Notes from Trip 1, October 1-9, 2005

I can't believe it's been 6 months since I posted! Wow how time flies!
Well I never did wind up posting an update on the eve of Trip 1 because it was major stress all the way around. Our little Prince cleared the registry 8/27/05. On 9/20/05 our agency informed us that we were officially invited to Tyumen to meet our baby boy. It was the phone call we had been waiting for! We had some major undo stress since our Visas were requested incorrectly (per the Russian embassy) by our agency. Our Visas literally did not arrive until 1 hour before we left for the airport. Luckily Aeroflot was 3 hours late (and later once we got to LAX). The flight to Moscow was direct and fully booked. The flight was decent and the crew were friendly and spoke enough English to understand our requests. There were only maybe 20 Americans on board, I would suspect other couples adopting like us. We were exhausted from working long hours and stress over the Visas and trip (I know, I'm whining...you would too!) so we tried to doze off and on for 12 1/2 hours. Everyone sitting around us were very nice. An older Russian couple next to us asked why we were visiting Russia and we explained we were adopting and half expecting raised eyebrows or odd looks. The woman turned to her husband and told him in Russian and they both got up to congratulate us and they even thanked us for giving an orphan a chance! I thought that was really sweet.

We landed in Moscow several hours later than scheduled and our poor interpreter and driver were as tired as we were. Dimitry and Paul were wonderful, friendly and made us feel welcome. Once through customs it took literally 5 minutes to get our luggage and exit the airport. An hour later we arrived at the world famous (in someone's mind anyway) Rossiya Hotel located directly across the street from Red Square. Our bay window (that opened fully with no screen I might add) gave us a breathtaking view of St. Basil's Cathedral. After we slept for a while we got up Monday and went in search of food and site seeing. We took off on foot and walked on the opposite side of the street from Red Square. I discovered the GUM. What is the GUM you may ask? It's Moscow's answer to South Coast Plaza! Anytime you have Fendi directly across from Burberry, you're an A+ mall in my book. Yes...Brian groaned as I dragged him inside. We walked around just a bit and then out a side street and found a restaurant with a menu in English. After our first meal in Russia we were ready to walk around some more. I won't bore you with the details. We ended the day with a forgettable dinner at the hotel. 500 roubles for a slice of tomato and sprig of parsley. I belive it was referred to as a "garnishment fee". Yes...the magic word in Russian is FEE. For anyone reading this you will well understand the term FEE when dealing with Mother Russia. The following day (Tuesday) we set out on foot again, this time into the Kremlin to watch the changing of the guard and just to soak up the atmosphere. Yes, I went back to the GUM....for hours! Besides St. Basil's was closed for renovations as was the Bolshoi Ballet Theater. We found Ice Cream and were quite happy until we left for Tyumen at 7:30am the next morning.....