Arrived last night into Moscow. Although our flight was only about 2 1/2 hours, our whole day was taken with travel -- the traffic at both ends and time difference didn't help either! We left the hotel in Istanbul at 10:30am and arrived to the Moscow apartment at 9:00pm!
I had an interesting evening with Terri briefing me about how things work here in Moscow for her, her husband and other ex-pats and how it has changed in the short period of time she has been here, in terms of shopping for household things, etc.
Today we went shopping at "Metro" - a European "Costco" equivalent. First, to get there was an experience in itself. Because of being in Moscow, the company requires Terri and her husband get around by a company provided car and driver. When Terri just wants to go out in the neighborhood (and weather permitting), it's ok for her to go by herself, but otherwise, she must have someone with her. Its not that it's because it's so dangerous, although there is an element of danger, it's just the different culture, language, Cyrillic alphabet, etc., that adds to the situation.
Anyway, the store is between 5 and 10 miles away, and it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get there, and our return was 2 hours. The traffic at times just crawls, for no known reason, and, get this! The left turns are so far and few between, you can go for miles and miles before you can do a turn to get where you need to go. For example, on our return from the store -- we went past the the apartment building and then turned and came back to it -- took an extra 40 minutes! That's just the way it is!
It is dark, grey, and slushy wet out with the windows of the car tinted and dirty with road grim -- basically a weather situation all of us are used to in Juneau! So although I was able to see a few things -- domes, intricate iron work, fancy building facades and the Moscow river, but was unable to take pictures of them.
But I did take photos related to shopping and they are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/Moscow
I've put in explanations on each of the photos, so make sure you look at each one so you see the captions.
I had an interesting evening with Terri briefing me about how things work here in Moscow for her, her husband and other ex-pats and how it has changed in the short period of time she has been here, in terms of shopping for household things, etc.
Today we went shopping at "Metro" - a European "Costco" equivalent. First, to get there was an experience in itself. Because of being in Moscow, the company requires Terri and her husband get around by a company provided car and driver. When Terri just wants to go out in the neighborhood (and weather permitting), it's ok for her to go by herself, but otherwise, she must have someone with her. Its not that it's because it's so dangerous, although there is an element of danger, it's just the different culture, language, Cyrillic alphabet, etc., that adds to the situation.
Anyway, the store is between 5 and 10 miles away, and it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get there, and our return was 2 hours. The traffic at times just crawls, for no known reason, and, get this! The left turns are so far and few between, you can go for miles and miles before you can do a turn to get where you need to go. For example, on our return from the store -- we went past the the apartment building and then turned and came back to it -- took an extra 40 minutes! That's just the way it is!
It is dark, grey, and slushy wet out with the windows of the car tinted and dirty with road grim -- basically a weather situation all of us are used to in Juneau! So although I was able to see a few things -- domes, intricate iron work, fancy building facades and the Moscow river, but was unable to take pictures of them.
But I did take photos related to shopping and they are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/Moscow
I've put in explanations on each of the photos, so make sure you look at each one so you see the captions.
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