Visa's, Pig Flu and lots and lots of funny writing....

OUR NEW RUSSIAN FRIENDS

Ha!!!!!!!
So we have arrived in Dimaland, but there are, as always, stories to tell and dramas to recount......

First arrived at Heathrow and all seemed well, plenty of time to do the booze run and cigarette haul and still not have to run for the plane.....but oh no, life is never that easy or straightforward. Innocent little us just turned up clutching our beloved passports containing very expensive tourist visa's only to be told that they had to be checked. No problem I hear you ask, except that we did the cheap tourist visa NOT the even more expensive business one and there has been this fear at the back of my mind that we would run into trouble 'cos of this.......but all was well....apparently it's standard practice to check all departures from UK to Russia.....

The flight was uneventful, but being the red-eye, it was high time for a bit of shuteye....again I hear you ask, what's the problem? Well, very nice chap though he was, the guy next to me insisted on taking most of the flight about how hot his Russian bird was and how he couldn't bear to be apart from her......blah blah blah......please I'm trying to SLEEEEEEPPPPPPP!!!!

Finally the last but one drama on this journey into Dimalandia was the announcement by the crew just as we were coming into land that the plane and passengers had to be checked for PIG FLU!!!!!! Visions of nice young Ruskie policemen boarding the plane flashed through our minds....to be suddenly replaced by, "WHAT IF THEY DON'T LET US IN?????"

All, however, was fine and all they did was remove the 2 Mexican passengers from the plane before the rest of us.......funny we didn't see them again.......

Then the crunch came.....will the visa work.....won't it.......and despite my best efforts to look terrified of not getting in, the nice young man on the desk just looked at me, then the passport, looked at me again, and then stamped it......we were in.....

I visited Russia many many many years ago and it was LADA land then so imagine my shock at seeing all these very flashy cars all over the motorway going into Moscow......maybe it's not as bad as we thought and then flash, bang, whallop a beaten up old Lada appeared from nowhere, swerved in and out of the 2 lanes of traffic and normal order was restored!!!!!!!

Apartment.......could it be described as nice......errum.....NO.....cooker didn't work and it was very very smelly!!!!! Deceided the best option was to go to bed and see what things looked like in a few hours......and funnilly enough they didn't seem to be as bad.....the smell had gone (or were we just used to it) and a quick phone call to the emergency line (everything is closed today so only option really).....and the cooker was fixed......time to venture out into big bad Moscow...

Walked for about 15 minutes and suddenly we found ourselves by Red Square, Euroclub and the Kremlin.....some sort of parade was going on today so there were lots of Ruskies around but they all seemed very friendly and not at all intimidating....even the hordes of police/soldiers/burly looking suspicious men.....though my new hair don't did get a few looks.....

THE FLAGS ARE OUT

Next stop Ruskie grocery store!!!! The less said the better...Daniel stayed outside enjoying the sun while I did a bit of a shop.....got most things but it is a bit on the pricey side....

The final task of the day was to brave the Metro.....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......dear God what were we thinking....Latin letters???...no way.....it's all in cyrillic script.....great fun was had for the next hour trying to work out how to get to the arena...just wanted to do a dry run today before hordes arrive tomorrow....good job we did 'cos found out accreditation centre is only open until 2pm tomorrow....bang goes our plan of going at 5ish and doing tourist stuff for the rest of the day. The new plan is to get up early and be there for 9am (weeps!!!) and then do the tourist thing in the afternoon.....so on that note we are going to bed and might just have a few Jack Daniel's and cokes to help with the sleeping.......

Hugs for now
I GUESS THIS IS WHERE WE'LL BE GETTING DRUNK A LOT!!

M+D