The day finally arrived. Years of planning and weeks of running around getting ready are over. Temperatures in New York have been brutal at 95+ F. and humid for weeks. Wonder what Siberia will bring? I worked today and got a ride to Kennedy Airport. A good omen - I walked in the terminal door to see if I was in the right place and there were Nate (my husband) and Sean McGivern (tour organizer). It was 3:00 P.M. All assembled by 4:30 P.M. (Mary, Pam and Andy). The Finnair flight took off promptly at 6:00 P.M. and from there it seemed like perpetual eating....drinks, dinner, movie, more drinks, coffee, catch a little sleep, and then breakfast. All in 7 hours! My body thinks it's 1:30 A.M. but we are arriving in Helsinki on a beautiful sun shinny day at 8:30 A.M. local time. Another 1 1/2 hour flight from Helsinki to Moscow with another breakfast (this one a delicious omelet and great sausage.) Our friend, Irina met us at the airport with a rose for each of the women. We checked into the Intourist Hotel near Red Square (easy walk). What nice place! It had typical Russian hotel decor including single beds. After a rest (? I never even sat down), shower, and change of clothes, we took off for a city tour with tour guide Jenna. I got a Moscow subway tee shirt at GUM (the large department store in Red Square), and saw a pretty view of Moscow. Moscow now has so many signs in English - it has really changed in three years. Many vendors speak easily to you in English. I don't expect things to be like this in Listvyanka or Irkutsk. We arrived back from the city tour in time for dinner of pizza next to the hotel.
Then we went off to visit friends of Sean's in Zhostovo, a village, 35 miles outside of Moscow. Uri, Nina, and daughter Larissa paint trays (grandson Nikita is playing Nintendo on the TV). On the way there, we see many new, single family brick houses under construction. Sean says brick is cheap and accessible. Much work has been devoted to the house of Uri and Nina. They are very proud and very nice people. Nikita and his friend lead the group to their swimming hole - Sean and kids took a dip - Mary, Irina and I dipped toes. Too bad, no swimsuits. Then back to the dacha for food, drink and conversation. I try to speak some Russian - they seem to understand me, and seem surprised and pleased. The food included mushroom pastries (they picked the mushrooms in the woods), apple cake (apples from their yard), plums, tomatoes, and cucumbers all from their garden. Also, plenty of vodka and Champanski! Finally it is time to say good bye and get back to Moscow. We dropped into bed at about 10:00 P.M. Slept soundly until 4:00 A.M. I finally got up to write in my journal.
We met Sean at 6:00 AM to go shopping at Ismalova Market - the early booths have artists selling at wholesale prices to merchants. Nate and I have a ball spending about $250 on gifts. I don't know where we'll put them all, but it was fun. We took the subway back to Intourist Hotel for a buffet breakfast. Then we met a tour guide (Vlad) for a tour of the Kremlin Cathedrals. It is a beautiful day - started cool but became sunny and warm. Lunch was at a restaurant at Hotel Russiaa (schi, egg with caviar, beef stroganoff and potatoes, and a cookie). We are all dragging by now. While heading back through the subway, we saw a 6 year old boy playing an accordion very well and very diligently. He had a nice bag of money collecting in front of him (yes I did). We then saw another group of musicians with puppets - Pam took a picture.
A few errands after lunch and then it was off to the airport by 4:00 PM. Irina checked us in for our flight on Aeroflot, and then the waiting started. Our 6 PM flight boarded at 7:15 with no explanation. We waited in the "international lounge" - was this an improvement? When we boarded the plane we noticed a bad smell and that the seats were wet. The stewardess said that the last passengers had messed up the plane. They allowed us to board before the Russian people so we picked six seats that were relatively clean. Two of the six of us had seat belts that did not work. Dinner was rice, peas, bread and bread. The meat didn't look great to me so I didn't eat it.
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