Moscow was a ridiculous two part adventure.
first, the adventure even getting to the city. second, my whirlwind literally THREE HOURS in the city. the damn visa for just this city cost me $300 (so essentially I paid $100 for each hour I was there), but honestly... when is the next time I'm going to get to M-O-S-C-O-W?! it's not exactly the easiest of places to get to, nor is it really that high on people's travel priority list. but since I was already flying on the Russian airline, I decided to make my layover as long as possible in order to be able to get into the city.
I'll start with trying to get to the city first.
as mentioned in the previous post, I arrived at the airport at around 9:30pm for a 2:00am flight. about two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave they finally listed where we were supposed to go to check in. I wait in line like everyone else, get up to one of the ticket agents and hand them my passport, since I didn't have a way of checking in online and printing my boarding pass (pretty sure you can't do that on an international flight anyway). the woman can't find my record in the system. so she legit tosses my passport over to guy at the next counter so he can check me in. he can't find me in the system. he finally explains to me that his supervisor (who was also checking people in - I think they were short staffed at the desks at this time of the night/morning) would check on my situation once he was finished checking people in. no problem - I mean did I really have any other choice but to wait? finally the supervisor finishes checking people in he brings me over to a separate desk to try and figure out the problem. after about a half hour or so he finally figured out what the problem was. apparently the airline company canceled my reservation and never re-booked me. awesome. he was able to re-book me on to the same flights and get me a new confirmation number, but he said unfortunately the flights were full. I thought to myself, "that's nice but I'm still getting on both of these planes even if I have to sit on the pilot's lap." so I go back over to the counter to check in and they couldn't find me again. but then this woman came over to help and after a little bit, was able to get me all checked in and set with both of my boarding passes. as a side note, I noticed earlier that these two other American girls were checking in and had a lot of trouble like I did. coincidence maybe?
second adventure: a total of three hours in Moscow
make it to Moscow a-ok. head out to the main terminal to find an information desk, as I only had pretty crude directions on where to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Moscow (we were meeting at a Starbucks no less). the first information girl I spoke with had this attitude about her that how-dare-I-ask-her-for-anything (uh, hello? your job is to provide information, meaning you are going to have to actually talk to people) and she can't believe she is stuck in "the worst job in the world." I was able to finally get her to print out a subway map for me of where the train from the airport would bring me into and where I had to take the subway to. as I'm heading to the train, I find another information booth and this woman was 10x more helpful. she printed me out a map of what street I needed to walk down once I got off the subway, which is what I really needed to begin with anyway. I could have found my way on the subway, I live in in NYC for goodness sake! (although, I will admit it's a lot harder on a subway when all the words are in Russian and they don't even have the same letters as us!) so I get on the train to the subway fine. had a little mix-up on the subway trains, but through sounds, hand gestures, and a general look of confusion on my face I was able to get people to help me find where I needed to go. I get off the subway train and this was the hardest part - trying to find the street I needed. I memorized the Russian word for "english" so I just randomly started walking up to people and saying "angliyski?" and pointing to the spot on the map where I needed to go. no one could help. ugh. finally found a police officer, who, when I asked him "angliyski?," responded with "little." perfect! I could totally work with that. showed him the map and all of a sudden he got really animated and started spouting off in Russian on where I was supposed to go (I'm assuming). I of course had NO idea what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the right so I assumed that was the direction I was supposed to go. and even as I was walking away, he was still talking to me in Russian.
made it to the Starbucks and the friend of friend met me there (he was 17 and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've been around a 17 year old. they act differently). our first stop was the Red Square, Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. it was beyond cool. the city as a whole was a little industrial to me. to be honest, I'm not sure how high going back there is on my list. maybe to go to the country of Russia itself. or at least to St. Petersburg. however, I can say that I definitely do not regret going and it was a fun way to end my three week trek through eastern europe!! :)
first, the adventure even getting to the city. second, my whirlwind literally THREE HOURS in the city. the damn visa for just this city cost me $300 (so essentially I paid $100 for each hour I was there), but honestly... when is the next time I'm going to get to M-O-S-C-O-W?! it's not exactly the easiest of places to get to, nor is it really that high on people's travel priority list. but since I was already flying on the Russian airline, I decided to make my layover as long as possible in order to be able to get into the city.
I'll start with trying to get to the city first.
as mentioned in the previous post, I arrived at the airport at around 9:30pm for a 2:00am flight. about two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave they finally listed where we were supposed to go to check in. I wait in line like everyone else, get up to one of the ticket agents and hand them my passport, since I didn't have a way of checking in online and printing my boarding pass (pretty sure you can't do that on an international flight anyway). the woman can't find my record in the system. so she legit tosses my passport over to guy at the next counter so he can check me in. he can't find me in the system. he finally explains to me that his supervisor (who was also checking people in - I think they were short staffed at the desks at this time of the night/morning) would check on my situation once he was finished checking people in. no problem - I mean did I really have any other choice but to wait? finally the supervisor finishes checking people in he brings me over to a separate desk to try and figure out the problem. after about a half hour or so he finally figured out what the problem was. apparently the airline company canceled my reservation and never re-booked me. awesome. he was able to re-book me on to the same flights and get me a new confirmation number, but he said unfortunately the flights were full. I thought to myself, "that's nice but I'm still getting on both of these planes even if I have to sit on the pilot's lap." so I go back over to the counter to check in and they couldn't find me again. but then this woman came over to help and after a little bit, was able to get me all checked in and set with both of my boarding passes. as a side note, I noticed earlier that these two other American girls were checking in and had a lot of trouble like I did. coincidence maybe?
second adventure: a total of three hours in Moscow
make it to Moscow a-ok. head out to the main terminal to find an information desk, as I only had pretty crude directions on where to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Moscow (we were meeting at a Starbucks no less). the first information girl I spoke with had this attitude about her that how-dare-I-ask-her-for-anything (uh, hello? your job is to provide information, meaning you are going to have to actually talk to people) and she can't believe she is stuck in "the worst job in the world." I was able to finally get her to print out a subway map for me of where the train from the airport would bring me into and where I had to take the subway to. as I'm heading to the train, I find another information booth and this woman was 10x more helpful. she printed me out a map of what street I needed to walk down once I got off the subway, which is what I really needed to begin with anyway. I could have found my way on the subway, I live in in NYC for goodness sake! (although, I will admit it's a lot harder on a subway when all the words are in Russian and they don't even have the same letters as us!) so I get on the train to the subway fine. had a little mix-up on the subway trains, but through sounds, hand gestures, and a general look of confusion on my face I was able to get people to help me find where I needed to go. I get off the subway train and this was the hardest part - trying to find the street I needed. I memorized the Russian word for "english" so I just randomly started walking up to people and saying "angliyski?" and pointing to the spot on the map where I needed to go. no one could help. ugh. finally found a police officer, who, when I asked him "angliyski?," responded with "little." perfect! I could totally work with that. showed him the map and all of a sudden he got really animated and started spouting off in Russian on where I was supposed to go (I'm assuming). I of course had NO idea what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the right so I assumed that was the direction I was supposed to go. and even as I was walking away, he was still talking to me in Russian.
made it to the Starbucks and the friend of friend met me there (he was 17 and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've been around a 17 year old. they act differently). our first stop was the Red Square, Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. it was beyond cool. the city as a whole was a little industrial to me. to be honest, I'm not sure how high going back there is on my list. maybe to go to the country of Russia itself. or at least to St. Petersburg. however, I can say that I definitely do not regret going and it was a fun way to end my three week trek through eastern europe!! :)
(entrance to Red Square)
(can anyone read me what this says? anyone?)
(St. Basil's Cathedral)
(St. Basil's Cathedral)
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