Salt Life

Day Five - St. Petersburg to Kras via Moscow

Good-bye St. Petersburg!

Hello Sheremetyevo 1, Moscow!

Sunday, March 2 at noon, we met our driver in the lobby of our hotel. This time the ride to the airport was only $50 compared to the $120 from the airport--it certainly pays to call ahead!

We loaded our bags into his car and made it to Pulkovo I airport, just outside of St. Petersburg, in about 30 minutes. Security is the same in all the airports---INTENSE!!! They make you feel like a criminal! Anyway if I had to pick which airport was the easiest to get around in it would be this one. It's small and clean, but there's still little instruction for unskilled travelers like us! We found our way to our "holding area," which you aren't allowed to enter until about 45 minutes before your scheduled departure, so you end up waiting in a common area. While waiting we witnessed a brawl between two cabbies. It was separated by some of their fellow cabbies before the police arrived--crazy! We also met two young men, Americans, on a one year mission with the mormon church--again, crazy!

Finally we boarded our plane after riding our cramped bus out to the tarmac and climbing yet another metal stairway. The flight was only an hour & a half. We landed in Moscow and here's how THAT went: You climb down the metal stairway, cram into the bus which drops you off between two buildings. You walk into a side doorway where they screen your bags and you walk through a metal detector; you then walk through another set of doors that land you outside in the front of the airport. You start all over again going through two more security checks. We had a four hour layover and as you can see by the photos (which we weren't allowed to take - Dave's iPhone made it possible!) it could have been quite miserable. However, at the end of the little terminal there was a restaurant. We got a table, ordered some food and hung out there for about 2 hours, encapsulated by cigarette smoke. Hey, it was better than the alternative (see photo)!

So we finally got on our flight to Krasnoyarsk, tingling with excitement to see our little nephews and Chris & Penny. The flight was full of middle school kids going on a ski trip--spoiled, rich, Russian brats! The flight was 5 hours with a 4 hour time change which meant after our late departure at 9:30 p.m., we arrived in Kras at 6 a.m. Any sleep we attempted to possess was thwarted by terribly behaved jr. higher's! The landing couldn't come soon enough...

When we stepped off the bus and into the darkness it felt like I imagined Siberia to feel. Cold, dark and quiet. We walked down the path, through an opening in a fence where several people were standing with signs. One of the signs had our name on it! Praise the Lord and Hallelujah! It was Chris and Penny's regional facilitators - Sergei and Yelena - and I wanted to kiss them! Yelena took charge. She asked for our baggage claim tickets (in very good English, no less!) and escorted us to the baggage claim area. Our luggage were some of the first off of the conveyer so this made for a quick exit. We walked the short distance to their van, loaded our bags and off we went! About 45 minutes later we found ourselves pulling into the hotel entrance. I was jittery with excitement!

Yelena took us to the front desk, checked us in and then chaperoned us to our room where we dropped off our belongings. We then followed her about three rooms down and across where we gently knocked on the door which held our baby boys. Roman answered the door with a huge grin and a welcoming hug! The day we'd waited so long for had finally arrived! I was now an Auntie to two beautiful little Russian boys!

Labels: adoption

posted by Kushmama @ 9:11 AM