So I am finally here again.
Everything about the trip worked out without a hitch... well, except that while I was in route, my agency decided to change the plans - instead of meeting the other woman on her adoption trip and the driver at the cafe at the airport, they decided (without telling me), that our driver should take the woman to the hotel and come back for me. So I waited for about 2 hours, no other American woman, no driver, no nothing. I was worried about my mom waiting at another terminal, so I ran over there (only 30 minutes of running through an airport), and indeed found my mom quietly reading where we were supposed to pick her up. Then came a frantic brainstorming on how we'll find how to get to our hotel -- tried to call the "Russian team" on their respective cell phones, but couldn't make the call go through. (apparently you are supposed to dial + 7 - before you dial the number -- well there w
as no way I was going to come up with that.). Just I was getting frustrated a young good looking guy in a Sand Diego T-shirt came up to me and asked me if I was Agota Peterfy -- turns out that was the driver-- he figured that I'd meet up with my mother, and came to get us. All's well that ends well.
Our hotel is in a quiet residential neighborhood -- really nice, simple, but perfectly comfortable. Pretty soon after we got here, Victoria from my agency stopped by -- she took the $$ I brought, the paperwork -- freaked me out about some paperwork that I was never told i needed, but she asked me about it... -- no word on what the plan is for tomorrow or beyond.
Around 5 p.m. , after all was settled with the agency, we decided to venture downtown. The Metro is about 5 minutes from the hotel -- and we managed to get down to Red Square without a hitch, even though we had to change lines etc. I was pretty pleased :) I was also thrilled to see Red Square again -- just as gorgeous as I remembered. My mom was pretty impressed -- we took a lot of pictures. They are planning some gathering on international military bands, or horse shows or something -- so the middle of Red Square is taking up by a huge stage, and bleachers -- really kind of ruins the view. The also shut down the walkway around the Kremlin wall, so we couldn't walk around like we did last time. The weather is absolutely perfect and it was a gorgeous evening to walk around. We also stopped by GUM (I couldn't come to Moscow and not go to GUM) -- it's redecorated for the Fall. It was kind of neat to be able to show my mom my "favorite places" ....
so the plan for tomorrow -- going to the orphanage (to use Olga's words: "you know, to see the child, make sure she's still OK for you") --
sorry for the slightly disjointed post -- I am beyond exhausted.
Fun times! Love that your mom was calmly reading while you were running through the airport to prevent her worrying :) Something my mom would do as well. And glad that they give you a last chance to make sure she's "OK" - as if you would say no at this point!
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