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Moscow again...
May. 29th, 2003 10:36 pmIf the notations in my passport are correct, the last time I was in Moscow was August 1999, which is four months short of 4 years. The place looks different, yet very much the same.
I met Olga F. at JFK shortly before the flight began to board. She very wisely used some of her accumulated frequent flier miles to upgrade herself to first class, while I sat insteeragecoach. The flight was tolerable, and I even managed to get a little sleep.
We landed around 11:15 am local time, and about two hours later, Olga and I were at the hotel, the Marriott Aurora on Petrovka near the Bolshoi Ballet. The trip took a long time owing to horrible (or perhaps normal traffic) in from the airport. No matter what our driver did to find a better route, we got stuck.
At any rate, we spent most of the trip in from the airport conversing in French, and though Olga protests that her French is rusty, it is much less "rouillé" than mine. (On the other hand, I was gratified to note that I am not exactly a helpless babe in the woods in this department.)
The hotel is a deluxe hotel, with interior furnishing - both in the lobby and the room - that I would expect of a deluxe hotel in the States. (In fact, it looks exactly like a room you'd find at a comparable Marriott in a city like L.A. or Atlanta. This is not a complaint.) The photo below shows the view from my window; it's not exactly breathtaking, but I'm not here for the scenery.
A message at the front desk informed Olga and me that we will be picked up at 7 am tomorrow to go to the airport to catch a charter out to Baikonur. While Olga touched base with some friends of hers (she used to live not far from here, ages ago), I called Alla and arranged to meet her and Olga in the lobby at 4 pm. In the meantime, I went for a walk. It was my intent to take a number of pictures, but I ended up taking only this, from the front door of the hotel:
There are two restaurants across the street. One is a Yakitoriya (presumably, where one loads up on yakitori), the other is the Schwartzwald. I noticed several of the former around town, and am a little surprised: a chain of Japanese restaurants in Moscow; what a concept!
Predictably, my sense of where I was was somewhat off, as it had been years (decades) since I'd tarried in the area. I went down Kuznetskiy Most to one end, expecting to find Lubyanka Square there, but miscalculated just exactly where the street ended. So I turned around the went to the other end of the street, and found it wasn't what I was looking for, either. Along the way, I passed the place where Galina worked back before we met. It was a pleasant walk, even if I accomplished nothing.
It occurs to me that the guiding principle of traffic involving vehicles and pedestrians in Russia is what we in the States call the game of "chicken." There are apparently dire consequences associated with getting into accidents (the most dire involving injuries to pedestrians), but everyone seems to drive and cross streets around here as if they are convinced they are unscratchable and/or immortal. The situation with vehicle parking is crazy, too.
I got back to the hotel around 3:20 pm and lay down to nap. Alla woke me up a few minutes after 4. I went downstairs and she, her daughter Olga, and I proceeded to catch up. We then went out to the street and turned down Petrovka to where the statue of Karl Marx still stares across the traffic at the Bolshoi Theater. We took the pedestrian underpass to the other side of the street (to where it comes up next to the Metropole hotel) and ended up taking salad and a drink at the Oranzh Cafe (nothing memorable, lousy service).
Afterward we went for a long walk, which began to become objectionable as the afternoon paled and a brisk wind sprung up. On the way back, Olga took her leave, and Alla and I ended up in another cafe down the street from the hotel. I shall have to definitely stay over a couple of days once the job is over. For now, I have to concentrate on the job. Once I post this, I shall have to check e-mail, etc. and make a call home.
Wakeup will, technically, be pretty early tomorrow (probably 5 am, so as to be ready for breakfast at 6 and departure at 7). Anyway, access through the hotel's internet extension costs $3.02 for 15 minutes and I'm getting close to my limit for the night. (I'll only note that the rate is far superior to that offered at Kennedy airport, where you get power and access to a phone line for $2.50 for the first 15 minutes and $0.35 per minute after that and you have to have your own ISP to call.)
Cheers...
I met Olga F. at JFK shortly before the flight began to board. She very wisely used some of her accumulated frequent flier miles to upgrade herself to first class, while I sat in
We landed around 11:15 am local time, and about two hours later, Olga and I were at the hotel, the Marriott Aurora on Petrovka near the Bolshoi Ballet. The trip took a long time owing to horrible (or perhaps normal traffic) in from the airport. No matter what our driver did to find a better route, we got stuck.
At any rate, we spent most of the trip in from the airport conversing in French, and though Olga protests that her French is rusty, it is much less "rouillé" than mine. (On the other hand, I was gratified to note that I am not exactly a helpless babe in the woods in this department.)
The hotel is a deluxe hotel, with interior furnishing - both in the lobby and the room - that I would expect of a deluxe hotel in the States. (In fact, it looks exactly like a room you'd find at a comparable Marriott in a city like L.A. or Atlanta. This is not a complaint.) The photo below shows the view from my window; it's not exactly breathtaking, but I'm not here for the scenery.
A message at the front desk informed Olga and me that we will be picked up at 7 am tomorrow to go to the airport to catch a charter out to Baikonur. While Olga touched base with some friends of hers (she used to live not far from here, ages ago), I called Alla and arranged to meet her and Olga in the lobby at 4 pm. In the meantime, I went for a walk. It was my intent to take a number of pictures, but I ended up taking only this, from the front door of the hotel:
There are two restaurants across the street. One is a Yakitoriya (presumably, where one loads up on yakitori), the other is the Schwartzwald. I noticed several of the former around town, and am a little surprised: a chain of Japanese restaurants in Moscow; what a concept!
Predictably, my sense of where I was was somewhat off, as it had been years (decades) since I'd tarried in the area. I went down Kuznetskiy Most to one end, expecting to find Lubyanka Square there, but miscalculated just exactly where the street ended. So I turned around the went to the other end of the street, and found it wasn't what I was looking for, either. Along the way, I passed the place where Galina worked back before we met. It was a pleasant walk, even if I accomplished nothing.
It occurs to me that the guiding principle of traffic involving vehicles and pedestrians in Russia is what we in the States call the game of "chicken." There are apparently dire consequences associated with getting into accidents (the most dire involving injuries to pedestrians), but everyone seems to drive and cross streets around here as if they are convinced they are unscratchable and/or immortal. The situation with vehicle parking is crazy, too.
I got back to the hotel around 3:20 pm and lay down to nap. Alla woke me up a few minutes after 4. I went downstairs and she, her daughter Olga, and I proceeded to catch up. We then went out to the street and turned down Petrovka to where the statue of Karl Marx still stares across the traffic at the Bolshoi Theater. We took the pedestrian underpass to the other side of the street (to where it comes up next to the Metropole hotel) and ended up taking salad and a drink at the Oranzh Cafe (nothing memorable, lousy service).
Afterward we went for a long walk, which began to become objectionable as the afternoon paled and a brisk wind sprung up. On the way back, Olga took her leave, and Alla and I ended up in another cafe down the street from the hotel. I shall have to definitely stay over a couple of days once the job is over. For now, I have to concentrate on the job. Once I post this, I shall have to check e-mail, etc. and make a call home.
Wakeup will, technically, be pretty early tomorrow (probably 5 am, so as to be ready for breakfast at 6 and departure at 7). Anyway, access through the hotel's internet extension costs $3.02 for 15 minutes and I'm getting close to my limit for the night. (I'll only note that the rate is far superior to that offered at Kennedy airport, where you get power and access to a phone line for $2.50 for the first 15 minutes and $0.35 per minute after that and you have to have your own ISP to call.)
Cheers...
