More Pictures

If you just can't get enough of Russia, here's more pictures I posted.

TUESDAY - Quiet Day

TUESDAY - Today was chillier outside than it has been (about 15F) and we took today as a good recharge day after days of charging around the city seeing amazing stuff and having a good time. It was some much needed down time.

We ate lunch at the compound cafeteria, visited their gift shop, looked at an exhibit in the American Embassy on the anniversary of 200 years of diplomacy with Russia, and had a nice afternoon with Higgins. It was a good day for reading, writing, and coffee. Tomorrow is our last full day in Moscow.

WEDNESDAY - We made it!

WEDNESDAY - We have landed in Moscow and our driver has us in route to the embassy!

TUESDAY - We're off!

We made it on the flight from JFK and we're headed for Moscow! Yay!

TUESDAY - We start off on a stormy morning

TUESDAY - We left this morning shortly after 2am and had a wintry, stormy drive to Moline. Our taxi service was excellent though and our driver had us there on time. Our flight was canceled because of weather.

Thanks to a very good ticket agent (and arriving 2 hours before our flight time) we arranged a new flight through Detroit and remain amazingly on schedule so far.

Snow and a bitterly cold wind swirled in through the cabin door as we boarded. The perfect sendoff for a flight to Russia I thought. After some serious de-icing, we took off, amber-tinted dawn just breaking through the cabin windows and across our tired faces.

As the ground quickly receded beneath us, I noticed, as with most trips I take, the worries I had about traveling melted away as soon as we were in the air. I remembered this pattern now. Maybe I wasn't such a bad traveler after all. I just needed to be traveling.

MONDAY - Last minute gear checks...

MONDAY - We're making our final packing adjustments, last checks of gear. Want
to be absolutely sure I look like a tourist.

"Now where is that dang ol' Kremlin?"

SUNDAY - Incidentally...

SUNDAY - Incidentally... the high here today? 3. Moscow? 32.

Two days before...

I'm sitting here this morning, and it's finally starting to sink in for me. We're going to Russia: land formerly behind the iron curtain, our former cold war adversary, the land of caviar and vodka, and diplomats in woolly black hats, and people who jump in the icy Volga for fun. This is an adventure! These wintry stalwarts are my kind of folks! This is my kind of trip! And I'm kinda freaked out.

Jeri & I first thought of our plan to travel to Moscow a year and a half ago when we first learned that a couple we were good friends with from college had been assigned to diplomatic service in Moscow. We'd first met Bill & Suzie in married-student housing when we were finishing our BAs. We hit it off early on; it's rare to find another couple who you both get along well with; they are pretty super people! So when Bill & Suzie finished their degrees & left for diplomatic service, we were very sad to see them go.

Fast forward about ten years to when Jeri & I were planning our next vacation - I say next, but I should say second. We had just taken our first vacation, 13 years after getting married. We hadn't even vacationed anywhere for our honeymoon so many years before. We had talked with our travel agent about this second vacation: a trip to France, a cozy villa in Provence - it would be our first overseas trip.

A few months later, on the way home from an evening French course, we discussed the day (and how disappointingly slow the course was moving). We both remarked on the most recent email from Suzie, explaining that this time they were being stationed in Moscow.

We'd talked many times about going to visit them overseas in the different places they'd been, but circumstances hadn't lined up for us. We smiled widely thinking of the architecture, the history, seeing our old friends - and then almost jokingly I said, "Can you imagine - standing in Red Square in January? It's the ultimate Russian experience!"

We both briefly laughed, but then became quiet comprehending the reality, the possibility that two people who were trying hard to be better vacationers and who genuinely love winter could actually do this thing. We turned to each other and said, "we could do this... let's do it!" That night, France was postponed and an email went off to our friends expressing our intent, as odd as it might sound to those of you who dislike winter.

And so here I am, a couple days before we go, realizing what we're about to do. The crux of the matter for me is... I'm not a good traveler. I don't care for flying; it's not the 30,000 feet above the Atlantic part, it's the whole experience that American air travel has devolved into. It's not even marginally better than stepping on a greyhound bus; the elegance and comfort of air travel is gone. And then there's my own neuroses.

As much as I long for the cultural experiences of travel, I'm kind of a home-body, I have a diabetic cat (a very close buddy) that needs to get a shot everyday, and I'm a calculated planner. I'm used to walking into situations prepared for multiple outcomes, ahead of the game, etc. I'll be getting off the plane into a culture who's alphabet I can't read (I haven't taken the ample time I had before the trip to learn it), let alone understand their beautiful language.

All that said, I'm a resourceful guy, and comfortable with some pretty decent levels of stress, risk, etc. But this travel thing... I so wish it was otherwise... but it's not my thing. I'm not good at it. I'm going to depend on Jeri (expert traveler) and the advice of Bill & Suzie to make this an experience I'll look back on fondly. Along with the careful application of alcohol.