Hello everyone,
I made it back from my 10 day trip to Moscow Russia and I have to say it was the best thing I ever did. If you haven't made the trip before and your thinking of it, just do it, you won't regret it.
I'll try to give you a quick but detailed experience I had.
The long plane flight was not really that bad, not like I thought it would be, and I've heard many stories of Sheremetyevo 2 airport but honestly it looked and operated like any other airport to me. I was out the front door in 35 minutes and most of that time was standing in line at passport control.
Leaving was a different experience from customs, security questions, two different bag searches, security, and the pat-downs. Their security area is much too small along with the boarding gate waiting area. There was 3 times as many people standing as there was sitting.
After I arrived my lady was waiting for me at the door and after our wonderful face to face meeting we were off. The next several days were great. We went to all the normal tourist spots and some other special places. I will have to tell you the very first hour out the next day we were on our way to Red Square and we got stopped by the Militia wanting to see our "papers". Felt like a KGB shakedown. After a firm conversation from my lady we were off again. She said that they were looking to make a quick buck but everything was ok. We never got stopped again. Maybe I looked too much like a tourist the first day out.
In my opinion, I can't tell much difference in things there from a large American city, except for everyone speaking Russian which is hard to deal with after many days of a woman having to take care of you everywhere, and the younger crowds always walking around with bottles of beer and cigerettes hanging out of their mouth. The drivers on the streets are really aggressive but I've seen that here in America too.
I cant think of anything else to say other than it was the most wonderful experience of my life and I went without a "backup plan". I'm not going into detail about our relationship other than to say everything was great and we have made plans for my return to Moscow in 6 weeks.
Oh, I almost forgot.
We met Utrobina, a member on this forum at Red Square, and his girfriend Lana. They were really nice people. It was great meeting both of you! Hopefully we will meet again.
