To Moscow!
United has a direct flight from Dulles to Domodedovo. It's 10 hours which is about 3 hours beyond my tolerance for sitting in economy. I had frequent flyer miles to burn so I upgraded to business class for a mere 10,000 miles. The Supershuttle picked me up at 1:30pm for my 5pm flight. Even though my organization will pay for a taxi, I always take the Supershuttle because I never know what kind of adventure it will take me on. The last Supershuttle driver got lost in Alexandria and refused to listen to the directions of the (increasingly annoyed) Alexandria native in the backseat. What should have been a 30 minute trip turned into about 1hr15min. This trip to Dulles was uneventful. There were only 2 passengers and I was the second picked up, so it was a straight shot from my hotel to the airport. Check-in had its typical problems. The check-in kiosk wasn't printing tickets and wouldn't recognize I had 2 bags. Fairly tame I guess as far a check-in problems. It took a few minutes to sort all that out and I was finally on my way to the Red Carpet Club (an additional perk of a business class ticket). Since I had about 2 hours to kill before boarding I took at seat in the Club, grabbed a free beer and watched the World Cup Germany v Spain game.
The business class section of the flight was only about 25% full. The seat next to me was free – which was convenient as my entertainment system was not working. On-demand movies is the main perk of business class so this would have been a disaster had I not been able to switch seats. My last international flight was in economy and I was stuck watching Twilight. The acting was so bad I was nearly read to slit my wrists by the end of it. This flight would have no such issues. I sat down, told the flight attendant to keep the drinks coming, and prepared for 10 hours of boring. I managed to get in Date Night and Invictus before grabbing a nap. My wife will take about ¼ pill of Uni-som sometimes to help her sleep. I took 2 pills around the end of Invictus and, as far as I can tell, had no effect on me.
Upon arrival and Domodedovo I quickly passed through the passport control and met my sponsor on the other side. He took me back to our apartment building, gave me the keys and a quick tour of the building. He left me to my own devices for the afternoon and made plans to meet up again for dinner.
My image of Russian apartments is the stereotypical concrete communist apartment block. In fact, most housing in Moscow is like this. Our building, however, is new construction and breaks the mold. It's only a few years old and has a modern exterior. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath on the 8th floor. It probably has about 1400 sq ft. of living space. The kitchen/dining/living room is an open layout. The master bedroom is enormous. The queen-size bed takes up only a small part of the room. There is a large built-in wardrobe and I moved in a portable IKEA wardrobe from the second bedroom. I figure I can take the IKEA wardrobe and a couple drawers in the dresser and Katie can use everything else. For the first time in a long time I have a washer and dryer in the apartment, although the washer is in the second bathroom and the dryer is in the kitchen. A little odd, but I can't complain too much. The master bath has a tub while the second has a shower. Both have heated towel racks and floors. The kitchen also has a heated floor which can be turned on or off. There is a built-in air conditioner in the living room and a roll-around a/c in the master bedroom. The apartment also has an enclosed porch which seems to be most useful as a sunroom or storage. The apartment came furnished with dressers, tables, sofa, etc. The second bedroom is configured as an office with a bookshelf and desk. The apartment has hardwood floors throughout (except the heated tile in the kitchen and bathrooms). The east and south side of the apartment has large windows. The middle window opens on each section, but there aren't any screens. The view out either side isn't terribly interesting – basically lots of concrete apartment blocks. The apartment comes with basic cable TV (about 12 working stations and another 10 or so where the sound and/or screen is screwed up). All the foreign stations (e.g. BBC) don't work but the Russian stations come in fine.
After unpacking my belongings I took a walk around the area to survey my new home. There are a couple small grocery stores within a 5 minute walk – one of them is open 24 hours. I'm not sure why I would need to go to the grocery store at 3am, but I I do there are options. Of course the ubiquitous McDonald's is only a couple blocks away. There is also a Sbarro nearby. I haven't checked to see if either has free wifi, but that would probably be the only reason to go. There is a big statue of Lenin only a block from our apartment. The apartment is conveniently located between two metro stops – about a 5 minute walk to either one (Oktabrskaya and Dobryninskaya). Both stops are on the circle line which means I can easily get pretty much anywhere in Moscow as the circle line crosses all other lines. All the major train stations (to cities outside Moscow) are on the circle line. The subway system in Moscow is huge but incredibly efficient. Trains come every 90 seconds. There is no “time until next train” like in DC, only a “time since last train” and I have yet to wait more than a couple minutes.
On Saturday I walked around the center of the city. I started at Red Square, walked down to Christ the Saviour church then up to Old Arbat – a pedestrian street about ½ mile long. If you want to buy souvenirs – Old Arbat is the place to do it. There are a large number of shops selling all kinds of crap (my term, not theirs). It was a hot day – probably close to 90 degrees. I was hoping to escape the heat of DC, but apparently it followed me to Moscow. Red Square was quite crowded. After a few hours of walking around I decided I had had enough of the heat. I came back to my apartment and took a nap. After my nap and a delicious dinner of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, I sat down to watch the Uruguay v Germany game – in Russian. The game started at 10:30pm local time and the sun was just going down. It's an odd experience to wake up with the sun up and go to bed with the sun still up.
Sunday I slept until about noon then was ready to get back out and explore my new city. I found that a good way to meet new people was to join the local Hash House Harriers running club. For those who don't know, the Hash House Harriers are a drinking club with a running problem. In Moscow they meet every Sunday at 2pm then head out to the run site via the metro. I show up at 2pm and who did I see but one of the guys I ran with in Bulgaria! It had been 4 years but we both recognized each other. The expat world is pretty small. The Hash in Moscow is pretty diverse – there are Americans, Serbians, Russians, Canadians, Brits and the Swede I knew from Bulgaria. The run was through Victory Park – a famous Moscow park memorializing World War 2 (or the Great Patriotic War). Another good reason to run with the Hash is that you get to see different parts of the city. This Hash, which is typical of others I've been on, was about 15% pre-run socializing, 35% running, and 50% drinking and socializing after the run. It was about 6pm before the Hash ended. I made plans with some of the Hashers to meet up at a local bar to watch the World Cup final later that night. We met up at an outdoor bar called “Art Garbage” (yes, I also think that is an odd name for a bar). Anyway, we got there early to grab a seat. Unfortunately the game went long and I had to leave before it ended because the Metro closes at 1am. The last thing I wanted to do is get stuck in the center of Moscow when I barely knew how to get around the city. By the time I got home the game has already ended. Oh well.
