Greeting the offspring...

Natalie arrived yesterday, at Domodedovo Airport, and Galina and I went to meet her. In the end, everything went well, but looking back, it was only because so many things went so poorly all around.

I spent some time in the early morning writing an LJ Idol entry for this week, and was lucky enough to cobble together something that, last night, still sounded coherent. If that hadn't been the case, I would have had no alternative but to drop out of the competition, because between greeting Natalie, sightseeing around Moscow, traveling to St. Petersburg, and so on, there would have been no time left at all for any writing before the deadline loomed.

Galina and I got out of the apartment late, so much so that we not only missed the 1:30 pm Aeroexpress shuttle from Paveletsky Station, but we made the 2 pm shuttle by only about 3 minutes. For some reason, I had acquired the impression that it took 15 minutes to get to the airport, which was incorrect (it takes 45). The taxi we had ordered for 2:50 pm called to tell us he was "on station" in the parking lot while we were still en route to the airport.

I was sure Natalie had breezed through the entry formalities and was now waiting for us somewhere - where? - so the pressure was on. When we finally got to the terminal, it felt like it took forever to walk to the end furthest from the train station, to where people from international flights were coming out of customs. We got there just before Natalie came out.

The taxi took us to Alla's where Natalie greeted her grandmother for the first time in about 15 years, and met her cousin Olga for the first time. Then we sat down and broke bread and had a very nice meal.

The pace will redline today, with one of the main goals being to procure rail tickets for St. Petersburg. I hope there are some overnight compartments still left. There is only one way to find out for sure, though, so we better get to it.

Cheers...

Busy Sunday...

We started the day a little on the late side (which gave me an opportunity to put in some time translating), and headed over to Izmailovsky Park (the Metro station name has changed to Partizanskaya) and the humongous flea market that's been there since at least the mid-1990s.

On the way though, I started to get nervous about our tickets to Petersburg, so we stopped at a travel agency to make sure we would have three berths in a second-class coupé on an overnight train leaving Moscow early Tuesday morning.

From the agency, we went on to the flea market, which was actually better than I remember it, with more of a selection of items, not the least of which included postage stamps (though most of these were of the Soviet variety).

We then reboarded the blue line and got out very nearly the other end of town, at the Kievskaya Metro station, where we boarded a riverboat for a 90-minute ride down to just the other side of the island in the middle of the Moscow River. When we got there, the rain was coming down so hard, we decided to pay for a return trip to avoid getting sopping wet.

When we returned to the Novogireevo Metro station, we were surprised to see the aftermath of some severe windstorm damage. Apparently, a violent cell had passed through the area and knocked down some trees, but the road crews were already out cleaning up.

The major trick tomorrow is going to be finishing my translation in time to go with Galina and Natalie on a city tour. The alternative will be to stay at the apartment and work, which does not sound too appealing. However, one must do what one must, so we shall see what we shall see.

Cheers...