From Russia With Love

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Was it all a dream? Did we really have six worry free days where all we had to worry about was buying snacks at the train station?

Our mid-trip crisis (we've heard from others that this often happens at the three-month mark) began in Beijing and has unfortunately continued in Russia. We were feeling so rested when we got off the train. We found a nice hostel in Moscow and had dinner with our new friends. In the morning we were supposed to get in touch with a Moscow business contact of Justin's father.

We should have known that things weren't quite going to go our way when our breakfast included with our room turned out to be a big bowl of plain pasta - not even butter. We set out for Red Square, but before we could do anything, we had go to the bank to get cash. Our cards did not work. We tried another bank and then another, but nothing. We have cash reserves and travellers checks, so we were never on the verge of being turned out on the street. Still, not having access to our bank account is a huge incovenience. Dealing with Bank of America has been a tremendous odyssey. We navigated the cyrillic streets of Moscow to find the office listed online. We felt triumphant when we actually found the office building, but, of course, the receptionist had no idea what we were talking about. We showed the emblem on our check cards, but she told us "Company, no" and we left. We bought a phone card and called the office's number, but that too was disconnected (at least that's what we think the phone company recording said in Russian). An email to customer service department resulted the kind response that cards used in Russia are automatically canceled and that next time we are planning to go to Russia we should call their fraud department in advance to let them know. Then the email listed all of their worldwide ATM locations - extremely helpful information when they've cancelled your ATM cards. Well, the short of it is that Justin's card was fixed, but Chris's could not be (evidently her charges are just more suspicious). At least we have a way to access our account again. However, you should really feel for the poor staff of our local Chicago branch since they have idea what is coming on July 22 as we withdraw the remainder of our cash (I'm sure they'll care deeply, since we'll have about $5 left in the account).

Meanwhile, the really unfortunately thing is that we missed connecting with our Russian contact that day and unknowingly missed out on tickets to visit the Kremlin. This was really too bad, and we felt terrible that the tickets went to waste. We were able to meet up with Dimitri the next two days, and he showed us the sights of Moscow - several places we would never have gone on our own. We wandered through the frozen parks and visited several museums, including the Great Patriotic War (World War II) Museum , the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, and the State Tretyakov Gallery of Russian Art. He also introduced us to the Yalki Palki restaurant - a sort of Russian theme restaurant with waiters in costume, forest decor, and traditional foods. People really like the all-you-can eat salad bar set up in an old horse cart.

The cold and exhaustion got to Justin, and he came down with a chest cold before we got on our train to St. Petersburg on Thursday night. For the last two days, he's been resting at the Puppet Hostel while Chris has been playing charades with most of St. Petersburg to get cough syrup and soup-to-go. This afternoon she left Justin and went to the reknowned Hermitage Museum, an activity that Justin probably felt spared from anyway. St. Petersburg is a really beautiful city, and while it is cold, the frozen rivers, and snow-covered sidewalks seem appropriate.

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