Monday - Traveling

I can still remember the moment - standing in Red Square during the first snowfall of the year in Moscow. One of those lifetime experiences.

It is a long way from Lake Texoma, Texas to Russia. I left our sailboat, Solitaire, at 06:00 Central Time Monday morning and finally checked into my hotel room in Moscow 25 hours later at 07:00 Central Time on Tuesday. It was 4:00 in the afternoon Moscow time.

I flew on the jump seat of an American Airlines flight from Dallas to New York. I left on an earlier flight than planned because there was a tornado watch just east of Dallas and I didn’t want to take any chances. Once in New York, I took a cab from LaGuardia Airport to J.F.K. Airport and found out that I couldn’t even get into the international terminal without my ticket and that the Aeroflot counter, where my ticket was waiting, didn’t open for another five hours. I walked over to another terminal, found a comfortable little restaurant, ordered a glass of wine and snack, and passed the time reading.

Back at the international terminal, I finally picked up my ticket and was given a pass so I could wait in the First class lounge until it was time for boarding. I had the most interesting seat companion – a young lawyer from Moscow who specialized in negotiating airline mergers and aircraft leases. He spoke excellent English and gave me suggestions for my trip – including some good-to-know Russian phrases.

The service on our flight was the best I’ve ever experienced – a glass of champagne before take- off and a leather-bound menu listing our beverage and meal choices for snacks, dinner and breakfast. Dinner lasted well over two hours and included seven courses, with excellent wines for each course.

 

 

 

• 1^st course – Camembert Cheese with herring and cranberries in a puff pastry and mushrooms and onions with brie in a small tart – served with chardonnay from Chile.

   

• 2^nd course – A platter full of little dishes, including two types of caviar, smoked salmon, sturgeon, and herring in crème – along garnishes of sour cream, diced onions, and capers. This was served with vodka, of course.

   

• 3^rd course – a basket of mini breads and a great salad sprinkled with blue cheese and hazelnuts.

   

• 4^th course – a hearty Russian soup with cabbage, eggplant and beets. (By this time, I was starting to feel very full). The wine for this course was a light Italian red that was so good – I had a second glass with the next course.

   

• 5^th course – Honey-glazed, pan-roasted salmon served over spinach pasta.

   

• 6^th course – Ice cream with strawberry sauce and hazelnuts – and a cup of strong coffee.

   

• 7^th course – Cheeses, fruits and cognac.

   

 

 

After all that food and wine, I put on the slippers furnished by the airline, reclined in a very comfortable seat (with a foot rest), cuddled up under a blanket and slept for over five hours. The flight attendant woke me up with coffee, orange juice and a tray of tea sandwiches (tuna, egg salad, caviar, smoked salmon and cucumber).

 

 

We descended through a heavy cloud layer into Moscow – in the middle of their first snowstorm of the season. Everyone on the flight broke into applause after the airplane touched down – a custom on all Russian flights, I was told. The airport is out in the middle of nowhere - surrounded by forests – it was much smaller than I’d expected.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

We arrived at about 2 p.m. Moscow time. It was somewhat confusing getting through customs – but I just followed the crowds and stood in a couple separate lines. The process took about an hour. On the other side of customs I spotted a young man holding a sign with my name on it. That was Grigoriy, one of our two student assistants who helped throughout my visit. Our driver, Sergei, was waiting for us outside the terminal in a little square Russian car. Traffic was very heavy all the way into Moscow, the snowstorm was gaining momentum and Russian drivers pay no attention at all to lanes – they just fit as many cars across as the road can accommodate and see who can drive the fastest. There were no seat belts in the back seat and I was quietly wondering what Russian EMT response time was like to an accident scene.

 

 

 

 

 

We made it safely to our hotel, however. The Marriott Grand Moscow is very fancy and very “Western” – everyone at the front desk spoke English. They took my passport when I registered and told me they had to submit some paperwork for me and I could pick my passport up again in an hour or so. Grigoriy said he would be back at 5:30 to pick us up for a reception. I had just enough time to go to my room, unpack, shower, change and get back down to the lobby. My power converter wouldn’t fit into the electrical outlets since they were recessed in the wall – so I had no curling iron or hot rollers for the week – just had to make due with the small Russian blow dryer. It was squared shaped and awkward to use – you had to hold down a button the whole time. Even the toilet looked odd and square shaped. Fortunately, the hotel had “western” toilet paper – not the harsh paper-towel like stuff we found everywhere else.

 

 

 

 

Reception and night tour of Central Moscow

 

 

 

Our host for the Russian trip was the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) – which represented the aviation departments for the countries that used to be the Soviet Union (referred to now as the CIS States). The twelve CIS states are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

 

 

The United States was invited to send representatives to speak at an aviation conference sponsored by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Our objective of the trip was to open the door for better relations among the international aviation community.

After the first day’s presentations, our hosts held a reception in our honor. I walked into the reception room and saw a large U-shaped wood table, with about 30-40 men in dark suits – standing behind place settings (no chairs) that each had a bottle of vodka and a shot glass. The table was filled with platters of caviar, smoked salmon, other types of fish, breads, cheeses, fruits, chocolate candies and cookies. We took our places and were introduced to everyone. For the next two hours, everyone in the room gave toasts. Each toast was completed with a shot of vodka. About a quarter of the people seemed to speak a little bit of English and tried to interpret for us. As the only woman in the room, quite a few of the toasts were directed toward me or to the United State’s for “hiring beautiful women”. My hand and cheeks were kissed almost as many times as my vodka glass was refilled.

 

 

 

 

Following the reception, the Head of the International Aviation Department for Russia insisted on taking the four of us from FAA on a night tour of central Moscow. We were exhausted and really just wanted to go to our hotel rooms and crash, but couldn’t think of a graceful way to decline. In retrospect, I’m glad we went. The sights were stunning – beautiful cathedrals everywhere. We saw Red Square at night with snow falling – the bright red stars atop building spires at each corner of the square – the Kremlin – St. Basil’s – a ski jump in the middle of town – memorials and statues everywhere! It was like a movie set – very unreal. Victor’s grandfather died during WWII so he took us to a war memorial at the edge of a forest and told us about the battle where his grandfather died.

 

 

 

 

We got back to the hotel between 9 and 10 – I didn’t even look at the clock. The room was too warm and I couldn’t figure out the thermostat so I cracked open the window – pulled on a night shirt, turned out the lights and fell onto the bed.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

 

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and just couldn’t sleep anymore (it was 6:30 p.m. Central time). Standard working hours in Russia are much shorter than ours – seldom does anyone have breakfast before 8 or start work before 9. Lunch hours are 1-1/2 to 2 hours long and the day ends at 5.

 

 

 

 

The first couple hours of my presentation were very difficult. The subject matter was mostly theoretical background information and it was the first interpreting job for a young lady they had assigned to me. Since I’m a woman, they wanted to have a woman doing my interpretation – unfortunately, she wasn’t familiar with aviation terms and she was very unsure of herself. At the first break, Leo, took over interpreting. He was great. You speak in very short sentences or phrases and then pause while your words are interpreted into Russian. When someone had a question, they asked it in Russian – Leo would say it in English to me – I’d answer in English (trying very hard to look at the person who asked the question rather than the person doing the interpreting) and then Leo would repeat my answer in Russian. It was harder to do than I expected. Even so, the participants were very interested and asked a lot of questions.

 

 

 

 

I’d practiced a few phrases in Russian – and opened by talk by saying “Good Morning. I am glad to be here. My name is … etc. After my first few words, they all smiled and clapped. When they heard me say I was a pilot, there was a collective gasp and then more clapping. So much for feminism in Russia – I guess there are not many female pilots. The enamel pins that I brought from home were a big hit. I gave one to aviation directors from each of the twelve states. They acted like I was giving them a great present (pins are popular in Russia, I guess).

 

 

 

 

For lunch, we went to a little Russian Pub. Since the menu was all in Russian, Victor ordered for us. He insisted we try “kvan” a popular soft drink. It smelled and tasted awful – but we smiled and said “Mmmm good” anyway so we didn’t offend him. When we asked what we were drinking, he said it was made with “bread, water and technology” – as far as I could tell it was made with yeast. The rest of the lunch consisted of salads – potato, cabbage, beet – and jellied fishes. I tried to sample everything but didn’t get very full.

 

 

After the afternoon sessions, our driver took us back to the hotel. The traffic in central Moscow is so bad at rush hour that we didn’t get back to our hotel until after 6:30 p.m.We decided to just bundle up and go walking and see what we could find for dinner. The weather was snowy and very cold but as long as we walked briskly, it wasn’t too bad. The streets were packed with people, and except for all the fur coats and fur hats – you could have been in any metropolitan area in the world.

 

 

 

To cross most of the streets, there weren’t crosswalks or pedestrian signals. Instead you went down stairs into tunnels and up the other side of the street. Moscow has an extensive underground sidewalk and subway system using the old fallout shelters from the cold war days.

 

 

 

 

We saw quite a few western franchised restaurants – there was a McDonald’s, a TGIF Friday’s and something we thought might be an IHOP – Anything Western is very popular - but each had Russian foods on their menus. We also saw several large “Las Vegas” style casinos – with boxy little Russian cars in the windows as prizes you could win on their slot machines. The average Russian monthly salary is $400 – but there are some very wealthy people in central Moscow.

 

 

 

 

We had dinner in a wonderful Italian restaurant. Hot mulled wine, crispy flat bread laden with garlic, thick minestrone soup, baked eggplant slices, chicken lasagna, “the best tiramisu” in Moscow and White Russians with espresso. The entire meal was about 200 rubles each – only about $10 U.S.

 

 

 

After dinner, we walked the rest of the way to Red Square (which refers not to the color Red, but to the Russian word for beautiful). Despite the late hour, the square was filled with people. Street vendors appear from nowhere offering hats and dolls. They carry little cards that have the prices in Rubles, in EU and in US Dollars. They expect you to haggle over the price using sign language. Hat prices start about 500 rubles for rabbit fur, but I think I can bargain for 300. There are some public restrooms in the buildings surrounding Red Square – you have to pay $8 rubles (about 25 cents US). We went into GUM department store and found all sorts of things to bring home – limited only by the space in our carry-on bags.

 

 

Red Square was beautiful at night and even with temperatures below freezing, it was filled with people. The people were mostly young and very stylish. We went over to Lenin’s tomb but he was gone – they had removed his body to change his suit – which takes a couple weeks. After making a quick satellite phone call home (Guess where I am?), we walked the mile or so back to our hotel and got in about 11:00 – We had one more White Russian in the hotel lobby bar and then went to our rooms.

 

 

Thursday 20 November 2003

 

 

 

I slept much better my second night – all the way through until 4:30 a.m.! Coffee in Russia is very thick and strong – like espresso – unless you specifically asked for “American coffee”. At the seminar, all they have is hot water and instant coffee. The hotel has a wonderful buffet every morning that is included in our room price – Omelets to order, scrambled eggs, Eggs Benedict, hash browns in little rounds, sausage, bacon, caviar, smoked salmon, fruit, rolls, juices, coffee.

 

 

 

The English language edition of the Moscow Times is delivered to our door. This morning’s headline was “Deadly Vodka Drinking Contest”. The winner drank three half-liter bottles, collected his 10 liters of vodka prize, and took a taxi home where he died twenty minutes later. The five runners-up are recovering in a local hospital. In the classifieds, strip clubs for gentlemen advertise “face control” which means they give you masks to cover your face and hide your identity at the door. Apartments in central Moscow range for 2,500 US a month for 40 square meters up to $6,400 US a month for 165 square meters. This is a very high rent district.

 

 

 

The week is going too quickly. Elena (our other student assistant) took me walking to her favorite fish market for caviar and to the liquor store to buy vodka. Next we went to the National Museum at the Kremlin. I wish we’d had more time – In two hours we barely covered the first of four floors. We saw artifacts that were up to 4,000 years old – a boat that was 3,000 years old, crowns and gowns from all the czars, tusks from wooly mammoths – it’s hard to describe. We went into several cathedrals that took your breath away. We ended up with only an hour left to finish our shopping – not nearly enough time. None of us had eaten since breakfast – so we decided to grab something quick on our way back. Elena wanted to go to McDonald’s – but we vetoed that. We did walk by the McDonald’s and saw a line that went around block. There were also several people holding signs and crosses kneeling in the snow in front of the entrance. Elena told us that the religious fanatics had been protesting and praying in front of the restaurant since it opened – claiming that McDonald’s Corporation is an evil empire that is trying to do away with their way of life. They may have a point.

 

We did find a vendor on the next corner selling sausages with mashed potatoes, cabbage and onions – all wrapped up in flat bread like a taco. Elena thought we were taking a chance with our health – and she made faces while we were eating – but the sausage wraps sure tasted good! Elena went without and grumbled for a while afterward that we wouldn’t get her a Big Mac.

 

 

We returned to the Interstate Aviation Committee headquarters building in time for the seminar’s closing ceremonies. The toasts would have gone on for long into the evening, but we had to leave for a performance at the International Music Center. We exchanged email addresses and business cards with each of the delegates – and left with warm hugs and kisses on our cheeks.

 

 

 

The InternationalMusicCenter was built about two years ago and is a great source of pride to the Russians, who boast that it has the best acoustics in the world. We were met there by our student guides. The performance was “100 Paganinis (Gypsy Violins)” from Hungary and it was fabulous; particularly one violin soloist who made his instrument sound like a bird singing and I had never heard anything before like the way they played the cymbaloms (which are like the vibes played by Jazz groups). The orchestra was established by a group of musicians at the funeral of a famous Hungarian violinist. The orchestra consisted of 50 violins, 10 violas, 10 cellos, 11 basses, 9 clarinets and 6 cymbaloms. The entire concert was played by heart without any score.

 

 

 

After the concert, Sergei drove us back to our hotel. Although it was after eleven p.m., we had chocolate mousse cake and cognac in the lounge before saying good night. I still needed to pack – so didn’t get into bed until nearly one. The wake-up call just five hours later almost went unanswered.

 

 

 

Friday 21 November 2003 – Going home

 

 

 

After a quick breakfast, we found Grigoriy waiting for us in the lobby promptly at 7 a.m. for our ride to the airport. Although we’d been admonished not to tip our driver, we each found an opportunity to sneak some money into Sergei’s hand. He took us everywhere all week and would sit in the van patiently waiting. Our escorts, Grigoriy and Elena couldn’t have been more accommodating. They are both 22 year old multi-lingual students who work as assistants at the Interstate Aviation Committee while writing their doctoral dissertations. Very impressive!

 

 

 

The airport was chaos – and we had a terrible time figuring out where we needed to go. We stood in several lines only to find out we were in the wrong place. I finally just wandered through the crowds asking if there was anyone who spoke English. I got some help from a businessman from Great Britain and finally got through customs, immigration and airline check-in. We received complimentary passes to the first class lounge and had a place to leave our bags while we did some last minute shopping.

 

 

 

We got onto the Aeroflot flight to New York. The return flight was on an Airbus and not nearly as luxurious as the trip over – more typical airline food and not as comfortable of seats.

 

 

 

A couple hours into the ten and a half hour flight, we noticed a couple across the aisle having trouble calming their fussy baby. We struck up a conversation and found out that they were on their way home to Tennessee with their just-adopted 15 month-old son, Jack. They had been trying to adopt Jack from a State orphanage for nearly a year. All Jack had known before was the crib he shared with three other babies. Since we were all parents and grandparents, we offered our assistance in helping with Jack – and were so glad when the couple finally took us up on our offer. For the rest of the flight we took turns playing patty cake, this little piggy, pony boy and everything else we could think of. We taught Jack how to blow kisses and give raspberries – and did our best to reassure a couple of very tired and frustrated new parents that it would all be okay. The best part of the flight was that when the wheels of our airplane touched down in New York, Jack became a United States Citizen. We dug around and Ted found something with American Flags on it for him to hold. It was a really touching moment for all of us.

 

 

 

After a flurry of farewells and clearing customs, I ran off to another terminal to find I’d missed the earliest connection to DFW by just a few minutes – so I took a chance and grabbed a taxi back over to LaGuardia and got onto a flight there with time to spare. After four more hours in the air (and over 28 hours since leaving my hotel room in Moscow), I landed back in Dallas, picked up my car from long-term parking and drove the one and a half hours to Lake Texoma where Jim and the cats were waiting for me on “Solitaire”. It was good to be home.