Travel + Arriving in Novomoskovsk

Weather Report – sunny… didn’t get the temperature – but it was pleasant… with no humidity

Adjustment Challenges – all in all… pretty smooth sailing, all things considered… first day in a new country… where we don’t speak the language…

Funny Observations – none reported…

Greetings from Russia… Sara and I arrived yesterday afternoon in Moscow. All in all – it was a flawless trip from a process perspective… Sara unfortunately got sick (food poisoning I believe) from the food on the plane. We met a very nice man in Germany at the Frankfurt airport… people in his group were sick as well on the Lufthansa flight out of Atlanta (we came out of Chicago). We asked if he had any medication with him to help Sara… and he gave her a pill. Very strange, now that we think about it… that one American to another… we trusted each other with medication. Anyways… the pill took effect on Sara about 1 hour later… she slept the whole trip from Frankfurt to Moscow… and it feeling much better today.

I’ve included in the sections below a little update on a few phases of our trip… feel free to read along as much as you’d like

Leaving Cincinnati and going to Chicago
Because one of the only airlines that would take Joe & Rommel (our dog and cat for those that don’t know) was Lufthansa, we could not depart for Moscow via plane from Cincinnati. Net, we left Cincinnati Tuesday afternoon and drove to Chicago. Our plan was to depart from Chicago O’Hare Wednesday afternoon.

We arrived in Chicago Tuesday around 9PM local time… stayed at the Residence Inn in Warrenville, IL because they allowed pets. The hotel is great (Sara and I normally enjoy staying in hotel suites like the Residence Inn or Springhill Suites when we travel because we aren’t restricted to eating only hotel food or dining out). This hotel charged $75 for the night for the pets. There’s a decent amount of walking area around the perimeter of the property for animals… and there was a fair number of animals staying at the hotel.

After checking into the hotel, walking & medicating Joe (he’s on steroids due to his fight with ITP and some other medicine to stabilize his on-going colitis), and feeding both the dog & cat… we went to visit Jim & Carolyn and their kids in Aurora… it was great to see at least some of our family once more before departing. Unfortunately, time didn’t allow getting to see more prior to leaving.

Getting Ready for Depart for the Airport
Wednesday AM, we awoke in Chicago… had an appointment at 10 AM with a company called “Aark Air”… Clay Dabbert is the owner (I believe)… Clay came over to give us travel kennels for both animals and to provide ground transport from the hotel to the airport. Clay and his company were wonderful… provided exactly the service they said they would and executed flawlessly. By the way… for those traveling with pets… Clay had frozen water in drinking bowls the night before… so the animals had ice in their cages for the trip. Very clever!

Sara and I packed the balance of our things and headed to airport… we both looked at each other and expressed that we couldn’t believe the reality of this departure was finally here.

Getting into O’Hare
We had a bunch of luggage (2 wheel-aboard bags, 2 computer bags, 2 large duffel bags, 1 medium sized bag, 1 cooler, and 1 oversized suitcase filled with American food products that we knew we wouldn’t find in Moscow (Frank’s Red Hot, Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce, etc.). We laughed quite a bit about bringing the cooler… Jeff Foxworthy (the “redneck” comedian did a bit on this… called “Clampetts Go to Maui”)

“… so we’re at the airport and the attendant asks… ‘is yours the Samonsite?’. ‘Nahh… ours is the Igloo and 5 Piggly Wiggly bags…..”

However, we filled our Igloo with blankets, a small bag of dog food, and a plastic bag. Our plan was, when we got to Moscow and stopped at the grocery store… to be able to put our cold things / meat somewhere where they wouldn’t spoil on the drive to Novomoskovsk.

Sara dropped me off at the door by Lufthansa departures… then went to return the rental car herself… this way we didn’t have to deal with all of that luggage more than once. Sara returned… Clay from Aark Air showed up at the door a few minutes later… gave us our pets, and we were on our way to check in.

Checking in at the airport
We don’t normally fly Lufthansa… although, as stated earlier, this was really our only realistic choice to get our pets transported to Russia. The people working the check-in desk at Lufthansa were very nice… they talked to the pets very nicely. Joe talked back to them… you could hear him barking throughout the entire airport.

We paid our excess baggage fees and were on our way to security… there was an airport employee who pushed a cart with our animals… and Joe just continued to bark. The good news was he wasn’t sounding scared or upset… but angry. We just don’t want to see him scared.

When we got to the luggage screening area… we learned we had to take our pets out of their cages for screening. Rommel was no problem… but I was concerned about taking Joe out… I wasn’t sure he was going to go back in. Security called their “supervisor” over to make a decision… but while we waited 20 minutes for the “supervisor”… Joe had calmed down enough that we took him out of the cage. No problems… and we moved on…

Waiting to Depart
Since we were now down to only our computer bags and our roll-aboard bags… we were able to maneuver around the airport more easily… first stop was the Lufthansa (United) lounge. United Red Carpet Club… needless to say – we were not impressed with the Red Carpet club… We find Delta’s Crown Room to be much nicer. In the Red Carpet club… no food, and they gave us drink coupons to exchange for cocktails at the bar. I felt like I was in college again… So we immediately left the Red Carpet Club and went to Wolfgang Puck’s for a drink and some lunch. After finishing our lunch… we moved closer to the departure gate… found another Red Carpet Club… got more drink coupons… and headed upstairs. Our flight was scheduled to depart in 45 minutes.

The Flight
We traveled on Lufthansa Flight 431 from Chicago O’Hare to Frankfurt, Germany… and then Lufthansa 3182 from Frankfurt to Moscow. My employer is generous enough to provide business class tickets for international travel… so we are well cared for…

In comparing Lufthansa business class to other airlines… I wasn’t terribly impressed… not enough room to move around when the person in front of you reclines… no amenities to clean up in the morning when you arrive, etc. Certainly not un-bearable, but there are better values out there…

About 2/3 of the way into the trip… Sara got very sick… I’ll spare you the gory details, but she initially had symptoms of motion sickness. Of course I had forgotten to pack any anti-nausea medicine in my bag… and of course, the airline didn’t have any supplies on board… the flight attendant brought her some Coke-Cola… but it didn’t help.

We landed in Frankfurt… Sara was the last one off the plane… we couldn’t find a store that sold any kind of motion sickness or nausea medication… Once we were on the ground, her sickness got much worse. We believe this was a case of food poisoning. In conversing with others waiting for the flight from Frankfurt to Moscow… we discovered a Lufthansa flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt had least six people with a very similar illness.

We had one of our only “hiccups” on the whole trip while waiting to get boarded for the Moscow flight… a gate agent from Lufthansa came over and started yelling at me and grabbed two pieces of my luggage. She told me I had “too much luggage” and that she was going to check some of it for me… “oh no no” I replied… “your policy permits me to have one carry on and one personal item (i.e. purse, computer bag, etc.). I’m within regulations… please bring your supervisor”. After reviewing my ticket, she made an “exception” for us and let the situation alone.

For those that don’t know… traveling into Russia is not always easy… you have to have a travel visa properly authorized by the Russian government with travel dates clearly marked on it. There was one person traveling with his family from Miami to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Moscow who had an error on his visa. Unfortunately… he was denied boarding and his family traveled on without him. Seems like there are no exceptions when it comes to Russian visas.

After getting medication from the guy in Frankfurt… Sara slept the whole trip from Frankfurt to Moscow and started feeling a little better when we got to Moscow.

Arriving in Moscow
We landed in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport (code SVO). I have read and heard many horror stories about this airport. This is our second time landing at SVO.

We got out of the plane… walked maybe 50 yards to immigration. There was basically no line… waited 5 minutes to get through immigration… had no problems at all. Went on to get our luggage… our bags came out first… and the dog came out within a few minutes. As Sara and I struggled a bit with his very large kennel… the cat passes us by on the conveyor… “Sara – get the cat!”… it sounded like a line from a Lethal Weapon movie…

The animals were in perfect working order when we got them… they actually looked like they survived the trip without any ill effects what-so-ever. We arranged to have a local resource help us get our animals through customs… but she got hung up in traffic… so I took the dog and cat through customs myself… waited in line for 15 minutes (the only customs agent working the “something to declare” line was off handling a “problem”). When she came back… she stamped our declaration forms and we were on our way… absolutely no questions, problems, or concerns. The hardest part was pushing two carts… one with the animals, one with some of our luggage.

Our taxi driver was waiting for us outside of customs… Valeria met us as well… she thought the animals looked fine… gave us a few tips for helping ease their transition… and we were all on our way. We really could not believe how well both Joe & Rommel looked…

Stopping at the Store
Since where we live, in Novomoskovsk, there are no large grocery stores (just a few mini-markets)… we planned to stop at “Ramstore City” to get groceries. Ramstore is one of two chains in Russia that provide a more westernized shopping experience (the other is called Stockman’s – we haven’t been there yet, but from what I hear, it’s a bit more on the high end).

The concept of “stocking up” on groceries just doesn’t exist in Russia. I had one cart (Sara waited in the van with the dog & cat) that I filled well over the top… and had the bottom filled up as well. Had to get all of our basics… cat litter, water (the water in Russia is not drinkable), soda, coffee, juice, some meats, cheeses, and our first bottle of Russian Vodka (the brand is Russian Standard… it came highly recommended by our Russian cross-cultural trainer).

In Russia, they do not bag your groceries for you… and the conveyor belt is very long… so I had to bounce between bagging groceries, loading things on the belt, watching the transactions go by, etc. No – even when the clerks see you struggling – they will not help. Lots of strange looks from people… couldn’t understand why one person had so much cat litter…

I guess the only real frustration came next… I provided the clerk my Amazon.com Visa card (offered by Bank One)… she swiped it and the transaction was declined… here I am with $360 in groceries in my cart… and my card is rejected. I normally use American Express for all purchases… but AMEX is not widely accepted in Russia, so I’m starting to defer to Visa. Although I alerted Bank One that I was going to be traveling heavily in Russia… and this was not my first transaction from Russia on this card… and they still declined the charge. I called them later from the van on the way to Novomoskovsk and they confirmed that they declined the charge because it was from a foreign country. I expressed a great deal of disappointment and frustration because I did not feel valued as a customer because I’m standing in a store 5000 miles from home without a high level of certainty that my credit card will provide the security and usage I expect from it. In reality, I was angry with Bank One… but not too frustrated with the situation… because, as always, American Express delivers the service I needed. I wish AMEX was more widely accepted in Russia… it’s an invaluable travel tool.

Driving to Novomoskovsk
Our driver took us from Moscow to Novomoskovsk… it’s about 120 miles or so, due south of Moscow… given our excessive road-trips to football games… this drive is nothing. Sara, Joe and Rommel slept most of the way… I slept a little.

Arriving in Novomoskovsk
Fortunately, our cottage was mostly in working order when we got to Novo… we discovered that our refrigerator isn’t working… but the freezer is fine and we are using that plus a fridge in a neighboring area. The last person who lived here took all the cables for the satellite TV… so that doesn’t work either. Otherwise, we unpacked the things we brought on the plane with us… found places for the pet’s food and water… had our first meal in our new home (frozen pizza – you gotta start somewhere). We slept quite a bit… it was a long day…

Thanks for reading…

Michael