the trip part 2 july 31

July 31

One shop open...no longer open. Sometimes I think I have the hardest time in the airports that are considered most efficient.

I slept a while, checked in for my flight a bit before five. I realized while waiting for my flight that I left my phone charger in Madrid (see!). When I got Andy's phone out, it wouldn't seem to turn on. I was pushing the wrong button, but it gave me a bit of a scare.

Once again, on the plane, I had great luck in seat partners, well, more seat backer. I had the pleasure of riding in front of a spoiled little Russian kid who kicked my seat, pulled on it, pulled the tray table up and down and banged on it and yelled at his mom. In fact, I've never seen more toddlers on a flight in my life. There was a lovely baby two rows back who also screamed half the time. So I slept well.

When I got to Vnukovo, after customs, I got out 1000 rubles and went to find bus 611. It was relatively easy to get to the bus, but when I told the driver I only had 1000 rubles (for a 25 ruble ride) he yelled at me to ийдите (go) and I thought he meant get off. When he got exasperated after the third time and I wasn't getting off (I couldn't because there were people in the way) the man behind me said he meant проходите (which means go forward). Oops. So I rode the bus for free to the metro, took the metro to the tram and the tram to Профсоюзная улица, where I wandered for a while until figuring out the address system in Moscow. I was looking for 55/55 Профсоюзная street, 55, 555. You see, there aren't really individual house numbers like in Spain or the States, each block (one entire building) has a number. So, on the corners, it tells you the number given to the building on the street you are on and the number given on the perpendicular street. It made no sense to me seeing 20/12 on one and then 18/9 on the next and 13/12 across the street. Once I found block 55/55, I went to the interior of the building, a large courtyard, and searched for door 55 and then apartment 555. I was a little bit early for Eunice, so I set up camp waiting for her. She arrived not too much later and we began our enjoyable day together.

Eunice took me around her neighborhood to the little shops. The first thing I noticed about Moscow, besides the Cyrillic writing, was the kiosks everywhere. Like the panaderias and fruterias in Spain, Russia has separate little shops for everything, but they take the place of kiosks between the buildings with the real stores and the road. She also took me to her supermarket. I am going to have a hard time adjusting to the money difference – understanding rubles and understanding how much I am going to have to pay to eat!

Then we took the metro and walked down Арбот street, the “cool” street in Moscow, with lots of street venders, trendy coffee shops and souvenir stores. Still no Russian leader матрешка, but it was a good time. We came back to the flat (surprisingly large and nice compared to the outside) and watched something about Hearts where Meryl Streep teaches violin to inner city kids.