I made it to Moscow!

Well, we made it to Moscow. The trip was fairly smooth, but not completely without a hitch. Well, I should correct myself. The trip itself was smooth, but getting into the apartment we rented was quite the fiasco. You should take note of this for the future should you try to go to Russia. We got to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow without any trouble. Then we got a taxi to the apartment, $70usd (and the taxi ride from hell)! Holy cow, this definitely is be the priciest city in the world! We gave the apt rental manager a call to let them know we are here early - they yell at my wife and tell her the city is big and there is no way to get there early. At this point, we remember we are in Russia, no courtesy at all. Ok, no problem - we’ll wait. So we wait about 1.5 hours till it was time for the person to come to give us the keys. She shows up, we head up to the 10th floor, she has the wrong keys. We head downstairs to sit and wait. Another hour goes by and another person shows up to let us in. Still, wrong keys. They tell us to be patient and not to worry? What? At this point I start telling them what I think of their business and how unprofessional this is (and a few more expletives). I am tired and cranky from a long trip. So we go back downstairs again only to wait another hour for the head manager to show up. She brings yet another set of keys. She fools around with the lock and eventually gets the apartment open. At this point, it is a relief. I thought we were going to have to find a hotel. So, to my surprise, she apologized many times and said they would refund the money for a day due to all of the mess-ups and waiting they caused us with the keys. This was our first day in Russia.

The Kremlin

Our second day in Russia was much more successful. We spent the afternoon at the Kremlin and Red Square.

St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square

We ended our day picking up a bottle of Absinth and a bottle of Champagne to mix it with. This was my first try of Absinth since it is illegal in the USA. It is marked with 70% alcohol (140 proof) on it, wow! Some potent stuff from the Czech Republic.