TRIP 2- Russia here we come !

Saturday Feb 7 - Sunday Feb 8
We left on an Aeroflot flight at 8:20 pm. We sat in the nice club associated with Korean Air for the wait. There were a lot of middle aged Russian men toasting each other and downing shots of vodka.
The food was not as good on Aeroflot, certainly not as luxurious as Air France but seats do recline almost all the way. We both got between 4 and 5 hours of sleep. We arrived about ½ hour late. We got through passport control no problems and waited at the baggage carousel for my bag. We had to check a bag because we were carrying all of the gifts for the orphanage workers, our coordinator etc. I had packed my Suit and accessories for 2 days of trial. Also, since I am staying for between 16-30 days I had a lot more clothes, as well as gifts, toys and clothes for the twins. We stood around, with only 1 carousel working Athens and Prague and New York bags were all mixed together. It was a total mess. My bag was almost the very last one to come out of the carousel. I was beginning to freak out as I did not want to deal with lost luggage. We thankfully have a number of days before court so I knew even if it was lost we could probably get it before we needed it but I definitely did not want to worry about that. Finally I got my bag and we proceeded out of customs to meet our driver and get to the Courtyard Marriott in Moscow city center.

We had planned to check in and relax a little before we were scheduled to meet our coordinator at 8pm. Well, when we walked into the hotel lobby the coordinator was already there meeting with the other couple who has court 2 days before us. We immediately sat with her and were being prepped for the trial. We handed over our official last documents and went over the week’s schedule. Finally by 6:00 we were checked into our room. We went out for dinner with the other couple, looking for a fast food type place out on the main street (Tverskya Street) but could not find what we were looking for. By that time it was almost 8, we were exhausted and cold so Mike and I left them and headed back to the hotel restaurant for hamburgers. It was the only meal Mike ate all day. I had had some of the gross breakfast (really lunch in Russia time) on the plane. So we were starving, we ate and then conked out. Of course because of jet lag and the time difference we were both wide awake at 3:30 am. We skyped my parents by 5:15 am and were dressed ready and eating the continental breakfast buffet at 7:00 am Monday Morning.