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.