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Heading to Moscow

Leaving St Pete behind

Once we made it back to the hotel from the orphanage our hope was that we would get Katya's passport the next day then take the midnight train to Moscow. As with everything else Russian, it didn't go as planned.

It used to be that our coordinator could just go and take all papers into the passport office and then go back and pick up the completed passport herself. They changed the rules within the last few weeks so after she went in waited and waited to give the paperwork to the lady who normally helps her, she discovered the lady was out of the office for 2 days and the only other person there was not willing to make any allowances because of the new rules. So she had to come back and get Jeff and take him to the office and they both got to wait some more. And wait. And wait. And wait. All the way to 5 o'clock when the office closed only to be told it was not ready and please come back tomorrow.

One more night in the hotel.

The next day Jeff went again at 11 AM and waited some more.

We were hoping everything would be done early enough so we could take the 4PM express train into Moscow that day.

Finally at 1:30 Jeff called me and said he gotten the passport and was on his way to get the train tickets but as soon as he got back I would have to go with Natalya's husband to get Katya's visa photo. Natalya was in court that day for a couple who were adopting 2 kids and there was a double court session so she couldn't take us herself.

As soon as Jeff got back I took Katya and went to find the photographers with Mr. Natalya (unfortunately I do not remember his name). It turned out not to be an easy prospect. Apparently he knew what street it was on but did not know which photo place it was. And there were many. After he parked (half on the street, half on the sidewalk) we went to no less than 5 different places until we found the correct one. It didn't take very long but by the time we were out of there it was almost 3 and our train left at 4.

It became a whirlwind to get us back to the hotel, check out, get our luggage into the van and get us to the train station in the hideous traffic on time.

We got to the station at 3:45. Jeff looked at our tickets said at least we're in train car #1.

Uh huh.

As we entered the platform and found our train, the first car we arrived at was #40 Our car (#1) was someone in the far distance..

We started walking, then jogging, then running to keep up with Natalya's husband who had 2 of our bags and was sprinting into the distance. It's amazing how fast you can move when you have no choice.

Jeffrey however had no idea that he had to move at anything other than an extremely leisurely pace and was quite perturbed to be made to hustle. He spent the entire 1/4 mile whining and crying to be picked up. None of us had enough arms (or energy) to pick him up but it became apparent that if we didn't we never would have made the train.

I scooped him up under one arm, rolling luggage in both hands and a back pack thrown over my shoulder and traded him back and forth to Emily as we raced towards the end of the train. There was no one left on the platform by the time we reached the last car and our lungs were burning from lack of oxygen.

We hoisted all of our belongings into the car just as they were sliding the doors shut. We entered the main seating area and to our horror discovered every one of our 5 seats was separated from one another. Despite the fact the lady who sold Jeff the tickets assured him they were together. "Together" being a relative term possibly meaning on the train.

My chest was heaving, Jeffrey was complaining (why be different)and we stood there looking stunned. My ticket placed me next to a older lady who, when she saw me trying to sit down, pushed all her belongings into what was supposed to be my seat and turned to look out the window.

A very nice man, noticing our predicament stood up and gave me his seat which was next to one of the kids seats and I sat there and while the 2 little ones shared one seat next to me. Jeff sat up front and Emily sat in the back next to young man who spoke some English and they spent the entire ride talking.

I spent the entire 5 hour ride trying to get Jeffrey to behave. He had had enough of Russia and cooperating and sitting still and being locked in a hotel room and he chose this train ride to tell me all about it. He slide in and out of his seat, ran back and forth between his seat and his father, twirled his rubber blinking star ball around dangerously close to the lady across the aisle and basically made himself as disagreeable as possible. I, on the other hand, spent the time trying to disappear into the seat cushions. Unfortunately I did not fit.

We finally arrived in Moscow at 9 PM and were met by our next coordinator Oksana and 2 drivers who carted us and all of our luggage to the Rossiya Hotel.

The front desk was run by typical Russian employees. They answered you when they felt like it and ignored you the rest of the time.

We got 2 "renovated Kremlin view" rooms. They eacg had a gorgeous panorama outside the window especially at night when the church was lit up.

As I had heard, the windows opened completely and there was no screen. Fortunately it was very hard to work the mechanism and they opened in, not out. I made sure I wouldn't show the kids that they opened so they didn't want fiddle with them.

The beds were simply 2 twins pushed together which was bad news for Jeffrey who likes to sleep between us. He ended up sleeping with Katya on the other end of the cot that they had brought in. He woke up once in the middle of the night and crawled in bed with us and we found him turned around stuffed upside down into the crack. As Jeff started to move him. he said (in his sleep) I don't want to sleep there anymore. We put him back on the cot.

In the morning I called Emily's room and she did not answer. I went and banged on her door and she did not answer. I decided she must have been asleep with her headphones on so the 4 of us headed out in search of the breakfast buffet. I was told it was on the 21st floor. Well our elevator only went up to the 12th floor. Jeff insisted I didn't know what I was talking about.

I went to the front desk and finally got someome to pay attention to me and shetold me to take the far elevators in the back of the hotel to the 21st floor and turn left twice. When we got to the 21st floor there was a wall directly to the left.

As I sttod there staring at the wall waiting for it to open up and let me through, a very nice English gentleman directed me to take 2 RIGHTS and we could find restaurant. Without his help I might still be standing there today.

The breakfast buffet was extremely Russian without a lot for Jeffrey to choose from so he ended up with bread and butter. Katya ate some mystery meat patties with rice.

As I was standing in line for juice, a man 2 or 3 people away from me started to shake and stagger around. He was holding a glass of juice which he threw into the air as he stiffened up and pitched backward hitting his head squarely on one of tables. It was very surreal and I watched as several people looked down at him, looked at each other and stepped over him to get the rest of their breakfast.

2 waiters hurried over and found the man completely passed out under one of the tables. I went back to the table and told Jeff what happened just as an Asian man came over to us and asked if Jeff was a doctor. (Does he look like a doctor?) We said no and he continued to move around the room asking anyone who he thought might be able to help.

When we got up to leave and I poked my head around the corner to where it had happened and the man was still laying there except he was snoring heavily.

Jeff said sometimes when a person has a seizure they fall asleep afterwards.

It was quite an experience and left me feeling a little weird thinking that I couldn't get a hold of Emily. I tried to call her again when we got back to the room and still no answer. We both went down and banged on her door, loudly. I was beginning to feel a slow panic thinking maybe she had fallen out her window and was laying unconscious in the bushes below. (She had opened the window the night before to let in the crisp cool air and was sitting perched on the window seat enjoying the view when I left her). Or maybe she had fallen and hit her head and was knocked unconcious on the floor. (As you can see the stress of the trip and the lack of sleep was taking a toll on my rational thought).

We had the necessary doctors appointment at 9 AM so we had to leave whether we could get a hold of her or not. We packed ourselves and the 2 kids together and went down to the lobby to wait for our ride. I still felt a sense of dread not being able to contact her. I was to the point that if I finally got a hold of her and she wasn't actually horribly wounded, she certainly would be by the time I was done with her.

I decided to try one more time to call her and went to the front desk where I used a house phone. The phone rang and rang and rang. I figured I had nothing better to do while we waited for our ride so I let it ring probably about 15 times imagining that she was laying on the floor unable to get up and just as I was about to hang up and I got a very tired, groggy voice saying "Hullo?"

"OH MY GOD you're alive!" I shouted. The lady at the desk looked up and frowned.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"What's up? You're kidding right?? Where have you been?"

"Sleeping...where else would I be?"

"I've called you a hundred times and banged on your door and I was worried sick"

"I didn't hear anything"

"No kidding. So you're OK right?"

"Yup"

Well at least I was able to go to the doctors appointment without that worry on my mind. Of course all I could do at that point was envision what sort of torture I could inflict on her when I got back for all the stress she had just caused me.