The Zehrens Go Global

Beijing ~ July 12

Moscow day 1

Hello Comrades! We have arrived in Moscow after a 8 hour flight on Air China from Beijing. Thank goodness our prearranged ride was waiting for us although he spoke no English. He delivered us to our apartment after a 45 minute ride. Let’s just say the apartment wasn’t on par with the one in Beijing. Hailey calls it “homey”though. It does have 2 bedrooms 1 1/2 bath, kitchen and living room. Their is no AC so we have to leave the windows open which means we have Mosquitos sharing our apartment. Oh well …

By the time we dropped off our luggage at the apartment it was 8:30 pm. It was still light out because Moscow is so far north. We started walking in search of a metro stop and became lost quickly. All the street signs are in the Russian alphabet which is as difficult to understand as Chinese.

We asked a man in his 20’s waiting for a bus for directions. He proceeded to walk us 20 minutes to a metro stop. He spoke no English but helped us buy our metro tickets and brought us through the turnstile. He wouldn’t take any $ for his time! So nice.

The metro was gorgeous! Mosaic tiled ceilings and walls. Looked like a museum. Then we took an escalator REALLY far down. It got very confusing with different train lines in Russian. We had two Russian women stop and walk us 5 minutes underground to the right train. Once we exited the metro, we found a crowed outdoor restaurant serving beer and food. We quickly pulled in and grabbed a table. We all had our fill of Chinese food and happily ordered cheeseburgers and fries. I am happy to report that the Russians know how to cook a cheeseburger!! The burgers were about $20 each! Small bowl of fries $5 each and large bottled water about $8! Yikes.

The exchange rate is 33 Russian Rubles to the US $.

After dinner we thought that we knew our way back to the apartment. Wrong! We walked quite a ways and finally Stacy stopped and asked someone for help (God forbid John as a male would ask for directions!) Anyways , a really nice couple in their 20’s stopped to help us. They seriously spent at least 1/2 hour and walked us to our apartment. Plus the girl was in heals and they were clearly on a date. How nice is that??

Now you may think we are exaggerating about how nice the Russians are but we really are not. You probably won’t believe what happened as we walked up to put apartment door but it is true. As John was unlocking the front door to get in, a Russian lady about 70 years old came running up to us speaking in Russian. It was 11:45 pm at night and we were all thinking “where did this lady come from and what does she want”. She thrust a huge bouquet of white and purple daisies at us with a big smile. We were floored.

What a way to meet the Russian people!