had a few nieces to buy gifts for, and I had seen a few items I wanted to purchase.

Anatoly drove us back to Novy Arbat, eventually circling around to the south side of Old Arbat street. As we got out of the car and started walking, we realized that we must have passed this very shop on our first day back in Moscow. From the outside, it didn't look all that impressive. But once we got inside, we were impressed.

There were 3 different floors of items, in many different varieties. Kathy purchased a number of Matrushka nesting dolls, along with some hand-painted jewelry boxes. She also got herself a nesting doll set of 5 Chicago Bears players (unfortunately they were out of the Minnesota "Wikings")



Downstairs, Alan found what he was looking for: Shot glasses and military hats. He had seen similar hats on the first day, but that store was selling them for about $30 US, a bit more expensive than what we wanted to pay. When we arrived at this store, they were under $9. Sold! The hat is definitely real military issue, the pins may or may not be. But for that price, it is a very unique souvenir to have.

Finally, it was time to bid goodbye to Anatoly, and settle in for our last night in Moscow. We walked down to the supermarket one more time, to get a good bottle of wine, water, and some Russian chocolates to bring home with us. That night, we made a very delicious dinner of pasta & meat sauce, fresh baguette, and a tasty Cabernet.

We hope you enjoyed the recap of our first trip to Moscow. We have been given an approximate timeframe that we will be heading back, as we get closer to that date we'll let you know!