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As one can see from the title of this post, I've made it to Moscow. Our group left the hotel a little after 8 am, me a little, um, hungover from the "previous" evening's farewell festivities at the Luna. Personally, the last time I was present at a bar/nightclub's closing time was in my early 20s, in Buffalo, at the Forks Hotel (owned by the incomparable Eddie Fechter, who taught me a lot about things in general).
We arrived in Moscow in good time and managed to get through passport control with no problems. Even the bus ride into town was fairly quick, dropping me and a bunch of people off at the Marriott Grand, a few blocks from Pushkin Square, before taking everyone else to the Aurora, which apparently had been pretty much filled by the Astrium folks, as they have campaign teams inbound and outbound at the same time.
While I was checking in, I made sure to ask about payment for the room (which came to about $250 for one night), as the company I work through has made it clear that it's always best to have rooms paid for in advance by the client, since getting reimbursed can take a long time. As it turned out, I was expected to pay for the room and then get reimbursed.
I had planned to stay in the room to rest for a while and wander around downtown Moscow before going out to the Perovo district to visit my sister-in-law, having called her first to let her know I was in town, naturally. The deal at the hotel convinced me it was worthwhile giving her a call now, except there were no phones available. I had to go downstairs to the hotel's business center to make the call, where I was informed the rate was 80 cents per minute after the first minute, which was free (go figure).
My conversation with Alla took 43 seconds. My visit was on.
The third time was the charm while seeking someone to drive me out to Perovo. The first attempt (via a bellboy) quoted a rate of 600 rubles (about $20). The second quoted a rate of 1000 rubles (although in style, in a Mercedes). I walked about 20 meters down Tverskaya and almost immediately was hailed (you heard me, the hail came from the driver) so I stepped to the curb and negotiated a rate of 350 rubles, which might still be a little high, but one must make allowances.
Alla and I went out this morning and I bought an Internet access card, among our other purchases. Access costs 0.60 "units" (read: dollars) per hour, and the card cost me the ruble equivalent of US$5 (145 rubles). Registration was a bit clunky, and my sister-in-law's phone line doesn't do touch-tone, but XP actually has a reasonable workaround for this shortcoming, since my moden apparently doesn't do rotary dial.
If this post actually makes it into my LJ, know that such cards work in Moscow. I managed to register a username a few minutes ago, so by now, my name should have propagated through the ROL system.
Let me give it a try... it works!
Cheers...
We arrived in Moscow in good time and managed to get through passport control with no problems. Even the bus ride into town was fairly quick, dropping me and a bunch of people off at the Marriott Grand, a few blocks from Pushkin Square, before taking everyone else to the Aurora, which apparently had been pretty much filled by the Astrium folks, as they have campaign teams inbound and outbound at the same time.
While I was checking in, I made sure to ask about payment for the room (which came to about $250 for one night), as the company I work through has made it clear that it's always best to have rooms paid for in advance by the client, since getting reimbursed can take a long time. As it turned out, I was expected to pay for the room and then get reimbursed.
I had planned to stay in the room to rest for a while and wander around downtown Moscow before going out to the Perovo district to visit my sister-in-law, having called her first to let her know I was in town, naturally. The deal at the hotel convinced me it was worthwhile giving her a call now, except there were no phones available. I had to go downstairs to the hotel's business center to make the call, where I was informed the rate was 80 cents per minute after the first minute, which was free (go figure).
My conversation with Alla took 43 seconds. My visit was on.
The third time was the charm while seeking someone to drive me out to Perovo. The first attempt (via a bellboy) quoted a rate of 600 rubles (about $20). The second quoted a rate of 1000 rubles (although in style, in a Mercedes). I walked about 20 meters down Tverskaya and almost immediately was hailed (you heard me, the hail came from the driver) so I stepped to the curb and negotiated a rate of 350 rubles, which might still be a little high, but one must make allowances.
Alla and I went out this morning and I bought an Internet access card, among our other purchases. Access costs 0.60 "units" (read: dollars) per hour, and the card cost me the ruble equivalent of US$5 (145 rubles). Registration was a bit clunky, and my sister-in-law's phone line doesn't do touch-tone, but XP actually has a reasonable workaround for this shortcoming, since my moden apparently doesn't do rotary dial.
If this post actually makes it into my LJ, know that such cards work in Moscow. I managed to register a username a few minutes ago, so by now, my name should have propagated through the ROL system.
Let me give it a try... it works!
Cheers...
