Russia - One step back, two steps forward

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It's been a subdued day today. We started out from San Francisco this morning at 8:30am, through JFK to Moscow, landing here in Moscow at about noon. Perhaps it was the sudden dislocation from the comfort of Silicon Valley to the rainy environs of Moscow, but everything in Moscow seemed to involve a lot of effort - somewhat like taking one step back for every two steps forward.

I'll tell you more about that in a minute, but first would like to mention the terrorism-related events in Russia over the last week and continuing today... this is providing a somewhat tense background to our stay in Moscow although Muscovites seem to be going about their business without batting an eyelid.

Two weeks ago, two Tupolev planes flying out of Moscow were apparently blown up in mid-air by Chechen fighters. Last week, one of the subway stations in Moscow was blown up. A couple of days ago, Chechen fighters took 1200 people (mostly children) hostage during the first day of school .. and what we're hearing on the news is that the Russian army stormed in today and freed everybody.. in the melee, over 200 children have been killed and the toll is likely to rise. Terrible tragedy.

These events cast somewhat of a pall over our proceedings but I will relate our wanderings nonetheless...

Back to Moscow airport... Smruti sailed through immigration without any problems. I, on the other hand, apparently brought up some red flag on their computer system. For 45 minutes, there was complete silence from the immigration officers.. my passport went through various hands in various offices and then they finally let me through. Whenever I asked whether there was any problem, I got a stoic stare. OK, I didn't push it any more than that since I don't want to risk the Russian gulag :-)

Then, our taxi transfer to the hotel didn't show up. So we wandered around like aimless tourists (which we are, I admit), hounded by touts who wanted to charge us large sums of money for taking us to the hotel where we were staying. All the touts had a shifty look about them and get sidling up to us... quite funny actually and not much different from airports in any other developing country. We investigated taking the metro (1.5 hours travel time, apparently) but gave up on that. We finally succumbed to selling pressure from one of the touts and took off for the hotel in eastern Moscow.

The hotel seemed nice although registration at the hotel wasn't easy - they insisted on trying to give us 2 rooms when we only wanted one. After much explanation, they agreed to give us just one room.


If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8Anyway, after that, things went more smoothly. We found our way to the Metro system - the Metro is fantastic in terms of its design as well as reach. Design-wise, there are a number of murals and the architecture of the stations is quite nice. Through the metro, we got to the Central Railway Office (to buy our St. Petersburg railway tix).

We also went to central Moscow to get some food and see the nightlife. We found a nice Georgian restaurant (Deoskuriya) which had great food (even vegetarian food which we had not expected to find much of in Russia - the joke being that the only veggie food in Russia is vodka). More on the food from Smruti in a later blog!

And we ended the night at a nice jazz club called "Le Club" hearing some Coltrane & Gilberto tunes.

Moscow is going to be one of our easier and more comfortable experiences so, as you can see, we're enjoying it while we can!

One other accomplishment today - we've learnt how to read Russian (mostly) in the Cyrillic alphabet. Getting around the metro has become easier because of this and we feel quite proud of this accomplishment! Dos bridanya... plasziba... ulitsa... etc.

Comments

[preeti]

nice to trtavel with u this way !! this is our indirerct tour , right? well, have the most wonderful time.....
looking forward for u kids to come t mumbai...

[Shachi]

Hi Guys

Very interesting start for you two. It is fascinating to read about your experience in Russia. I am glad Smruti got some vegetarian food. Did Theplas make it past the customs ? Take care ! Looking forward to your next posting.

Shachi, Viren, Nishita and Kunal

[Navneet]

This is so much fun to read!

As someone who loves traveling, and loves
stories, I am looking forward to the
next 6 months of reading of your adventures.

Thanks for taking the time to organize this,
and to share your experiences!

[Mama]

Don't forget the caviare!

But for the pall of the terrible tragedy of the school, your trip sounds wonderful so far. Good beginning.