Salt Life

St. Petersburg, Russia - Day One

As promised, today I am beginning to photographically chronicle our Russia trip beginning with our first day in St. Petersburg and ending with our last night, arriving in Miami.

The top photo was obviously taken from the window seat as we landed from our 11 hour flight from Atlanta to Moscow. This was our first of many landings in the vast country of Russia. Upon arrival our names were announced over the airplanes intercom instructing us to meet a Delta representative as we exit the plane.

Prior to our departure from the states, we were in contact with a friend of Dave's mom, Lucy-a former Muscovite, who arranged for her friend, Galena to help us through the airport and have a ride waiting for us. So, Galena was expecting us as we stepped off the plane. What a blessing it was to see her smiling face amongst a strange and unnerving setting! She instructed us (in beautiful English!) in navigating our way through passport control and told us she'd meet us on the other side, next to lost and found. True to her word, she was waiting for us! I can't tell you what a sigh of relief it was to have her covering us as we made our way through all the foreign obstacles in Moscow's Sheremetyvo 2 International airport.

Galena then kindly informed us that the ride that had been arranged to take us from the international airport to the domestic Sheremtyvo 1 airport, had fallen through due to car trouble. However, she told us not to worry, she would arrange a taxi for us and that she did. It was so comforting as we watched and listened to her direct the taxi representative to "treat them well, as they are vip's with Delta and any monkey business will not be tolerated!" (I know this thanks to Dave's wonderful ability to understand the Russian language!) We gave hugs and many thanks to the amazingly kind Galena and then hopped in to our taxi. It took the whole of 15 minutes and cost us $50!

Airport security in Russia is outrageous! As soon as we walked into the main doors of the airport there were officers waiting to screen us and our bags. Once we made it through that screening we had to go through another, more intense one before checking in at the ticket counter. We then waited in a very small, strange seating area, all the while ingesting mounds of cigarette smoke. An airline representative arrived an stood at a little podium. Immediately people started in a rush toward her where they handed her their paper ticket and walked through a delapitated glass door into another "holding area". It was an area of about 15X30 feet, banged up concrete flooring, reminding me of a very old sunroom which looked out onto the tarmac. Here we waited, shoulder to shoulder, inhaling more puffs of smoke, freezing our butts off until our shuttle bus arrived. We pushed our way with the others onto the old bus which then took us to our awaiting Aeroflot connecter to St. Petersburg. We climbed the metal stairs and boarded our new plane. It was only an hour and a half flight.

We landed on time at 2:30 p.m. After collecting our bags in the very small baggage claim area, we exited the building, found a taxi and directed him to our hotel - The Nevsky Grande, just off of Nevsky Prospect. $120 later we were unloading our bags from his little Ford and checking in to our hotel, smack dab in the middle of St. Petersburg.

Our room overlooked a courtyard with a basketball court in the center and a school to the left. You can see by the pictures that we had a view of the Church of the Spilled Blood from our room window. We loved our hotel! The breakfast was free & delicious and the atmosphere was old world architecture with a European feel. Very cool and very comfy!

After a long flight and little sleep we were tired, but excited so decided to stay awake and just embrace the 8 hour leap into the future. We took a walk around the block soaking in the sights just outside our door. First impression of St. Petersburg - we knew we'd love it!

posted by Kushmama @ 8:15 AM