Bee Farmer's post entitled ' What is a "hero" ' and ML's recent post about FSU men and women taking, but not reciprocating or saying thank you, inspired me to tell a story about a Russian hero I met this year in Moscow.
This past summer I made a last-minute decision to visit Moscow while in Europe.
I booked a hotel (Sevastopol) I had never been to and didn't even check its location after I picked up my visa and bought my plane ticket. I figured it would be close to the Sevastopol metro station.
I arrived around 11:30 pm and managed to catch the last Aeroexpress Train into Moscow (Paveletsky Rail Terminal)
Once I arrived I got out my metro map and hopped on a train I hoped was going in the right direction.
Inside the train I asked a couple of young guys who were seated if the train was heading in the right direction for Sevastopolskaya.
They didn't seem to have an answer or didn't understand me but another young fellow seated across from them came up to me and invited me to sit down with him.
He told me he was going to Sevastopolskaya station and would help me get there.
The young man looked to be in his early 30's.
Needless to say, he was very friendly and his English was good enough to carry on an animated conversation.
We were in the first metro for only one stop and my new friend motioned for me to follow him out the train.
He told me he would be meeting his girlfriend at the connecting metro station. He mentioned something about her being attractive.
There she was, quite attractive indeed, but she didn't appear to be too happy when he greeted her.
They talked briefly and the next train arrived.
The three of us entered the train but his girlfriend didn't want to sit with us for some reason.
She sat down across from us and on the other side of the train door, a few meters away.
I watched in amusement as his girlfriend gave him the finger a couple of times as he tried to communicate with her.
We continued our conversation and at one point he was asking how much a certain food cost in Canada (for comparison sake to Russia) and I kept asking if it was a dairy product, meat or vegetable. Grains hadn't come to mind and he kept saying "chlep, chlep!" He asked a young kid seated across from us for help and I re-learned how to say 'bread' in Russian.
Several stops later we arrived at Sevastopolskaya and he motioned for me to follow him once again.
As we left the train it seemed like his girlfriend began to warm up a bit. He was carrying on a conversation with her and I was tagging along.
We reached the outside of the metro station and the landscape looked like 90% of what non-downtown Moscow looks like; high rise after high rise apartments and not much else.
My friend asked me to wait at the metro steps with his girlfriend while he walked over near a building. He was trying to find someone to speak with but I'm not sure if he was successful or not.
In the meantime a couple of amateur 'taxi' drivers stopped and asked if we needed a ride.
After a few minutes my friend returned and asked that we follow him.
He cut across some property and headed towards another street. By this time his girlfriend had perked up considerably and was actually trying to help out with her mobile phone. She was trying to pull up a map of the area.
We landed on the street that my hotel was supposed to be on but it was nowhere to be seen.
I pulled out my netbook and looked up the details for the hotel; street address and phone number.
I gave the number to my friend and he tried calling. No answer, number not in service!
We ambled down the street and started approaching a few high rises. He asked a fellow who was sitting in a parking kiosk if he knew where Sevastopol Hotel was. Nyet.
Then he went into a building a few more meters down. He came back with a little encouragement. He said it's probably the next building over.
We waited outside while he spoke with a security personnel inside the building.
There was no sign on the building from the front, identifying a hotel. No neon, nothing!
He motioned us to come inside. We entered and walked away from the security guard to another room.
At the back of this room was a woman at the 'check-in' counter.
My friend started a rather lively conversation with this woman and pretty soon they were arguing with each other.
I had no idea what it was they were arguing about.
After a couple of minutes I learned the check-in staffer was telling my friend that I had to pay for two night’s accommodation instead of one.
My friend didn't know I had booked two nights and thought she was trying to add an additional charge to my bill.
I looked at my watch and it was now 1:30 a.m.!
I figured now that I was at my 'hotel' I would be able to sort things out with the administration and started to thank my friend and his girlfriend for their help above and beyond the call of duty.
Had my head not been total mush at the time I would have asked for his number or e-mail address to stay in touch, but it was not meant to be.
And so we bid adieu, hearty handshakes and smiles. My Russian hero and his girlfriend disappeared into the dark streets of Moscow, in the wee hours of the morning. I will always remember them and be grateful for their kindness and selfless attitude.
