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So Charles and I (somehow) made it to Nizhniy Novgorod. This was my first flight on Delta - we went through Atlanta and straight to Moscow - 11 hours... nothing compared to China flights. So everyone told us to be prepared that the ride between airports (Moscow has 5 airports) might take 5 hours or so. We got totally attacked as soon as we walked out of the terminal with illegal taxi drivers trying to charge us over $250 USD for a taxi. They refused to allow us to talk in private to figure out what our plan of action was. Once we got it all settled, it only took us 1 hour and cost $100. We made it to the DME airport, and had 7 hours before our flight.
I came over here knowing that the English would be limited and that I couldn't read the alphabet, and I kinda compared it to China. I began to realize that literally no one we came across spoke ANY English, so I would say that China has a step up here. It is very strange to try to communicate with someone at an airport without using words. So trying to understand that we were being charged for "excess" baggage was a challenge. Apparently they were making us weigh our checked bags and carry on bags, and anything over 20 kilos were being charged a fee. It is funny to realize that the Russians were doing to us what we sometimes do in America... you realize that someone does not speak your language and you keep talking to them anyway, as if they will suddenly comprehend what you are saying.
So we checked in and went through security. There was a "body scanner" that we had to go in, standing with our arms in the air. I had no idea what was going on until I realized that the scan was done and I was still standing there with the Russian security guards laughing at me. Oh well. Only 6.5 hours in the airport left. So we went to look around, see what there was to eat, etc. There were several shops, but we weren't hungry yet. Decided to sit down and wait.
I went looking for an ATM because we were blowing through cash like water. I found one that asked if I wanted to see the currency in Roubles (RUB), Euro, or USD. I thought that was kinda nice, you could enter the amount you wanted in USD and it would give you RUB in return. Oh wait, no, it gave me USD. What in the world? Why would I want USD in Russia?? No one takes USD here. So then I had to go find a currency exchange machine. I am starting to think this is going to be a trip with a lot of stories where I appear to be an amateur international traveler.
The time difference here is 8 hours ahead of Eastern time. I am completely exhausted and sitting on an uncomfortable metal chair, which was just not cutting it. So Charles had the brilliant idea of going to one of the "cafes" that had benches on one side of a table and chairs on the other. We got some "local" food like potato dumplings, meat dumplings, and potato wedges. They were actually rather good. After that I took a nice 2 hour nap on the bench while Charles was reading my book on Moscow. I woke up, we bought more dumplings to justify me sleeping on their bench.... then I fell asleep for another 1.5 hours. The flight to Nizhniy Novgorod was actually only an hour, but I managed to sleep on that anyway.
The Nizhniy Novgorod airport reminded me sooooooo much of Londrina, Brazil. There were no gates. We got on a bus, the bus drove about 100 feet, and you walked into the area near baggage claim. We got a taxi, who totally fleeced us, but by that time, we really didn't care. Driving to the hotel reminded me a lot of Czech Republic - or just communist country's buildings in general. Very plain, square, and non-descript. We got to the Central hotel (one of 5 hotels in Nizhniy Novgorod) and considered going to the casino right off the lobby to test our luck.
Got our rooms... they were decent, reminded me a lot of Olomouc, Czech Republic... very plain, but liveable. The hotel is in a good location and I am excited to get to explore the city. The office hours here are 7am til 4pm, so it appears we will have time at night to explore the city. The daylight hours here are something like 5am til 9pm, which is nice, but I know will throw off my sense of time.... not that the jet lag will help with that either.
Ok, time for bed, I will write more later.
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