Welcome to Moscow,comrade

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Monday 18th May
Welcome to Moscow,comrade!!
The crowd in the departure lounge slowly built in numbers as the departure time came near.This flight was only 4 hours and we wondered how we were going to cope with little sleep and arrival into a VERY foreign country for us.Time would tell.
For this flight we had an older but comfortable Airbus.The captain was a woman with a precise English voice rather out of place with the majority of passengers who looked rather Russian.She gave us the flight time and told us the weather was expected to be a little misty and 5C on arrival into Moscow at 5.30am their time!!!This is COLDER than home in the middle of winter we thought!!!
More drinks and food meant little sleep which we thought would be a concern if we could not perhaps get some when we arrived at the Happy Home Hostel.We had emailed the proprietor that we expected to arrive around 8.30am meaning 3 hours travel from the airport.
How wrong on that time we were to be!!!
The flight was uneventful and Gretchen commented that although the captain(remember a woman one at that)had warned of some turbulence about an hour out of Moscow,that didn’t occur and “of course a woman would know how to avoid turbulence”.Yeah,yeah,yeah.
On the descent it was interesting to note that out of the south side of the plane the very early morning sky was quite dark yet out of the northern side it was light.An experience we have not seen before and quite unique for us.
The airport must have been on the outskirts of the city as the plane approached over trees,miles and miles of trees and everywhere was flat!!There were aircraft parked up all over the place,some that looked like they shouldn’t be flying including one that seemed to have cracks at the tail but still had lights on and was parked up to an airbridge and appeared to be ready for a flight.Good luck to the soles on that one!!
As expected most of the passengers headed to the locals entry while we and about a dozen others with “foreign passports”were directed up an escalator to wait in line where just one immigration booth was open.As we waited a stern looking uniformed woman arrived and open another booth and we joined her queue thinking she might be easier to deal with if our documents weren’t in order.She was efficient,I think that is all you could say about her.No smile,no”welcome”just efficient!!
Gretchen nhad doubted that our suitcases would be there when we got to the carousal.What a doubter!!They were both there looking like they had been dragged all the way from London to Moscow.Gretchens suitcase handle had been slightly bent but with a gentle persuasion it came free and we were both able to trolley them away.
One of the first signs you see as you leave the customs area is one warning of taxi drivers who are not genuine and could commit fraud and rip you off.Who should be there to greet you......taxi drivers.Yet over on one wall was an official taxi office where you can buy a prepaid fare to your destination and travel in an official taxi.Is this is a sign that the free market here is flourishing and anything like elsewhere in the west goes??
We had decided to travel on the local train to the centre of the city to transfer to the Metro and the trip would be half the cost of the Aeroexpress.The timetable said there would be a train at 6.18am and there was a train in the platform.But the large lady selling the local tain tickets directed us to the Aeroexpress window and our tiredness overcame us and we did what we were told!!
We had to wait until 7am for the Aeroexpress which meant we would be arriving at the Metro at what would be rush hour which we would rather have avoided.We sat down next to a tall Russian looking lady in her late twenties.She was studying a Russian to English phrase book.We were chatting away and suddenly she turned and asked where we were from in quite good English but using only a few words.Well that started up a discussion that passed a good amount of time to the train departure.It turned out she was from some city 2 hours flying south of Moscow and had travelled up for the day to visit the US Embassy to try and get a permit to travel and work in the USA.She would be flying home later that day.Her dream was to see the Grand Canyon!!She had been on an exchange before to the USA and wanted to get there again.She said her mother had been to NZ on an agricultural conference about 6 years ago.She was a very good introduction to the local people and we wondered if others we met would be like her.How wrong we were to be,at least on the first day!!
The ride in on the train took about 40 mins and I slept while Gretchen kept a watch out as we didn’t know exactly where we had to get off and if the place we had the ticket to was the end of the line.It was and so we headed for the Metro sign inside the station.
It was here we joined the 9 million!!!! people who use the Metro every day and we had made it right on rush hour,DUMB!!!We had written down the route to take and had a black and white copy of the Metro in the backpack.We were clearly still shell shocked on our arrival and the lack of sleep meant we didn’t act as rationally as we should have.We should have got a copy in colour of the subway,which is vast with over 200 stations and 11 lines.Although destination signs were colour coded the colours had faded and worst still was station names were in Russian and the local Russian alphabet.
We purchased tickets successfully and headed down into the bowels of the earth,and I mean DOWN on an escalator you felt you had to lean back on in fear of falling forward,and the brown line which would take us to the light green line and the Happy Home Hostel.
Our second mistake,after not getting a colour coded subway map,was to take the train in the wrong direction.Now we were in the poo,so to speak.Two suitcases,two backpacks and 9 million Muscovites all down in the subway and we were the only ones lost.Everyone looks the other direction when you try to make eye contact.Not that we knew any Russian and we felt that although we had the electronic translator handy we weren’t confident enough to try it so early in our adventure in this country.Then a young lady came to our rescue and she took us to show where to catch the next train in another direction that should get us to the light green line.
Well it almost worked but somehow we decided to alight the train one stop too early and we were stumped again.We were now REALLY wishing we had got ourselves a colour coded map.
Again we were rescued,this time by a nice older guy who looked a bit perplexed at us but then indicated to follow him and a couple of minutes later with him helping Gretchen up the stairs with her suitcase(they looked funny from behind!!)he put us on the right train and we were off to the ‘burbs and the Happy Home Hostel.
Or so we thought!!
We were on the right line and we did get off at the right station.It was just the next set of instructions from the website that were incorrect we later deduced.
We emerged from the subway to be faced with tall apartment buildings dotted here and there.No regular pattern and the numbering system which goes by building numbers had no order either.After walking a couple of times in each direction from the subway and checking some side streets for one of the many nearby building numbers to the one we were looking for, that we had written down we decided to change tack and just send one person on a reconnasince while the other looked after the luggage.
This worked even though the building was way off the track of the instructions on the website.
Now the problem was we had indicated we would be there about 8.30am and it was now after midday and no one answered the bell when we pushed the apartment number.
So we sat in the park to wait.Gretchen started to work on plan B thinking that the owner of the Happy Home Hostel would not arrive to let us in.
After about an hour or so a slightly built lady arrived and introduced herself as Galena and she was to let us in as Anatasica was away in Turkey until Wednesday.She spoke briken English and showed where everything was and after going out for a short while came back with a chocolate bar for us both.She must have thought we were in need of a sugar rush,which we were.We devoured them with a coffee and lay down for a short snooze after she left us to ourselves.
This is really like living as a Moscovite in 50 sq mtrs.There are 3 bedrooms,2 being doubles,a bathroom(with a shower on the wall YIPPEE!!)a toilet(talk about closet!!) and a kitchen and that is about it.Nice and tidy and clean and the single beds are comfortable and big.
After a snooze we wandered through amongst the apartment blocks and down the main street to what passed as a shopping mall.More like a maze of small shops under roof cover on two levels.I thought I might like to record our visit on video and after filming two fairly amiable security people came up and indicated no photos.Too late but I was careful not to bring the camera out again.
We then thought we needed to stock up at the supermarket and got the breakfast things we had survived on in the Greek Islands,yogurt and fruit.Plus a half litre bottle of vodka for about NZ$6.When in Moscow............................For dinner we opted for noodles with chicken as all we needed to do was add hot water.It turned out to be quite tasty and we cleaned half the vodka off as well.
Sleep came quickly as it had been nearly 36 hrs since a decent sleep and we were obviously ready for it even though at 10pm the daylight was still evident with the sun just going down.
It had been a day of trial but we had overcome all the challenges placed before us and we were tucked up in our beds at the Happy Home Hostel,Moscow getting sleep and ready to face the city and subway again tomorrow.

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Comments

[Rin]

Stoked for the come-back of the blog. And adventures, adventures aye? I can just picture you two with your suitcases and backpacks going all over the show on the Moscow Metro. At least the London tube shouldn't be a mission now that you've accomplished that! *Touch wood*