We got up on Sunday morning very very early. :o) Jet lag is aweful. We went to bed too early on Saturday and were up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. Either way we are soooo excited. Vladimir picked us up at the Radisson at 11:00. We had eaten a huge breakfast down in the lobby. Buffet!!! Our favorite. We go soooo stuffed, but we didn't know what things were going to be like in Stavropol in the food department so we ate good while we knew we could.
We checked out of the hotel and away we went for a little sightseeing before heading out for the airport that would take us to Stavropol. Vladimir took us to a little gift shop that is evidently very popular with the American families. We had learned before we got here that it was rude to turn down anything offered to you. So when we walked in and the girl at the door offered us a little cup of what looked like water, we couldn't say no. Little did we know that that little cup was Vodka. Nothing like a shot before lunch to get ya going. LOL We thanked them and went on about our business looking around.
We ran into an American family with their new son there and stopped and made small talk with them for a bit. We didn't buy anything that day since we were going to be back in Moscow at the end of the week we thought we'd just look, keep stuff in mind for later and compare prices when we got to Stavropol. Lena was with another family that day and we were just on our own trying to communicate with Vladimir. It was interesting, he knew some English and we knew a few Russian words, so you can only imagine. He took us to a street market where you could barter with the vendors. It was really neat and we'll have to make sure and come back here before this is all said and done.
It was about an hour drive from Moscow to the domestic airport Domovito where we would begin the next leg of our journey. Our flight left at 6:00 so we needed to be there to check in and such at least one hour early. When we got there Vladimir dropped us at the door and went to park the car. When he got back, we went inside and made our way through security. This didn't take too long, nothing like in the US. Then away we went to the check in desk to check our luggage and head for our "terminal". I use this word very lightly because this airport was like nothing we'd ever seen. We said goodbye to Vladimir and headed on our way. Being out of town and all most everything was written in Russian and spoken in Russian. Vladimir had told us exactly where to go and where to wait.
At this point we had almost an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave. I went to the bathroom and just a word of advice for anyone who may be going to Russia in the future. ALWAYS PACK NAPKINS! They do not believe in toilet paper. Only torn up newspaper on a little table, that I'm assuming they use for wiping. I had to drip dry. This was my first "public restroom" experience. Let's just say I learned from it. LOL I went back out and we sat in this little cafe until they opened up for us to start boarding the plane. We were the only one's hanging around by our gate and we were a little concerned that mabye we weren't in the right place but, we'll have to wait and see. About 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave more people had gathered and they began taking our tickets. After a few more minutes and a lot more people showing up we finally got ready to go out and get on the plane. We went down a stairway to the ground level and caught a bus to take us out to the plane. Let me just tell you that reading this is not going to do justice for this experience but hopefully you'll get the idea.
We checked out of the hotel and away we went for a little sightseeing before heading out for the airport that would take us to Stavropol. Vladimir took us to a little gift shop that is evidently very popular with the American families. We had learned before we got here that it was rude to turn down anything offered to you. So when we walked in and the girl at the door offered us a little cup of what looked like water, we couldn't say no. Little did we know that that little cup was Vodka. Nothing like a shot before lunch to get ya going. LOL We thanked them and went on about our business looking around.
We ran into an American family with their new son there and stopped and made small talk with them for a bit. We didn't buy anything that day since we were going to be back in Moscow at the end of the week we thought we'd just look, keep stuff in mind for later and compare prices when we got to Stavropol. Lena was with another family that day and we were just on our own trying to communicate with Vladimir. It was interesting, he knew some English and we knew a few Russian words, so you can only imagine. He took us to a street market where you could barter with the vendors. It was really neat and we'll have to make sure and come back here before this is all said and done.
It was about an hour drive from Moscow to the domestic airport Domovito where we would begin the next leg of our journey. Our flight left at 6:00 so we needed to be there to check in and such at least one hour early. When we got there Vladimir dropped us at the door and went to park the car. When he got back, we went inside and made our way through security. This didn't take too long, nothing like in the US. Then away we went to the check in desk to check our luggage and head for our "terminal". I use this word very lightly because this airport was like nothing we'd ever seen. We said goodbye to Vladimir and headed on our way. Being out of town and all most everything was written in Russian and spoken in Russian. Vladimir had told us exactly where to go and where to wait.
At this point we had almost an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave. I went to the bathroom and just a word of advice for anyone who may be going to Russia in the future. ALWAYS PACK NAPKINS! They do not believe in toilet paper. Only torn up newspaper on a little table, that I'm assuming they use for wiping. I had to drip dry. This was my first "public restroom" experience. Let's just say I learned from it. LOL I went back out and we sat in this little cafe until they opened up for us to start boarding the plane. We were the only one's hanging around by our gate and we were a little concerned that mabye we weren't in the right place but, we'll have to wait and see. About 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave more people had gathered and they began taking our tickets. After a few more minutes and a lot more people showing up we finally got ready to go out and get on the plane. We went down a stairway to the ground level and caught a bus to take us out to the plane. Let me just tell you that reading this is not going to do justice for this experience but hopefully you'll get the idea.
Let's just imagine that we didn't have tickets and that everyone was not going to get on the plane and it was first come first serve. :o) Got that mental picture? This is what getting to the plane was like. Pushing, hurrying and just plaine chaos. I mean we had all paid for a ticket and everyone had an assigned seat. What's the hurry? When we finally got on the plane I began looking around wondering where the livestock was. The plane was old, smelly, and small and it was raining so everything was damp. Michael and I got situated in our seats and prepared for flight. Now after all of our flying in the last 2 days you'd think I'd be over the jitters. Let me just say this plane brought out quite the fear in me. We rumbled down the runway and away we went. Another step closer to meeting our son. Now, they didn't have enclosed overhead compartments so everything that wasn't snug, slid either out of the bins and down onto everyone's head or just shifted to the back. This is going to be an interesting flight.
They served us dinner on the flight. Which was strange, since it was only a 2 1/2 hour flight but oh well. We've never turned down food. It was O.K, much different that the food on the other airlines. This was our first experience with Russian food. It was a small sandwhich of sorts, cheese and a piece of what appeared to be raw salmon, and a cookie for dessert. Everything is served with tea (chai) or coffee (cafe). We like chai. No coffee for us. I ate all of my dinner except for that mystery fish. Michael being the food lover that he is ate everything. I think he regretted the fish after it was over with. The rest of the flight was very uneventful except for a trip to the bathroom for me. I don't think anyone actually used the toilet, the floor was soaked, it smelled like urine. I was afraid to touch anything. I went back to my seat and the next thing we knew we were landing in Stavropol. Pyetigosk actually. We were a 2 hour drive from Stavropol City.
We got off the plane with our carryon bags and headed for what appeared to be a barn at best. We looked back and eventhough it was dark, we could see them loading the luggage from the belly of the plane onto a wagon. Yes a wagon. We entered the "barn" and were immediately accosted by what we later learned were taxi drivers. There was no one there waiting for us with a sign and we had no idea once again what our driver and translator looked like. Out of nowhere someone rescued us from the mayhem. It was Lena. Yes, we have 2 translators named Lena. She whisked us over to the side out of the mess and we made introductions. Sasha was there also, he is going to be our driver for the week. Lena explained that we would have to wait until the doors opened and they let us going in to gather our checked bags. This was yet another mad mess. People went scrambling for there bags like they would let someone else out with them if they didn't hurry. They had just pulled the wagon into this room and opened the doors for people to get there stuff. Somehow in all the madness one of the tags came off of one of our suitcases and they almost didn't let us take our bag with us. Lena had to get very hateful with the man at the door. But in the end we were triumphant and exited with our luggage.
We made our way to Sasha's car and away we went. Now it's after 9:00 pm by this time and Michael and I are exhausted. We still had another 2 hours to get to the hotel. Lena made the drive interesting. She was full of questions about Kentucky and what we do for a living. She talked non-stop for 2 hours. Finally we made it to the hotel, got checked in and went straight to bed.
Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day of our lives. May 31, 2005. We will be meeting our son for the first time.
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