Vladivostok - Trip Report

[BC]

Simply precious Muck!

[billsetnor]

   Congratulations, indeed, Muck!

   And we, as a group, are proud of you, your lovely wife, and the way in which you've gone along this path and shared your experiences with the rest of us.

   Thank you, and all the best from all of us.


   Bill

[Muckraker]

One day my wife’s mother called to tell us that she was making plans to visit Vladivostok.  I knew Oxana wanted to visit Vladivostok and to bring the baby to meet her relatives so I suggested that she accompany her mother who could help with the baby during the trip. I would follow six weeks later to bring them back to Orlando. 

So in early September my wife flew to her parents in Vancouver with the baby to spend a couple of weeks there.  Amelia had a great time with her grandparents and spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the nature in Vancouver. 

My wife and her mother then flew to Vladivostok (by way of Korea) and spent the next four weeks introducing the baby to all the relatives.  There were many dramas as my wife attempted to maintain her maternal sovereignty in the face of numerous attacks by the babushkas.  She was able to draw lines in the sand for her way of taking care of the baby and I think there were compromises on both sides.  The main argument from the babushkas is that my wife only has book learning but that they have actual experience, and therefore my wife should do what they say when it comes to the baby. 
 
Eventually the time came to make the journey to Vladivostok myself.  I flew to JFK and then onwards to Moscow via Aeroflot. Aeroflot’s new departure terminal in JFK is really excellent.  There are plenty of little shops to browse while waiting for your horribly delayed flight.  At the gate we were eventually allowed to pile into this huge bus that could raise and lower itself three stories to transfer us to the plane.  At one point several passengers fell down when the driver slammed it into reverse suddenly. The flight to Moscow was filled with Russian college girls.  They all had torn designer jeans, iPhones, and strict conversations with their boyfriends before take-off.  The girl I sat next to was originally from Nigeria, attended university in Moscow, but otherwise lived in New York where her father worked in the UN.  She hated Moscow because it was so racist towards blacks. Everyone clapped upon landing and nothing has changed about waiting in the passport control lines at SVO2.  In front of the baggage carousel there is a large flat screen monitor that is apparently connected to a camera in the arrivals area so presumably people there can see you and vice versa.  It is a pretty good idea for people waiting for you in the arrivals area, especially when it takes an hour for the luggage to start rolling in.

The transfer to SVO1 was uneventful, although I will not bother hiring a driver to meet me next time.  It is much more convenient to simply hop in one of the taxis that are parked at the curb for the quick drive over to SVO1, and not that much more expensive (probably less if you negotiate).  The problem with my driver was that I had to wait half an hour in the street for him to go get his car after I found him standing in the most unusual place with my name on the card written in yellow highlighter.

SVO1 still has a pretty nice café to hang out while waiting for the signal to proceed to baggage check.  The WiFi does connect but you need a password SMS’d to you to access the Internet.  After the signal flashed on the overhead board, I went through security, checked my bags at the ticket counter, and sat next to the Aeroflot window for excess baggage charges.  It was a pretty good show as a string of college girls made their best attempts to convince Aeroflot that they didn’t have the money to pay.  Such crying! 

I was very surprised by the improvement in the behavior of the people on my flight to Vladivostok.  There were no drunks, teenage punks throwing food at each other, or obnoxious shop girls.  Instead, everyone was nicely dressed, well mannered, and courteous.  There had been an announcement during take-off that anyone who did not comply with the rules would be given an injection. 

After landing, I boarded a bus that had pulled up to the plane to take us to the baggage terminal; however the bus went to some other place instead. Oops, this was the special bus for VIP passengers only.  I was wondering why everyone on the bus was wearing a customs uniform!  The VIP lounge in the Vladivostok airport is very nice.  Nobody was bringing me a cocktail or my bags so I walked all the way back to the baggage claim building where my fellow peasants were lunging at their bags through the wall of Russians standing alongside the carousel.  I grabbed my bag, cleared the babushka checking baggage tickets, and met my driver Alex.  Alex is a pretty cool Russian guy. Shaved head, new Daihatsu minivan, and thinks 9/11 was staged by George Bush so he could invade Iraq and steal oil. 

I was beginning to get excited as we drove down the airport road to Hotel Hyundai.  I thought this would be nostalgic but everything looked so different to me.  There were new buildings everywhere, including American-style car dealerships.  Everything was cleaner and much nicer than I remembered.  It was still the same crazy driving though, which is why I did not want Oxana to meet me at the airport.  The airport road is the most dangerous road in Vladivostok and the last thing I needed to worry about was she and the baby on this road in a car that I didn’t know. 

Hyundai Hotel looked exactly the same, except the pollution has mellowed it to a nicotine-stain color.  I rushed to the room that Oxana had booked and was soon kissing and hugging her and the baby.  This was the only part of the trip that was anything like my prior trips.  The baby had gotten fat.  Too much Russian sweet cheese! 

I noticed the room was incredibly warm, and it turns out the hotel was trying to fix the problem for Oxana since the day before.  We changed rooms, but it wasn’t much better.  Hyundai claimed to have air conditioning but they really didn’t.  I noticed that everyone opens their doors to let cooler air from the hallways into their room.  Once the sun hits the windows the rooms will heat up incredibly. 

As usual I was too excited to sleep, even though I hadn’t really slept for two or three days.  We needed to get some bottled water for the baby so we decided to go to the grocery store and see if the room would cool off.  Amelia was buckled into the stroller with the requisite hat and three layers of clothing and left the hotel (it was over 80 degrees outside but in October the nosy Babushkas will bitch at you if your kid isn’t dressed for a potential blizzard). 

The first problem was the fact that the hotel locks the entrance/exit doors that are on each side of the revolving door.  You can’t get a stroller through the revolving door so you have to find someone to open the side door for you.  Apparently the luggage porters only need to use the side doors when the Queen of England stays at the hotel.

Second problem was the fact that there is no smooth pavement anywhere near the streets around the hotel. Doh! The stroller took a beating as it rolled over pits, cracks, and the occasional pieces of rebar sticking out of the sidewalk. I carried the baby and the stroller up and down each set of steps we encountered, and took her out of the stroller each time we crossed the road since I felt that it was just too dangerous to leave her in.  Clearly, strollers in downtown Vladivostok are just a waste of time. It is better to just carry the kid with you.  Also, by the way, most taxis don’t have seat belts so your car seat is pretty much worthless. You really aren’t left with many options other than go native and just carry the kid in your hands when taking a taxi.  There is apparently a law that you have to use safety seats but this isn’t enforced. 

Back at the hotel, the room was still hot but I was too exhausted to care. The room was in bad shape and not clean either (a nice cum shot on the bathroom wall too).  The whole hotel has become really run-down.  Regular maintenance isn’t being performed.  It was such a shame to see it go to hell this way. That was officially the last night I will ever spend in Hotel Hyundai.  In the morning we called Alex and he took us over to Hotel Versailles where we had arranged a suite (so we could also have a separate room for the baby crib).  I had never stayed at Versailles but I had always thought it was a great hotel due to its location and historic design.  It has the usual backwards management but I really love the style of the place.  My wife had once worked here right after college but quit when the manager (lady) rudely told her to tie her hair back in a formal way. So guess who checked us in? Yup, the same manager. She recognized Oxana and was spitting venom but what else could she do? 

There was one thing about Vladivostok that definitely hadn’t changed, and it is luckily the thing I love most about this city.  There is energy in the air that is quite unlike anywhere else that I’ve been.  I don’t know if it is all the crazy traffic, or the people rushing in and out of the busy little shops, or the music that you hear all over the city, or the risk to your health and safety that looms at every corner, or the fact that you are so far away from home that you feel like some kind of explorer.  Whatever it is, I love it. 

Muck

[Muckraker]

Our first full day together was wonderful.  Hotel Versailles is just a block from the embankment so we decided to go there with the baby and the stroller.  They had renovated the entire embankment area so it has very smooth walkways with no car traffic.  The former array of kiosks and shashlyk stands has been replaced with a perfect row of standardized freestanding shops.  Other than the fact that the beach is still a brown patch of dirt peppered with broken glass, it looked really great.  The area where we used to sit and watch the sunset has been expanded and now there are hundreds of places to sit, drink and eat under tents, sort of like a German beer hall but also with seafood and shashlyk.  This place on Friday and Saturday nights has got to be a fun place to party, and Hotel Versailles is right on the cusp of it all.  We ate some ice cream and shashlyk and shaurma.  All the things I had missed.  There is a nice little carnival here with rides for the kids too, but buyers beware since there are ZERO safety inspections.

We then walked up to the Fokina Street arbat “piazza” area where it seemed like all the shops and cafés are different but still the same.  No problem with the stroller – it is all smooth bricks.  The fountains were turned off for the winter and filled with broken beer bottles, trash, and urine.  I got the feeling that this was the cool place for the thirteen-year-old crowd to hang out after school. The girls dress like prostitutes and the boys have long hair and perform tricks on their skateboards to impress the girls. 

This is nearly a college town now, and the college students speak English, so it is not required that you speak Russian to get around this city anymore. Virtually all of them wear jeans, and a few of them are obese.  There is now a Subway sandwich shop (well it’s a knock-off but close enough), a real Baskin-Robbins (just like in Moscow), and the Magic Burger is as crowded as ever.  Shopping centers have sprung up all over the place, and there isn’t much that you would want that you couldn’t buy here. In fact, there are many things here that I wish I could buy in the US (like Japanese diapers).  Unfortunately, the prices are at least double for everything, maybe even triple for electronics.  New apartment buildings with fantastic views of the Sea of Japan are being built all over the place. I am certain that in ten years I will not recognize the Vladivostok of my courting trips. 

After Fokina, we took Amelia back to the hotel for her nap.  The second room worked out great since she could sleep quietly in her crib (the hotel provided) while we did our own thing in the living room and bedroom.  Oxana went across the street to a great little 24-hour grocery store to buy some items (there is also an ATM a bit further down the street since the hotel no longer has a cashier).  Some of the Russian music videos on the big flat screen TV were great, although most of them were now too cluttered with all kinds of on-screen SMS chat or contained mostly violent content.  The hotel didn’t have air conditioning (they said it was turned off for the year) but when they built these buildings a hundred years ago they designed them to be cool so we didn’t notice the heat at all.  They do not have an ironing board but they do have a laundry service.  The maid was nice enough to bring us extra towels for the baby and also a heater for the baby room (since all babies in Russia are expected to sleep in sweltering heat). This was supposed to still be tourist season here (no rain) but the hotel was mostly empty.  I saw only five other guests while staying here, and that was at breakfast. 

I was still exhausted from the trip/jet lag and needed to sleep, so I went to bed early while Oxana called her friends. The next morning we ate breakfast in the beautiful restaurant. They do not have room service for breakfast so you have to go to the restaurant.  They have a cold breakfast buffet consisting of ham, bacon, pastry, potato, yoghurt, and fruits, boiled eggs, juices and coffee.  Very basic, and it is $25 a head.  The table will be dirty when you sit down.  There are five bored employees standing around alternating from looking at the ceiling to looking at the floor.  There is no mistaking why this hotel is empty, and no wonder why the hotel was closed during the winter.  But I still think it is the most beautiful dining room in Vladik.

We packed up Amelia and took a taxi out to Babushka’s, bringing a cake that Oxana had purchased in the morning from Vlad Klep (one of the good bakeries in town) and some champagne purchased at the grocery store across the street.  The taxi had a meter in it, which displayed the fare as we drove along.  This was a new taxi company in Vladivostok that exclusively utilizes new Renaults and taxi meters (you have to figure a Renault is about as close as you can get to a trademark since nobody else in Vladivostok would buy one).  No idea what pricing the meter was based on but upon arrival it was definitely much cheaper than the “screw the foreigner” rates we were paying previously. 

First we were to meet Oxana’s cousin.  Babushka, Sveta (Natasha’s sister) and Sveta’s daughter Ira (the cousin) all live in the same building in separate apartments.  Sveta’s daughter had two little kids, one a year older and one a few months younger than Amelia.  The building has the same disgusting entrance common area and extremely crappy elevator.  Ira’s apartment inside was nice enough though, and Amelia had fun playing with her baby cousins. The husband works at an electronics store as manager of shipping/receiving. His real pay comes from bribes from the shipping companies to select them as preferred carriers.  He can’t take any days off because someone will steal his job if he does. Ira is an attorney but has been at home for a few years with the kids, the government gives her a post-natal care payment of some type.  Sveta takes care of the children mostly, who retired from her police job when the first kid was born.  They have a massive $6,000 flat screen television sitting on their living room floor approximately three feet from the couch, like a personal IMAX theater or something.  The oldest kid bounces his toys off the screen. 

Next was Babushka’s apartment (great-grandma for Amelia) where Natasha was staying (and where Oxana had been staying until Prince Charming rolled into town).  I hadn’t seen Natasha since last Christmas when she left Orlando in a huff because we wouldn’t let her dictate our every move with the baby.  Their archaic mentality is to marginalize the son-in-law and removing all responsibility until he simply leaves the new apartment and the kids behind.  But, I’m not a young Russian guy so that makes me their son in law from hell, but whatever. Babushka and Natasha were very gracious, as good Russian hosts always are.  We ate cake and took pictures (three generations of daughters).  Lunch was cooking on the stove but Oxana and I were leaving to do our own thing, which included having lunch at Nostalgia.  So with hardly a wave from Amelia who was busy playing with new toys we bolted like rabbits to the waiting cab.  This was actually the first time we had been out alone together since the baby had been born.

Aside from the new tile flooring, Nostalgia hadn’t changed at all, which is good because it is perfect.  We had a very cozy lunch that was delicious and the service was perfect.  When you order ice cream with chocolate sauce they bring a little pitcher filled with melted chocolate to pour on the ice cream.  They still have all the matryoshkas and other items in their gift shop downstairs with artworks upstairs (overpriced – for the rich Chinese tourists).

After Nostalgia we walked to Svetlanskaya Street and up to the Far East State Technical University.  We took the Funicular (this had been broken for years but it now renovated – 5 rubles, and it looks brand new) to the top of the hill where the city views are.  Everyone on the Funicular, save the conductor and us, were students.  They were talking on mobile phones and were very reserved.  We had walked up and down the stairs before and I can definitely say the Funicular is much better!  Students had to use the stairs for years to attend lectures at a University building at the top of the hill.  It is not only convenient, but the Funicular is a very quaint addition to Vladivostok’s tourist experience.  I’m sure it will look like hell in a few years though.

After we spent a few minutes enjoying the view of the entire city from atop the look-out point, we took the Funicular back down and headed for the ornate grocery store on Svetlanskaya for some air conditioning and Coca Cola Light in their little café area.  There were more college kids playing with their mobile phones, but otherwise it was the same.

We grabbed a taxi back to Babushka’s to get Amelia. Natasha was going to baby-sit in our hotel room while Oxana and I went to Sky Bar that evening.  We had hoped to go to the theater (Gorky) but unfortunately they were closed until the end of October.  The theater here is so good that it is better to plan your trip during the theater season.  Of course, nobody knows exactly when that will be each year, but you can figure they could be closed anywhere from the end of July to the end of October. 

We changed clothes in our room after arranging a single room for Natasha to stay in overnight. We showed her how to work the baby monitor so she could watch Amelia sleeping in her crib, ordered Chicken Kiev for her from room service (she said it was delicious), showed her how the TV remote control worked, and we were off to go to the top floor of Hotel Hyundai – Sky Bar!

It had been our dream to come back since January 3, 2004 when we had our wedding reception here, but I was having reservations considering our experience with the hotel room(s).  Thankfully, Sky Bar had escaped the moronic management that the rest of the hotel suffers from.  The waitresses were great; the décor is still very modern, cozy and comfortable, with those great views from the windows. It was perfect.  The new manager was one of the ladies that had helped us arrange the wedding reception there, and she was still somewhat of a Nazi.  The food was really good, although the prices are still high.  At 8pm the band arrived, three pretty girls and two burly guys.  One of the guys was the same as before - the leader.  Not only had he been at our wedding reception but he was also the guy from my very first trip to meet Oxana that I had paid to play the “Titanic” song.  Sky Bar was actually crowded.  There were plenty of Russians and Koreans but since an Australian ship was in port a group of Australian officers in uniform were there as well.

The three girls singing are really great, much more theatrical than before, with beautiful dresses and hairstyles.  They just “glowed” on stage. Oxana loved it, and when she wasn’t looking I slipped a napkin with “Titanic” on it and a 1,000-ruble note to one of the girls resting in a booth behind us.  She dutifully gave it to the burly guy who looked over and smiled at me.  At the start of the next set, he announced in English “We have a very special song, for our very special foreign guests tonight” and then started the Titanic song.  At first Oxana was just listening and then she said, “Oh it’s strange, that is Titanic?” and I said, “Yes, it is for you, will you dance?” and with that I led her to the dance floor and we danced.  She laughed and smiled and cried.  The Koreans and Russians were clapping but the Australians were silent (I think they thought Titanic was directed at them, not the best song for Navy guys I guess). Australian Navy guys are so polite; it was great to see them. 

Later a tall blonde took the stage and sang a Top 10 song like on MusTV.  It was terrible, like Karaoke night or something.  I videotaped some of it.  Then later some manager from the hotel came over to me and told me that I could video anything but not her because she is a private person.  Normally I would have cut the manager’s throat but the reality is that in Vladivostok you have to be very careful in situations like this because there are a lot of crazy mafia guys around and this tall blonde stunk of mafia whore.  So it was better to simply drop it.  But she was really terrible, like a comedy show.  Great example of why the hotel is going into the toilet.

So we went back to the hotel room where Natasha was just dying for a smoke (we told her not to smoke in our room) so we rushed her to her single where she could smoke all night long if she wanted.  At night, Versailles turns into a very popular area as people walk to and from the embankment or to check out the bars and café’s on Fokina.  Studio Café is also just a few steps down from Versailles, and they have a very nice outdoor café for warmer nights like this.  Everything is well lit and they have speakers strung over the street playing music. We would have loved to spend more time hanging around this area at night, but with the baby it wasn’t really possible without some advance planning. 

We awoke to another day in Vladivostok. My wife had already planned to spend the evening with a whole crowd of her old college classmates at some restaurant.  This was something that they had planned for a long time and the only day that was good for everyone was today.  Oxana and Natasha wanted to go shopping for some items they both wanted to buy before they left Vladivostok (like garlic presses and carrot slicers because naturally they work better in Russia even though they are all made in China) so I was going to have babysitting duty which was fine by me since I didn’t have any one-on-one time with Amelia since I had arrived.  We had a fun time on our own at the embankment and playing in the hotel room until eventually it was time for her bath and then bedtime.  Then I watched people walking by the bedroom window (we were on the second floor, just above street level) who were having a lot more fun than me. When Oxana came back from the restaurant she told me about her friends and the various predicaments each were in over the years.  Most were divorced with kids, and all were curious about what Oxana’s life was like. 

Muck

[Muckraker]

The next morning we awoke to what would be our last full day in Vladivostok.  We were going to go to Aunt Sveta’s (Natasha’s sister) for a goodbye feast.  We spent the morning at the Embankment and at the Fokina arbat where Oxana wanted to buy some Russian chocolates.  Then we went to Babushka’s to drop Amelia off with Natasha, since for lunch we were going to meet one of Oxana’s friends at Studio Café.  The outdoor café (called “Studio Summer”) was much better than sitting in cigarette smoke in the cafe (upstairs is also a good restaurant).  When we arrived, all the tables outside were taken but the floor manager immediately brought a new table and set of chairs for us. It was very nice. The waitress took our order with a permanent smile and frankly I was sold at that point.  She rushed our order since Oxana’s friend had to get back to work soon.  Our drinks were brought immediately and my Coca Cola Light was never empty. I hope the managers of Studio Café make a thousand bucks a day because they deserve it for turning this place around. 

After lunch we grabbed a taxi to head to Aunt Sveta’s.  Traffic out of town in the late afternoon is just terrible, and it is miserable when you are stuck in a traffic jam breathing the carbon monoxide and burning oil smoke.  When we arrived, Amelia was outside playing with Natasha and her baby cousins and a few other Russian toddlers.  Just breathing fresh air outside of the city is something to do. We all went up to Aunt Sveta’s apartment where a big spread of food was on the table.  Sveta made me feel very welcome and soon the champagne was flowing.  They opened some bottles of wine they saved from our wedding reception and we toasted everything. There is nothing like Russian hospitality.  There was a lot of crying from the other children as Amelia had her way with their toys. Amelia has a temper (she gets it from her mother). The cousin who was our flower girl at the wedding (and now fifteen) was modeling the pairs of Miss Sixty Italian designer jeans I had brought her.  I was shoveling Aunt Sveta’s crab salad and garlic tomatoes into my mouth as fast as I could, I had been dreaming of eating these again for almost four years!  Soon Sveta’s husband arrived from work and started showing me his latest shotgun and his ceremonial swords.  He works for the customs department and I wouldn’t want to cross him.  He is a good father and husband and we would be good friends if I lived here.  He recently took possession of the family Dacha at Chaika (Oxana’s mother lost her share when she moved to Canada – as punishment for moving away) and has started to build a proper house.  This is becoming the norm as the wealthier class are buying up the dachas and building nice homes on them (it is next to an unpolluted part of the oceanfront and the air is good). Upon leaving, he gave us a flashcard with 1 Gb of nice photographs of Vladivostok that officers in the customs department had taken during their flight exercises and such.  There is just nothing that compares with spending time with your Russian family. 

While standing by the taxi to leave, everyone was crying and kissing the baby and telling us how much they loved us and will miss us.  The waiting taxi driver was very understanding, even as steam began to spew out of his radiator.  Eventually, we broke away and were heading back to the hotel to put the baby to sleep and finish packing for our flight to Moscow in the morning.

Alex arrived right on time at 9am to take us to the airport in his excellent minivan (and our stack of bags that I had brought from the room to the lobby since the porter was indisposed as usual).  We gave him a nice tip and a bottle of Italian wine and he carried all of our bags into the airport and set us up right in front of the Aeroflot desk and wished us good luck. He was of the opinion that things in Vladivostok are getting worse for people like him and he was somewhat desperate about it, although he had an advantage because he was connected to Hyundai and had a pretty lucrative deal going with getting a lot of their airport runs. 

There is little chance that I will stay in any hotel in Vladivostok again, although there are a number of new hotels planned to be built (including Marriott and Accor) due to the APEC summit in 2012 and associated development of Russky Island where the meeting is supposed to take place (including the building of a bridge to the island). Even if they actually pull it off, I wouldn’t think they have what it takes to keep these hotels running properly.  Russians think cheating and stealing is a sign of creativity and intelligence and frankly the ones running the hotels here are just way too advanced for me to deal with anymore. Russian management eventually infiltrates the foreign hotels as well, thanks to rules restricting the extent of foreign ownership. I think the only way to stay in Vladivostok is to rent a commercial apartment on your own terms, although that presents its own set of problems and isn’t very convenient.

When the announcement was made on the loudspeaker, we got our boarding passes from the Aeroflot desk, checked our bags, and went upstairs to the security screening. The airport has been renovated somewhat and the gates are accessed via the second floor now.  There are no elevators upstairs though.  We did not buy a full fare ticket for Amelia since they seem to always accommodate you with a seat anyway (the child “on your lap” is 10% of the adult fare).  In this case, they gave us the entire row in the middle of the plane.  Once through security, the new waiting area is pretty nice, and there is a place to buy something to drink.  When it comes time to board you have to go back downstairs and get on a bus.  Since they do not check the stroller at the gate, it is better to check your stroller with your luggage, or else you have to carry it on the plane.  Luckily we had a pretty good stroller that folds up small enough to fit in the overhead (Quinny Zapp).  The stroller is the type where a car seat can be attached to it for carrying the baby through the airport and then detached for Amelia to sit in during the flight.   

Once we landed in Moscow our driver met us with a minivan and we checked into the downtown Novotel.  There is a long layover for the Aeroflot flight to New York and we decided to extend it a day so that we could at least go to Red Square.  Oxana wanted to do some shopping as well.  I hadn’t been that impressed with the hotel the first time I stayed here (for the fiancée visa) but Oxana had stayed here since and she loved it.  I was glad to see how much it had improved and it was especially nice for the baby.  It is a very comfortable place to stay and we enjoyed it very much.  After a good night’s sleep we had a great breakfast buffet in the hotel and we hopped in a cab to Red Square.  The driver (hotel taxi) offered to keep the car seat in his trunk so we didn’t have to lug it around with us, and we arranged to meet back in front of the Metropol hotel (since parking around the Kremlin is dodgy) in a few hours when it was time for Amelia’s nap.  The weather was very bad with rain clouds looming overhead so after taking photos with Amelia in Red Square, Oxana gave the guards 400 rubles to let us into Lenin’s tomb which was about to close (and the lines at the ticket building were too long).  I went first while Oxana stayed with Amelia and the stroller and then Oxana went second.  I had never seen Lenin’s tomb before so it was very interesting for me.  The Japanese guy in front of me bowed to Lenin so I felt obliged to do the same.  It was a shame that we didn’t have the time or the nice weather to check out the Kremlin but when you have a kid it is a different deal.

It started raining heavily so we ducked into GUM and walked around the shops for a while and had a nice lunch at a café (and fed the baby).  I took the baby and went to meet the hotel taxi while Oxana spent the rest of the afternoon doing her Moscow shopping thing at whatever the really nice mall is these days.  Back at the hotel, I put the baby to sleep and I watched BBC on the telly.  When Oxana got back in the evening she complained that all the stores were too expensive and besides she can get better things in Tampa.  I am all too glad to hear it (finally).

SVO2 is a much better airport these days, and getting on the plane was no problem.  You can’t start the process until your flight number on the board says they are ready to receive you.  There is a whole crowd of people standing around looking like they are in the receiving line to move forward but in reality they simply decided it was a great place to wait for their flight number to show on the board.  So you have to take your luggage cart and mow down all of them. Then you can get all your bags x-rayed after which you carry them over to a line of women who will physically open and examine the contents of each bag.  Having a cute baby makes the whole process go smoothly since all the women love babies and don’t ask a lot of questions about the ten kilos of Russian chocolates or the shashlyk BBQ sets.  We were taking two large glass vases with us (that we had used as centerpieces at our wedding) and since they were packed up solid with foam the ladies simply re-x-rayed them rather than forcing me to unpack all of it.  After the search you can then check your bags at the ticket counter straight ahead and they will tell you how much it will cost for your baggage overage (if you are traveling with your Russian wife your bags will likely be too heavy). You can pay at the window on the wall next to the ticket counter. Since this flight involved what would be an overnight for Amelia, we got the “bulkhead” row because they can attach a bassinette to the wall for the baby to sleep in.  This is much more comfortable for the baby than sleeping in her car seat. 

Then you proceed to the passport control (Amelia used her Russian and US passport to leave Russia) and they will check your papers and release you into the gate area where there are lots of nice shops and a few places to eat.  Don’t bother stocking up on Coca Cola Light for the plane because at the gate you will be x-rayed again and they will not let you take any liquids on the plane to New York (although the security guard will give you the option to chug it before throwing it into their trash can which I thought was very Russian of them).  After the door of the plane closed, Oxana snagged a row of empty seats a few rows back so she could lay down, so we actually had two rows of seats to ourselves plus a bassinette on the wall for the baby (the bulkhead row does not have armrests that fold up, so you can’t lay down).  When the plane landed at JFK we were delayed for two hours on the ground waiting for our gate to be ready.  A Russian woman was yelling at the male flight attendant that it was discrimination because they are Russian and the flight attendant was asking if she was crazy because in America nobody discriminates against Russians (I was hoping an injection was going to be administered) and then another Russian girl rushed to the flight attendant crying because she was going to miss her connecting flight.  We had a front row seat to all of this and it was very entertaining to see these Russians complaining about delays in America.

We spent a couple of days in New York before heading back to JFK to get a plane to Orlando and home sweet home.  Natasha called to say that she had made it back to Vancouver just fine and we envied the fact that she had a direct flight from Seoul to Vancouver.  She complained about how much she misses Amelia and would like to visit her.

Unbeknownst to us, we had smuggled a special souvenir back from Vladivostok because we are expecting another baby July 5th!

Regards,

Muckraker   

[Muckraker]

Some of the photos from Sveta's husband.

Muck

[Muckraker]

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[Muckraker]

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[catzenmouse]

She's a stunner Muck! Better start getting holes dug in the backyard now as they'll be a stream of boyfriends to "park" out in the back 40 before you know it...

Unbeknownst to us, we had smuggled a special souvenir back from Vladivostok because we are expecting another baby July 5th!

Congratulations!

Ken

[BillyB]

Great photo's and the revelation that you're quite the love machine Muck! Congratulations!

[Jumper]

Muck! Congrats!

and thanks for the nice update..!

[Jet]

Muck,

I've always considered your story as one of the great fairy tale romances in cross-cultural folklore. Thanks for sharing this latest chapter with us!
Congratulations regarding the news of your little stowaway too!   

[Eastguy]

Wow what a story! 

[Muckraker]

Julian Muckraker

Born June 29, 2008
10 pounds, 10 ounces.  23 inches.

Everyone doing great!

 

[Admin]

Julian Muckraker

Born June 29, 2008
10 pounds, 10 ounces.  23 inches.

Everyone doing great!

 

Wow!

Congratulations!!!

- Dan

[msmoby_ru]

Julian Muckraker

Congratulations, to all of you  - the best feeling in the world

[KenC]

Great job Muck!!

Congrats to the proud parents!
KenC

[UTRO]

Muck.... Your TR, experiences, family and success have been a great motivator for Lana and I since we joined RWD Congratulations to you and Oxana on the birth of Julian Hopefully Grandma and Grandma in Vancouver will get to see him real soon!!

[Muckraker]

Thanks all.

Grandma was actually here in Orlando a few weeks ago.  She was supposed to help with Julian and spend some time with Amelia.  But, just as she did before when Amelia was born, she left early in a huff.  We woke up one morning and she was gone.  She was intent on using the opportunity to ftry and orce her agenda on us, and was constantly arguing with us about how we should live our lives in America, how to raise Amelia, and so on. All of this is a pretense for implementing their scheme of spending the rest of their lives sitting on our couch doing nothing but smoking and complaining.  I specifically had "words" with her when she accused us of making Amelia sick by not feeding her antibiotics daily as she did every day of Oxana's childhood.

So, as it stands, unfortunately the grandparents won't be spending much time with our kids in the foreseeable future, that we can tell anyway.  I suspect we would see more of them in the years to come if they moved back to Russia.

Regards,

Muck

[groovlstk]

Thanks all.

Grandma was actually here in Orlando a few weeks ago.  She was supposed to help with Julian and spend some time with Amelia.  But, just as she did before when Amelia was born, she left early in a huff.  We woke up one morning and she was gone.  She was intent on using the opportunity to ftry and orce her agenda on us, and was constantly arguing with us about how we should live our lives in America, how to raise Amelia, and so on. All of this is a pretense for implementing their scheme of spending the rest of their lives sitting on our couch doing nothing but smoking and complaining.  I specifically had "words" with her when she accused us of making Amelia sick by not feeding her antibiotics daily as she did every day of Oxana's childhood.

So, as it stands, unfortunately the grandparents won't be spending much time with our kids in the foreseeable future, that we can tell anyway.  I suspect we would see more of them in the years to come if they moved back to Russia.

Regards,

Muck

Muck, a belated congratulations to you and your family and (even more belated) thanks for the absolute best TR on this board and any other.

Glad to hear you stood your ground w/grandma, the late Doug Salem is somewhere now nodding his head in approval.

[KenC]

Thanks all.

Grandma was actually here in Orlando a few weeks ago.  She was supposed to help with Julian and spend some time with Amelia.  But, just as she did before when Amelia was born, she left early in a huff.  We woke up one morning and she was gone.  She was intent on using the opportunity to ftry and orce her agenda on us, and was constantly arguing with us about how we should live our lives in America, how to raise Amelia, and so on. All of this is a pretense for implementing their scheme of spending the rest of their lives sitting on our couch doing nothing but smoking and complaining.  I specifically had "words" with her when she accused us of making Amelia sick by not feeding her antibiotics daily as she did every day of Oxana's childhood.

So, as it stands, unfortunately the grandparents won't be spending much time with our kids in the foreseeable future, that we can tell anyway.  I suspect we would see more of them in the years to come if they moved back to Russia.

Regards,

Muck

Muck,
Sorry to hear about the family turmoil and dramatics.  There IS something to be said for NOT being able to communicate with the In Laws!  I just smile and do whatever I want!   
KenC

[UTRO]

Wow.... damn Inlaws Nevertheless, it's a joyful time!!   

[AC125]

Sounds Good Muck and Congratulations...all the best

[myrddin]

You're a lucky guy, Muck.  And an inspiration to a lot of us! 

[topofthekey]

your report and kencs were the first i read before deciding to join the message board. congrats on the baby. i suppose you can have an overbearing g-ma no matter what country your wife is from- but don't the russians tend to over medicate?