So we had a wonderful visit with Mike & Susan. They departed from Moscow on Friday morning, and despite a small taxi mishap, they got to the airport without any problems... here's a summary of what we did...
Thursday, Oct 6 (Travel + Novomoskovsk)So Mike & Susan left from Scranton-Wilkes Barre international (that is, if you consider Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago international) airport @ 7:00 AM on Wednesday Oct 5. After a long layover in Atlanta, and stopping to get one of our favorite visitor-supplied gifts (duty-free champagne), they boarded the overnight flight to Moscow. Sara went to Moscow to meet them at the airport. I was unable to go as I was hosting visitors in the plant (one from Geneva, one from Cincinnati), so she went alone. Unfortunately, our usual driver from Novomoskovsk (Ravil) has a pinched nerve and his entire right leg is and lower back is very sore - so she had a another driver take her up. Unfortunately, traffic was quite heavy in Moscow, so she was a little late getting to airport (Sheremetyevo-2 the northern airport). She was SMS-ing me like crazy trying to find out the flight status. Fortunately, Mike & Susan only waited about 5 minutes... so things worked out ok. Susan was ill from something on the flight, and since the flight is long and tiring anyways, I think they all slept fairly soundly on the car ride from Moscow to Novomoskovsk.
On Thursday evening, Sara and Carol took Susan and Mike to the local favorite restaurant, Kleopatra, for dinner. As I was hosting visitors, I had dinner scheduled at the other restaurant in town (Konstanz). From what I understand, the food and company were very good at Kleopatra. Mike had my favorite dish (Sheish-tauk - a chicken kebob marinated in vinegar and red pepper).
I returned back to the cottage around 10:00 PM.. and Mike & Susan were already prepared for bed.... we chatted a bit, but it was definitely a long day. They brought us another great gift - a bag full of Halloween things - candy corns, jack-o-latern leaf bags, carmel apple makings... all the holiday trimmings).
Friday, Oct 7 (Novomoskovsk)I was still hosting visitors so I had to go to the plant... Mike & Susan went to town with Sara today... they visited Marina, who took them on a little tour of the town, although most of the museums were closed for "extended lunch". Marina and Mike / Susan exchanged small gifts, and plans were made to go to Marina's on Friday night for "tea".
I returned home around 5PM... it was a longer day than I planned... between getting my visitors off to the airport and cleaning up some things in the office... time slipped away quickly. We had a wonderful home cooked meal thanks to Sara (a great pork loin, beans, cubed potatoes)... and then got ready for Artim (Marina's son) to pick us up @ 6PM for "tea".
Artim arrived at our cottage right on schedule... his car is small but he is quite proud of it (Marina bought it for him a few months ago... it's a 20 year old Lada, red in color). Artim drives well, but maybe a little too fast for Mike & Susan... nothing like 5 people in a small Russian car going 50 MPH down a
mildly moist road in Novomoskovsk. I don't think Mike was crazy about sitting in the front seat.
We arrived at Marina's for "tea" - but we may as well just call it "dinner". This was pretty typical Russia... get invited to someone's flat and they go out of their way and over the top to provide as much as they possibly can... it was a wonderful evening complete with cheese, breads, salads (several), mashed potatoes, candy, cookies, cakes, vodka, wine, and... tea. We had a nice conversation, watched television a little (the local news had covered the 10th anniversary of Marina's university, and this was marked with a celebration at the local "Palace of Culture"... there was a clip of Marina, Sara, and Carol sitting in the audience. It's a little strange seeing your lovely wife on Russian broadcast television.
We returned from Marina's and mostly got prepared for our trip to Moscow.
Saturday, Oct 8 (Novomoskovsk + Moscow)We left our cottage around 9AM on Saturday. We were going to hed directly to Moscow, but decided to detour to the plant to do a quick tour. I had to drop off some things at the office anyways... we checked in with security (standard procedure for visitors) and walked into the plant. We planned on just doing a quick tour to see the operations, but as we were walking in, I ran into one of my colleagues, Sasha, welcomed Mike & Susan and asked "when are we coming for the warehouse tour (we have one of the largest warehouses in the world on site in Novomoskovsk, so it is an amazing site to see). We responded that we were only doing a quick visit... and Sasha said "come on... you have to tour"... Sasha is very proud of the work he is doing and loves to show it.. so we did a tour. Needless to say - our planned 10 minute plant visit became a 2 hour excursion - a complete tour + food from the cafeteria.
We left the plant and traveled to Moscow... since we left so late, we had to adjust our plans a bit... we were going to visit the art market at Izmailovo Park - but since it closes in mid-afternoon - we decided to go straight to the
hotel.
We checked in to the hotel and settled in to the room. We only had one real plan for the night - dinner at Genetsvale (a Georgian restaurant near Starry Arbat (Old Arbat). We freshened up and headed to the
Metro to get to dinner. Since the Metro station closest to us was recently moved, it took a little longer than desired to get to the subway, but we worked our way down to the dinner. Dinner at Genatsvale was great... food was very good, and the atmosphere is very nice. Strangely enough, while sitting - one person I work with who is an expat living in Moscow came in and sat directly behind us with another of my colleagues from western Europe. Just a small reminder - it's a very small world. After dinner, we walked Starry Arbat and headed back to the Metro... things were quiet since it was the end of the night - but it's still a nice walk.
Sunday, Oct 9 (Moscow)
We had a nice breakfast / lunch at the
Starlite Diner, followed by an adventurous trip to the
art market at Izmailovo park. We took the Metro again... but the subway stop for Izmailovo was renamed... so we ended up getting off 1 stop too late. Which meant, we walked, and walked, and walked (probably 3 miles) to get to the market (the stop we wanted to use would let you off directly across from the market). So we consulted our trusty map and proceeded on a long walk through the woods. It was a nice day - so the walk was pretty pleasant.
We arrived at the market around 2:30 PM... we thought the market closed at 3PM... but the mafia looking guy who wanted to help us shop assured us that stands would be open until 5 PM or 6PM. This guy was the "manager" for several stands, but wanted to help ensure that we visited his stands versus his competetors. He's harmless - but a nuisance. Anyways - I always love going to Izmailovo (Sara tires of it after an hour or so)... but we got a few nice things...
matryoshka dolls... bootleg DVDs... napkin holders (sets of 6 wooden rings to hold cloth napkins - we've become big collectors of these since we've moved to Russia). Sara also got some new amber jewelry. Susan and Mike got lots of nice things as well + the "experience" of Izmailovo.
We hopped on the subway and headed back to the hotel. Dinner tonight was at the famous Cafe Pushkin (probably one of the top restaurants in Moscow in terms of atmosphere and food). We had a Russian tradition (black cavier + blinis + vodka) as an appetizer. Sara was not quite up to it, but the rest of us enjoyed.
Monday, Oct 10 (Moscow)We started with breakfast at the hotel... and then left to get to major touristy things in Moscow... i.e. the Kremlin. Here's what we did:
- WWII monument next to the Kremlin - we arrived at perfect timing to see inspections.... we were too early to see the changing of the guard, but still witnessed a very interesting trandition.
- Kremlin - walk the grounds, although quite a bit was closed for repairs (like most of the cathedrals). We spent a good amount of time inside the Armory museum, and took lots of pictures.
- We also toured a little bit of Red Square... not too much as we planned to spend more time here later in the week.
Dinner tonight is at Goodman's (our favorite steakhouse in Moscow - and the only one really worth visiting). Fortunately it's directly across the street from the hotel. Dinner at Goodman's is always a highlight of a Moscow visit for me. Great steaks, great side dishes, wonderful atmosphere.We returned to the hotel for desert. We had a taxi scheduled for 10:30 PM to take us to the Leningradsky train station so we could depart to St Petersburg. No problems at all getting to the train station... we (Mike, Sara and I) had a few beers at the station prior to departing, then boarded the "Red Arrow" for our ride to St Petersburg. 1st class cabins for us (which basically means two to a cabin + a cold meal)... I slept OK, but I can't say the same for the others.
Tuesday, Oct 11 (St Petersburg)We arrived in St Petersburg exactly on schedule at 7:55AM. We had a taxi waiting to take us to the
hotel. After resolving a small reservation issue (we reserved two rooms but they only had one available) - we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel, followed by naps and showers for all!
We left the hotel around 1PM... stopped at the Red Lion pub (across from the bronze horseman) for a quick bite to eat... then off to see the key sites in the city of St Petersburg. We started at the
Hermitage museum. After spending a few hours in the Hermitage, we walked to see the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg (a colorful onion-domed church on one of the canals in St Petersburg). We also walked the city a bit, viewing the beautiful canals and architecture. We had dinner in chain Italian / pizza restaurant (Il Patio) and then returned to the hotel. We enjoyed drinks in the hotels rooftop bar (with a great view of St Isaac's cathedral).
Wednesday, Oct 12 (St Petersburg)We packed up our things in the hotel (today was checkout day) and headed out to see St Isaac's cathedral... unfortunately it was closed, so we ended up doing a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city. We had a tour scheduled for the afternoon to take us to
Catherine's Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. This was a 40 minutes ride outside of the center of St Petersburg, and we had a tour guide to take us through. After touring the palace and the famous "Amber Room" - we walked the grounds of the palace. It was quite beautiful.
We returned to the city later in the day... and proceeded to dinner at
Sverchok - a nice local Russian restaurant. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel... to catch our taxi for our ride back to the train station. Another overnight ride back to Moscow on the Red Arrow... I again slept well... the others... well... we need more practice for sleeping on trains :)
Thursday, Oct 13 (Moscow)We arrived in Moscow at 7:55AM (I love the timeliness of the train system). The taxi driver met us trainside and took us the hotel. We checked in, had a small breakfast in the hotel... and Sara needed to nap. Mike, Susan, and I went to Red Square in order to visit the
Lenin Mausoleum. We also toured a bit more of Red Square, and toured St Basil's cathedral. Sara came and met us for lunch at McDonald's on Red Square. Afterwards, we walked a bit more around the city. We were all quite tired so we headed back to the hotel... naps all around again. We decided against a bigger dinner, so Sara and I went to a Chinese restaurant next to the hotel.
Friday, Oct 14 (Moscow + travel to USA)
After a good night of sleep for everyone, we woke up on Friday morning to take showers, get breakfast, pack, and escort Mike & Susan to the airport. As I was in the shower, my cell phone was ringing like crazy. Turns out, our taxi driver from Novomoskovsk was stuck in traffic and was not going to get to our hotel at 9:30AM like we planned... and getting a legitimate (i.e. from a company) taxi on short notice is impossible in Moscow (the quickest we could get a car was in 1 hour). So Sara went downstairs and aggresively negotiated with the conceriege to get help... they flagged a car from the city for us, negotiated a price, and 10 minutes later, we were on our way. Traffic to Sheremetyevo was not too bad... and we arrived in perfect timing... walked into the airport at 11:15 AM (just as check in for the flight was starting). We exchanged goodbyes and Mike and Susan casually walked through customs without any problems.
Sara and I waited at TGIFridays at the airport for our taxi back to Novo... he showed up a few minutes after we ordered our lunch. So the driver waited while we ate... then we got in the car and headed home. We did stops for groceries at Stockmans and Cash & Carry... then got back to Novomoskovsk around 5:30 PM. Joe & Rommel were thrilled to see us...
