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May 2003

Trans Siberian Railroad

Napajohnb
2006-01-03 20:27:46

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5/11 - 5/12

The flight was long and delayed in NY for an hour due to fog. Was seated next to a Russian Orthodox Priest. He certainly looked the part with his beard and all but was actually born in America of Russian Immigrant parents. His congregation sponsors a couple of Russian orphanages and he comes over once a year to inspect them. He has been doing this for a couple of decades now.

Rose gave me a St. Christopher's medal for the trip so seizing the opportunity I ask him if the Orthodox Church recognized this saint. He said that the churches had all saints in common before 1072 when the split occurred and was kind enough to bless my medal for me. As far as I'm concerned an Eastern blessing is just right for an Eastern trip!

Breezed through customs and found Natalia, my guide in Moscow. She is a pleasant woman, of indeterminate age, blonde hair and blue eyes, stylishly dressed and possessed of excellent English.

The Moscow car is out of order so we rode a mini-bus taxi out of the airport and then caught a gypsy-taxi into the city. The system is that you stand at the side of the road and put your hand out and within moments a car pulls over to offer a ride. This can be either someone who makes their living such or just someone who happens to be going that way looking to make a few Rubles on the way. Negotiations are intense and occasionally rude when unsuccessful but after several tries Natalia found a price that worked and off we went.

The first impression is the a barrage of advertising along the road, much of it for western products and in fact we soon passed a large and brand new Ikea store. The second impression is that Russia is apparently behind in the concept of smog control. There are 10,000,000 people in the city and it often seems that they are all driving at once. Actually Natalia assured me that traffic was light ...