Today I flew to Moscow and plan to visit the city over the weekend before my work obligations this coming week. Emilie is flying in later this evening to join me for the weekend. She has never visited Moscow either, so we’ll both be exploring a new city.
Given the stringent visa requirements for Americans, I was a bit nervous while going through the passport check upon my arrival. Although my visa was completely in order (at least to my knowledge), you never know what might happen. Fortunately, things went smoothly and I got through without incident.
Although it’s technically Spring, you’d never have known from the weather. The cold temperature combined with rain / snow gave me the impression that it was actually January or February. Apparently such weather is normal for this time of year, though, and the winter weather is actually much worse.
I’d heard that traffic in Moscow was bad, and my experience during the ride from the airport definitely confirmed it. It was effectively bumper-to-bumper for a solid hour as we entered the city and I can’t imagine that we went further than a couple of miles in that time.
We’re staying at the Hotel National, which faces the Kremlin and is a short walk from Red Square. The prices in Moscow are a bit excessive, but I was fortunate to have some hotel points that I redeemed in order to get the room for “free”.
The shower has an interesting feature that I’ve never seen before – an “Emergency” cord. I’m not sure what kind of emergency one should expect in the shower, but hope that it’s along the lines of a awkward fall rather than an unexpected visit from the KGB.
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