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Now for our long journey to Moscow: 1:45pm - We checked out of our hotel and started our long journey to the airport. First we had to take the metro 7 stops to the main station. This was easy, as it was very close by our hotel and we made sure we got on going in the right direction. Next, we needed to find the K-3 or K-13 mini-buses to bring us to the airport.
3:50pm - We arrived at the airport and went through the first security check in order to get to the check in area. This is when the woman who checked our tickets told us we were at the wrong airport!! Apparently, there is Pulhovo 1 and 2 - same name, different terminals, and not connected to each other (and no convenient/complimentary shuttle bus between the two!). :( We went outside to see if our taxi was still there but he was gone. Other taxis wanted $50 for the 5-10 min ride to the other terminal! I'm sure we looked very upset about this. Luckily, a nice local asked us what we were trying to do. We told him, and he said we could take the K-3 mini-bus and then change buses at the main road to get another mini-bus to the other terminal. Since the K-3 was already there, we hopped in and took a 5 minute ride to the main road. There, we got off and crossed the road to get the K-39 mini-bus which took us to the terminal 1.
5:10pm - On board our plane, we had heard Aeroflot's fleet was quite old. We couldn't believe they didn't make us check our bags as there were only very tiny spaces above the seats! We stuffed my bag under our seat and put our small bags up top. We asked the flight attendant about Mario's bag and she just lifted up one of the seat cushions of the only empty seat and said we could put the bag there. Meanwhile, this is blocking the entire floor and exit for the girl sitting in the window seat! Oh well. The seatbelts were really old and actually difficult to take off - not good in an emergency situation :) We even had nice 1970's window curtains on each of the windows. Once we got off the ground, the flight was smooth and quick.
8:25pm - We finally arrived at the metro station after being stuck in traffic the whole way. The Moscow subway seems to have a little bit more English and at least station signs when you arrive at each station. We didn't have to count out the 6 stops along our ride, although we did anyway. We got off and a helpful local (without even asking) pointed us in the right direction. 8:35pm - It was a short walk to our hotel, the Sheraton Palace. We checked in and are very excited to have a normal, large, comfortable room for the next 4 nights! We acquired some free wireless internet and found a nearby Indian restaurant that we could walk to. It was about a 7 minute walk there and by the time we got our food we were starving! The food was great though, and it hit the spot after a long day of traveling. View St. Petersburg Photo Gallery Day 155 - St Petersburg < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 157 - Moscow © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Today was a long day, as we spent a full 7 hours traveling to Moscow. First, we spent our last few hours touring around St Petersburg. We had originally wanted to make the trip out to Petrodvorts Grand Palace, on the Gulf of Finland. We actually flew right over this palace when we were landing in St Petersburg and it looked great. The problem was that it would require us to take the subway to the train station and then catch a longer distance train for 40 minutes to the town (or take a hydrofoil boat from near the Hermitage, taking the same amount of time). To do this, see the palace, and then get back by 1:30pm to start heading for the airport, seemed a little risky and very hectic. We decided we'll have to leave that one for next time and just enjoyed the city instead. Today was sunny and a little warmer, so we just walked around the area of our hotel and saw some of the sights we'd seen before - this time in the sun :) 
We also stopped in on the market again, to look at the chess sets. We found another vendor who also had a large selection, and we started negotiating with him. There was another board that Mario liked better than the last one, but this time the starting price was 5000 Ruples ($185)! It was a nicer board with carvings on the side, and bigger chess players. We got the guy to come down to 3000, but we were looking for something more like 2300 (we'd seen a similar one sell for 2700 the other day). The vendor told us we should go to the "Chess Club" store just down the road. He even walked us half way there and pointed us in the right direction! We found the store, but it was closed - it did have some very nice sets (and cheap!) showing in the window. We had lunch and checked the internet for prices on Russian chess sets in case we could just buy one online when we got home. The prices online were 3x or more! Mario decided to run back to the market where the vendor offered him the set for 2500 ($92). While this is now our 2nd most expensive souvenir purchase, Mario says that it is his favorite :) Now we just have to decide if we're going to mail it home or not, as it's too big to fit in our backpacks. 
2:15pm - We came out of the subway and didn't recognize it as being the same exit where we were dropped off a few days ago. We saw a bunch of mini-buses driving around all sides of a large square, so we headed for one bus stop and waited. Lots of mini-buses, but none with our numbers. We asked a nice lady in a red sweater (we now call her the "red lady") who was more than eager to help us. She asked around with the locals and they all agreed we should go to the other side of the square. We thanked her and headed in that direction. We got to the other side and again there was a bus stop but no mini-buses with our numbers. We asked someone else and they started to help us. Out of nowhere, the Red Lady appeared and she said she was worried about us and so followed us! She talked with the other locals and they all decided we should go across the street and over by the McDonalds. We thanked them again, wondering if the Red Lady would follow us or not? She started to, but then turned in a different direction. As we arrived at the McDonalds, we noticed that this entire side of the road was closed as it was being torn up by road construction! How is a mini-bus going to get through here? I recognized the building where we were dropped off, so we believed this actually was the right place, but unfortunately is under construction :( We crossed the street to the other side, but traffic was so backed up that we couldn't see many mini-buses passing by. 
3:30pm - We gave up and started looking for a taxi, as our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:50pm! We ended up walking all the way around the square, very close to where we started, before we found one. He was parked up on the curb and was napping in the front seat. He told us it would be $22 to get to the airport. We knew this was too much, and got him down to $18 before we got in. There was traffic everywhere, due to the construction, and there seemed to be construction all the way to the airport. Our favorite part of the trip was when our driver was stuck in traffic and saw traffic moving on the parrallel road on the other side of a park. He kept eyeing the park and I had a suspicion what he was thinking... Sure enough, we were suddenly up and over the curb, fish-tailing through the mud, and driving straight across the grassy park!! Crazy! Down the other curb, we got into the flow of traffic and were moving along much faster. Mario did spot a police car that was headed in our direction with lights flashing, but luckily we made it through the next light and were on our way. 
4:10pm - We checked in for our flight and went to our gate. We were a little unsure that we were at the right place because our gate didn't have Moscow written anywhere. It turned out our plane was about 25 minutes late, and so we just waited around until boarding time. 
6:55pm - Landed in Moscow and it is raining and windy! We went outside to get the mini-bus (#48 or 49) or the 281 bus. Any of these would bring us to the closest metro station where we could then get the subway almost all the way to our hotel. We saw the 281 bus first and got on it. We met some extremely nice Hungarian guys who confirmed we were going the right way and told us that the ride was normally 40 minutes but could be up to an hour and a half since there was a lot of traffic! With standing room only on the bus for much of the time, it was a long ride and took us over an hour. 