Hi all: Its 8pm. Just arrived at my hotel, a good 26 hours after leaving RDU. The ride from Sheremetyevo Airport to the hotel alone took 2 hours in gridlock traffic. However, the air is surprisingly clean, crisp, and there are steady snow showers falling, and around 30 degrees or so i think. I landed at the airport at 130pm and had 3 hours to kill waiting for Tom Kearns to arrive so explored the airport. It is fairly run down. The air is filled with cigarette smoke and there were a flock of gypsy cab drivers hawking rides, with sales pitches that ran from "you need taxi, minimum price for you my friend" to "Are you American" which of course led me to believe they had a unique fare for Americans. I sat in a typical airport waiting area next to a gaggle of middle-aged women having a loud debate on what i think was about Sunday's parlimentary election as I heard the names Putin and Gasparov mentioned a number of times. I couldnt help but think how different this conversation would have been during the Soviet/KGB era. And, just next to these women were Moscow police in their green and red uniforms with the oversize military caps standing nearby smoking away without a care in the world.
Riding into the city was also fascinating. I realized its the only "Western" city i know of that uses a totally different alphabet. If one blocked out the cyrillic on the "Times Square" like neon billboards, signs, lights, etc... you could easily imagine the downtown part being Vienna, Paris, London, or Madrid. The classical architecture is stunning but hopefully since it was pitch black here by 5pm today, i'll have a chance to see more of the city tomorrow.
Tom and I are going out to dinner with a friend of his son's who's taking us out to a club. He's an American in his 40s who lives in Moscow and made a fortune signing Russian hockey players to the NHL.
Anyway, more later.
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