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dwfunk
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| Joined: | Tuesday March 21st, 2006 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
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Posted: Tuesday March 28th, 2006 08:29 pm |
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David goes to Moscow.
The Flight out.
27 December 2005, it’s about 1:30pm, my bags have been packed for a week. My best friend is going to drop me off at the airport and it’s time to leave. I’m extremely nervous and did not sleep at all the night before. I really do not know why I should be this nervous, it’s just another “first date” right? Right?!? It was actually kinda traumatic when it came time to purchase the tickets, then they couldn’t give me an eConfirmation, had to send me paper tickets for some reason. Waiting for the tickets to show up was torture. But then, standing in the Russian Consulate in Houston, Texas, applying for my visa, was nerve wracking as well, but this, wow, I’m going to be pulled out of line for every single security inspection possible. This guy is visibly nervous about something, they will say, just terrific!
I have to take some Texas Red Roses with me. No problem, there are 2 Kroger stores close by, we will go to the one in the direction of the airport. OMG!! No roses in stock!!! Arrg. Back to the other Kroger in the opposite direction! They have some, I buy a dozen and take one out and give it to my friend. He said he would give it to his daughter.
It’s 4:30pm. I’m sitting in the departure lounge. I do not know how I got here or how I made it through security, but I am here. How ever, we should have been taking off by now, and there is no airplane at the gate, we haven’t even boarded yet!
A few minutes later, my plane shows up, seems bad winter weather held it up leaving France. 30 minutes behind schedule we head for Paris. Next time I fly Air France, I will have to bring extra flowers. I got hit on by every flight attendant, (yup, everyone!, even “Pierre”!! ) because of the armful of roses. I think I can ‘bribe’ some attention out of them?
Hours later, we’re descending into Paris. The captain is on the intercom again, long speech in French, the English one is much shorter. French is either very eloquent or he’s leaving a lot out in the English version. Somewhere in there he announced we would be landing 1 hour later then scheduled. Oh man!! Natalia had made a very big deal about letting her know when I would leave Paris and when I would arrive in Moscow. She had placed orders for a taxi to meet us at the airport, and now we were at a minimum one hour late. I did not have my cell phone with me, how would I contact her???? I would be arriving in Terminal 2A and leaving out of Terminal 2C. I would need every bit of that 50 minutes, that is assuming my connecting flight to Moscow was still there.
We land and deplane, terrific, I can’t make heads or tales out of any of the signage. I spot an elderly couple, I saw them get on in Houston, their passports have that little sticker the Russian Consulate puts on them, in the upper right hand corner, I fall in behind them. I hope they’re going to Moscow and not Irkutsk or something way-out like that. Turns out they’re on the same connecting flight as I am, to Moscow, good, they seem to know what they are doing, I’ll tag along.
We end up at a bus terminal on the ground floor. Man is it ever cold!! The bus is labeled “Terminal 2C” Good! I’ll at least get to the right terminal. But, I get my first experience with Russians and queue’s!! A whole herd of Russians comes pouring down the steps. I see the red passports, the group consists of several families, several extended families, and they are committed to keeping together. Before I know what’s going on, the tidal wave of humanity has swept me aside and they are all on the bus, it’s full and only a handful of us are left. The next 10, 20 or so bus’s do not say Terminal 2C on them. Great, now what? I notice that standing at the back of every bus are two solder’s with automatic weapons. I try to take a picture, but the gesture one of the solders made with his rifle in my direction convinced me to plunge my camera back into my pocket. I later try to sneak a picture from under my arm, but it is blurred, I moved too much, or something.
Finally a bus arrives labeled Terminal 2C. A handful of us get on and we ride, and ride, and ride and ride. Some time later, we pull up next to an Airbus. The other bus’s are also sitting next to the plane, nobody has gotten on yet, so everyone on the earlier buses has been sitting/standing there, in a cold bus. We finally board, I find my seat. The captain begins his speech, aaaahhh, it’s in Russian! At least, I recognize some words, the second half is in French with a Russian accent. Oh, well, so much for being informed . . .
It’s gray, it’s overcast, it’s snowing. Sometime later, I realize the patches of ground I see through the clouds below us are Russian soil!! I am in the sovereign territory of the Russian Federation. The flight attendants pass out customs forms. I see where my name goes, I fill in both halves. I don’t see the word for ‘passport’ where does the passport number go, I end up only filling out a very small portion of it. Who knows what problems I will have getting in.
Well, I’m at the baggage claim. The young lady at passport control, had looked at all my documents, looked at me, looked back at the incomplete customs forms, back at me, back at my documents, and so forth, for nearly 10 minutes. I was getting nervous again. What would happen next?? Wham! Wham! She stamps my customs form, stamps my visa and without saying a word shoves everything through the little slot back to me! I’m in!!!
I collect my bags, and decide to try something. I do not know what the customs line will be like, so I flag a porter and he grabs my bags, throws them on his little cart and pushes his way to the front of the Green Line. I hand him my passport, shake my head no, and he hands my passport to the babushka at customs, says something to her, she hands the passport back to him, he almost tosses it to me and away he goes. I run after him, he does have my bags.
I exit “special security zone” into the main concourse of Sheremetyevo-2, my Natalia had told me, “not sit, stand near wall, I find” so I headed for a wall out of the way of the main crowds and began scanning the crowd for her. Mean while, Mr. Mafioso, who also speaks very good English, the dude that runs the taxis out of the airport latches on to me. I tell him and the rest of the taxi vultures, over and over, no, I don’t need a taxi, I have someone coming to pick me up.
Meanwhile, the porter is trying to shake me down for $10, but I only pay him 120 rubles, just like the sign on his cart says. Mr. Mafioso says something to him and the porter dumps my bags and leaves.
Several taxi drivers as well as Mr. Mafioso have offered me use of a cell phone to call my “friend.” I turn them down, I have no idea how much they might try to stick me with for a simple phone call. Mr. Mafioso is trying to tell me that my “friend” might not show up. “A lot of ‘them’ simply do not show up at the airport,” he tells me. . . . Great!
It’s now 5pm, I was supposed to arrive at 3:15pm. Was she here, and I didn’t show, so did she leave? Did she just a few minutes ago finally give up, and leave? Broken hearted, again??
Now Mr. Mafioso, offers me use of his cell phone, for free. I dig out Natalia’s phone number and he calls her. He is talking for a while, walks away from me, still talking, he’s frowning now, and hangs up and walks away. I catch up to him, and ask him if he got thru, Yes, and your friend is on her way, maybe 15 minutes, she is on the bus. So I wait some more.
I am standing next to the exterior glass wall. I can see where the bus’s stop, but all I see are people getting on them, I don’t see anyone getting off. Then finally I see some people get off a bus, and I begin watch some more. More bus’s, more get off, then I see a small petite woman, in brown fur cap, brown fur coat, she is walking towards the building very briskly, she’s agitated about something, you can see it in her posture and in her movements. I smile, somebody’s going to catch some h*ll. I keep looking, I’m looking for my Natalia. Brown Fur Coat Lady has made her way into the terminal, and is coming this way. Ok, at least while I am waiting, I’ll get some entertainment. I’m watching Brown Fur Coat Lady work her way through the crowd and our eyes lock, I catch my breath and think, “It’s her!” but no, it's not! Great! I'll miss my Natalia because I'm fixated on this beauty, I can’t really tell. Her red hair, if it is her, is up under her hat and I can not tell. Our eyes are locked and I watch her come towards me, I’m mesmerized, then through the fog, I hear her call my name!! IT IS HER!!! She runs up to me, I put my arms out, she runs to me throwing her arms around me, hugging me, looking up at me. I wrap my arms around her, and lean down, and we kiss!!
I had always imagined the first meeting. How would it go? What would we do? Would we shake hands? Would we kiss? How would we kiss? On the cheek? How?? Oh how??
Now I knew!! Our first kiss was that of long separated Lovers coming together once again!! Then!! It happened!! She pushed back, grabbing the lapels of my coat with both her hands and pushed back away from me completely, separating us from each other, suddenly she was all business like, and told me she had to find our taxi.
Oh Great!! Just Terrific!! I had just been greeted by: "The Hostess"!!!! So much for a girlfriend!!
To be continued . . .
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David & Natalia
Republic of Texas/Moscow, Russia
http://www.davidandnataliafunk.org/
http://www.russianwomanwiki.net/
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Last edited on Tuesday March 28th, 2006 08:30 pm by dwfunk
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JPjr
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| Joined: | Friday February 24th, 2006 |
| Location: | Memphis, Tennessee USA |
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Posted: Tuesday March 28th, 2006 11:43 pm |
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| Thanks David, Fri. May 5th I will be landing at SVO term. 2 @ 10:30 am and I am not sure WTF to do, so any presise info will be appreciated. What luggage did you use, some say it must be heavy duty and heavy locks. I will carry on every thing of value. Laptop, Etaco Translator and gifts for Luba. I am pretty good about going thru the scanner with the carry on stuff and keeping an eye on my stuff, but am unsure of the procedure for the checked luggage and customs requirements. So I have 5 wks to get my act together. Thanks for the TR,, Joe
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dwfunk
Member
| Joined: | Tuesday March 21st, 2006 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 109 |
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Posted: Wednesday March 29th, 2006 05:17 am |
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JPjr wrote: Thanks David, Fri. May 5th I will be landing at SVO term. 2 @ 10:30 am and I am not sure WTF to do, so any presise info will be appreciated. What luggage did you use, some say it must be heavy duty and heavy locks. I will carry on every thing of value. Laptop, Etaco Translator and gifts for Luba. I am pretty good about going thru the scanner with the carry on stuff and keeping an eye on my stuff, but am unsure of the procedure for the checked luggage and customs requirements. So I have 5 wks to get my act together. Thanks for the TR,, Joe
Awesome!! Good Luck!! I take it this is your first trip?
You look like you are well prepared. You have the carry-on's worked out. If you have the hard shell luggage use it. I ran into weight restrictions, coming back. So check all your airlines for weight restrictions both ways.
I traveled with two checked bags, one was a seabag, the other a very large sports 'duffel'. My carry-on was the largest computer bag I could find, with wheels and the pull handle.
If you can easily handle all your bags yourself, then don't use a porter. They want about $10 USD when the legal fee, posted on the cart is only 120 rubles, which is about 4 bucks and some change.
You do not have anything to declare in customs, even though you are bringing some gifts in. The allowed limit is a grand or so, worth of goods, I need to check the exact amount, but unless you are bringing tons of stuff, you have nothing to declare, and will go in the green line.
What are your travel arrangements from the airport? Do you have an agency picking you up? Natalia pre-negotiated a taxi for us before hand and all we had to do was meet up with that driver. Someone there, in Moscow has to set this kind of thing up, and set it up a few days before hand. It's the way to go, if your girl is knowledgeable about what to do, and willing to do it. What ever the price, be prepared to pay up.
Cash, I did not have any trouble using local ATM machines to get cash. All of the machines I used, (they were in or near the Center) would dispense dollars or rubles. Don't bother getting dollars, you still have to change them to rubles. I got 6000 rubles at a time for $208.74. However, do not run out of cash. I never had a problem, but I keep hearing horror stories about running short and then not finding a working ATM machine or an open bank. If you take cash in dollars into the country, presort any that are torn or excessively wrinkled. They will either not exchange them, or will take them in exchange and charge you a hefty surcharge. Any USA currency must be bills in very good condition. Just remember, they do not have to take them for any reason. "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!"
All public transportation is via a prepaid card. Your girl or the agency needs to but them for you if you can, as they will charge you "foreigner" prices. Once the cards are bought, nobody checks to see if they are "local" or "foreign". Oh, and you can not be with her with she buys them, they will know she is buying for a foreigner and will charge her accordingly. And on this topic, some venues, museums, etc, have a passport control to verify what price you paid for the admission ticket so be alert for those.
How long are you going to be there? Do you have any plans yet? You will will enjoy it. The weather will be a whole lot nicer in May. I wish you both well.
--
David & Natalia
Republic of Texas/Moscow, Russia
http://www.davidandnataliafunk.org/
http://www.russianwomanwiki.net/
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dwfunk
Member
| Joined: | Tuesday March 21st, 2006 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 109 |
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Posted: Wednesday March 29th, 2006 05:24 am |
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JPjr wrote:, Etaco Translator
Awesome!! Translator's are expensive, but this is high stakes! You are way ahead of the game with just this. I am very impressed. You are going to succeed.
JPjr wrote:, gifts for Luba.
Just an after thought, have you given any thought about gifts for her mom, or dad if he's around, any children?
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David & Natalia
Republic of Texas/Moscow, Russia
http://www.davidandnataliafunk.org/
http://www.russianwomanwiki.net/
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