Ahhh Mother Russia

Well, well, well.

The good news is that Brad, Danika*, and I have made it to Moscow. The bad news is that Brad's and my backpacks enjoyed London so much that they decided to stay there rather than joining us here. (D'oh!) Brad's and my flight landed early, which would have been fantastic but for the fact that the plane ahead of us at the unloading bay got stuck to the tunnel thing that connects the plane to the airport, so we had to sit on the tarmac for 65 minutes (yes, over an hour), while they called the handyman to un-stick the plane... This 65 minute delay made our 1 hour and 55 minute connection from Heathrow's terminal 1 to terminal 4 very, very tight. We actually made the transit in 40 minutes, running the whole way! A new record I think, but those Flighties out there reading this entry, I don't recommend that you put paxes on a 40 minute connection time through LHR; I was pretty cranky by the time we got there. And, as I say, our bags did not.

So, I have been wearing the same clothes for over 72 hours.

Yes; I am smelly.

Nevertheless, I am very, very happy to be back in the Rodina**. From the looks of things, Russia has become much more modern. Capitalism has taken hold with a vengence, and there are huge, colourful advertisements everywhere. The people seem to be a bit nicer than they used to be as well; the person who helped us at the airport with regard to the whole lack of luggage thing actually tried to be helpful rather than being rude and cranky!!! For anyone whose been to Russia, they will know what a pleasant surprise this was. Now let's just see if we actually get the bags...

The 'Sighting of the Day' for today was seeing a woman sitting, reading a book in a porta-potty, with the door propped open. No, she was not using the porta-potty; her job was to sit there all day and charge people 10 rubles to use the other porta-potty. I wanted to take a picture, but thought that might be considered rude...

We are off to Volgograd late this evening for our friends Olga and Andreas' wedding; should be loads of fun. I will be sure to get some happy photos of me in clean clothes and put them up on the blog soon.

Later y'all,
TK

*Brad's 18 year old sister who has never travelled internationally before.
** Russian for 'the Motherland'