We’re here in Moscow! Safe and sound! We are absolutely exhausted. We have been up for about 30 hours straight. Neither one of us could sleep on the plane. Both of our flights were good! Pretty smooth take-offs and landings! Only minor turbulence. The flight from Chicago to Moscow went through Newfoundland, past the south tip of Greenland, direcly over Iceland, and through the Scandinavian countries, north of Oslo. The plane had TV sets on the back of each seat that would show the progress of the flight graphically on a map, along with data like the time left to go and the current time in both cities. Greg thought that was pretty cool!
Our interpreter and driver picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hotel. Above is a picture. It’s about 85 degrees here today and cloudy. Moscow is a very busy city with lots of cars and people out walking around. And this is Saturday! We’re wondering what the work week is like.
After we arrived at the hotel, our interpreter helped me exchange our money. Greg waited in the hotel lobby with the luggage while we walked across the street. We went into this teeny, tiny place about the size of a phone booth. Both of us squeezed in. It was dark inside with just one person sitting behind a bulletproof glass wall. They exchanged my money, so I guess it was alright. It was just the strangest place to hand over a bunch of money. Then Greg and I were on our own. We really don’t know where in Moscow we are and we’re both so tired that we didn’t venture too far. We had lunch at McDonald’s. It’s right across the street from our hotel. It was pretty much the same as our McDonald’s, only everything was in, you guessed it, Russian! A Big Mac is still called a “something Mac” so that’s what we ordered. The person that took our order even spoke English somewhat. Then we walked down a brick paver plaza. It ended at some kind of amusement park. There was an admission charge to get in, so we just peeked through the gates. Then we walked around a bit. Greg was taking a bunch of pictures the whole time. I don’t know of what.
Our first interpreter left us the number of another interpreter that will help us with our trip to Astrakhan tomorrow. I just called her to find out the specifics of the next leg of our journey. She said that our flight doesn’t leave until 5PM so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a little more of Moscow before we head out.
Stay tuned, the next post will hopefully be from Astrakhan! It’s about 85 degrees here today and cloudy. Moscow is a very busy city with lots of cars and people out walking around. And this is Saturday! We’re wondering what the work week is like.
After we arrived at the hotel, our interpreter helped me exchange our money. Greg waited in the hotel lobby with the luggage while we walked across the street. We went into this teeny, tiny place about the size of a phone booth. Both of us squeezed in. It was dark inside with just one person sitting behind a bulletproof glass wall. They exchanged my money, so I guess it was alright. It was just the strangest place to hand over a bunch of money. Then Greg and I were on our own. We really don’t know where in Moscow we are and we’re both so tired that we didn’t venture too far. We had lunch at McDonald’s. It’s right across the street from our hotel. It was pretty much the same as our McDonald’s, only everything was in, you guessed it, Russian! A Big Mac is still called a “something Mak” so that’s what we ordered. The person that took our order even spoke English somewhat. Then we walked down a brick paver plaza. It ended at some kind of amusement park. There was an admission charge to get in, so we just peeked through the gates. Then we walked around a bit. Greg was taking a bunch of pictures the whole time. I don’t know of what.
Our first interpreter left us the number of another interpreter that will help us with our trip to Astrakhan tomorrow. I just called her to find out the specifics of the next leg of our journey. She said that our flight doesn’t leave until 5PM so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a little more of Moscow before we head out.
Stay tuned, the next post will hopefully be from Astrakhan!
Our interpreter and driver picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hotel. Above is a picture. It’s about 85 degrees here today and cloudy. Moscow is a very busy city with lots of cars and people out walking around. And this is Saturday! We’re wondering what the work week is like.
After we arrived at the hotel, our interpreter helped me exchange our money. Greg waited in the hotel lobby with the luggage while we walked across the street. We went into this teeny, tiny place about the size of a phone booth. Both of us squeezed in. It was dark inside with just one person sitting behind a bulletproof glass wall. They exchanged my money, so I guess it was alright. It was just the strangest place to hand over a bunch of money. Then Greg and I were on our own. We really don’t know where in Moscow we are and we’re both so tired that we didn’t venture too far. We had lunch at McDonald’s. It’s right across the street from our hotel. It was pretty much the same as our McDonald’s, only everything was in, you guessed it, Russian! A Big Mac is still called a “something Mac” so that’s what we ordered. The person that took our order even spoke English somewhat. Then we walked down a brick paver plaza. It ended at some kind of amusement park. There was an admission charge to get in, so we just peeked through the gates. Then we walked around a bit. Greg was taking a bunch of pictures the whole time. I don’t know of what.
Our first interpreter left us the number of another interpreter that will help us with our trip to Astrakhan tomorrow. I just called her to find out the specifics of the next leg of our journey. She said that our flight doesn’t leave until 5PM so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a little more of Moscow before we head out.
Stay tuned, the next post will hopefully be from Astrakhan! It’s about 85 degrees here today and cloudy. Moscow is a very busy city with lots of cars and people out walking around. And this is Saturday! We’re wondering what the work week is like.
After we arrived at the hotel, our interpreter helped me exchange our money. Greg waited in the hotel lobby with the luggage while we walked across the street. We went into this teeny, tiny place about the size of a phone booth. Both of us squeezed in. It was dark inside with just one person sitting behind a bulletproof glass wall. They exchanged my money, so I guess it was alright. It was just the strangest place to hand over a bunch of money. Then Greg and I were on our own. We really don’t know where in Moscow we are and we’re both so tired that we didn’t venture too far. We had lunch at McDonald’s. It’s right across the street from our hotel. It was pretty much the same as our McDonald’s, only everything was in, you guessed it, Russian! A Big Mac is still called a “something Mak” so that’s what we ordered. The person that took our order even spoke English somewhat. Then we walked down a brick paver plaza. It ended at some kind of amusement park. There was an admission charge to get in, so we just peeked through the gates. Then we walked around a bit. Greg was taking a bunch of pictures the whole time. I don’t know of what.
Our first interpreter left us the number of another interpreter that will help us with our trip to Astrakhan tomorrow. I just called her to find out the specifics of the next leg of our journey. She said that our flight doesn’t leave until 5PM so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a little more of Moscow before we head out.
Stay tuned, the next post will hopefully be from Astrakhan!
2 comments:
Congratulations! We just returned from Russia 11 days ago. It's great that you'll be in Astrakhan with the Canestraros. It's always nice to have other Americans around. For the next time in the Moscow McDonalds, they have an English menu you can use and point to anything you want; just ask and if the person doesn't speak English they'll get it for you and you can order almost anything! Good luck to you, we will continue to follow your blog! (PS if you're in the Korvet, the internet is not free, so you may want to have the interpreter explain their system for charging) Amy
CONGRATS!!! You made it. I am sure that the time is going to FLY by, but remember to soak in EVERYTHING!!!! Take lots of pictures and dont forget to take some video as well.
(BTW - most Russian McDonalds have picture menus that you can order from)
Good Luck and keep us posted.
Stephanie
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