Getaway 2010: Episode 2

Saturday, 22 May 2010: RIX - SVO

Rosy (?!) Rossiya

We left after breakfast and walked to a bus stop to catch our bus back to the airport. Our Air Baltic flight took off at 1105 – after someone dealt with a drunk man sitting at the business area and talked him off the plane (we later saw him in a police car as we were taking off) - and we landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport at 1415 local time (Moscow is three hours ahead of GMT). God, what a horrible-looking airport it was and we had to endure such a crazy long queue (seriously, even clearing the Haj immigration wasn’t as bad). We were practically the last ones to reach the immigration counter and guess what? There was some problem with my passport or my visa or whatever and what it meant was I was shuffled from one counter to another and had to endure an additional thirty-plus minutes of waiting – by which time, another plane-load of new passengers had arrived. I was so angry that at the end, I was feeling close to tears (how oxymoronic).

After my passport got its requisite stamp, I asked what the problem was and the stupid lady said, ‘No English.’ Typical, I thought, and without thinking swore out aloud. She seemed to understand and this irony was not lost on me. I said, ‘Oh so you don’t understand English but you understand what ‘F*** you’ means?’ and she retaliated by refusing to let me got through the metal barrier. I don’t know why the thought of slowly rotting away in a Russian prison cell still hadn’t occurred to me then but I was really that furious. I was let off after a while and I stormed off. Yeah, I know I should learn to curb my temper and especially when dealing with foreign immigration. It was not exactly a rosy reception from Rossiya but there you go. Anyway, that brief episode aside: I’ve been dreaming to come to this country for some time now and finally, there I was!

We then took the aeroexpress train to Belorussky Station and, as we were still struggling with our Cyrillic then, asked a passerby which metro station we should go to take a train to Kitai-Gorod. From Kitai-Gorod metro station, we walked to Nova Hostel. Actually, we met Alex, the owner, on our way there and he had almost given up on us (I’d forgotten that I mentioned arriving between 4-5 pm). We apologised and I explained that I was delayed longer than expected at the airport. He told us he had two places: one at Kitai-Gorod (with cats!) and another at Kurskaya (no cats). We told him we didn’t mind cats as long as there are no dogs but as the one at Kitai-Gorod had no hot water and he thought it’d be a problem for us, he’d arranged for us to stay at Kurskaya anyway. So we agreed and followed him. He hailed down a car and we all somehow got in, all four of us (including Alex) – OK five, including the driver – and our bags, and went to Kurskaya. (OK, actually in Moscow, you can hail down any car and the driver, depending on his destination, may agree to take you for a fee. But don’t try this alone as he may instead kidnap you. Stick to the metro!) His apartment was in a nondescript building but it was a superbly beautiful apartment with three bedrooms, one living room (with Internet!), one kitchen and a big, clean bathroom. We were happy with this.
We rushed to put our bags and explained that we were rushing to go to the Bolshoi Theatre for our La fille mal gardee ballet show (the tickets were bought online on Tuesday and Wednesday (two tickets at RUB800 each and the third ticket at RUB2000) before our journey but we agreed to split the cost equally). It was quite hilarious really when you think of it: there we were, dumping our bags and searching our wallet to pay him for the rent, and frantically explaining to Alex that we had to rush off with him explaining how to get there by metro. It was like wham, bam, thank-you-man and off we went.
The Bolshoi Theatre is undergoing renovation so our show was in the new ballroom which was equally grand and impressive and took our breath away. And I haven’t even got to the part of the crystal chandeliers yet. I don’t know much about ballet but I enjoyed the show, the ambience, and the experience very much.

After the show (and some photo taking), we left and walked to the Red Square (Krasnaya Ploschad). There’s nothing red about the square at all of course; in fact, the name comes from the Russian word krasnaya meaning ‘beautiful’. Site of the Victory Day Parade just a fortnight before, Red Square is the heart of Moscow and the first destination for most visitors to Moskva. It is surrounded by St Basil’s Cathedral, the State History Museum, Lenin’s Mausoleum, a section of the Kremlin’s long brick walls and GUM, the magnificent shopping complex (pronounced as ‘Goom’). The Red Square and Kremlin are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We were awed by the sights and magnitude of everything we saw today and we’d only been in Moscow for a few hours!!!

We finally returned to the apartment after 10 pm (or was it 11?). For a while, we were a bit lost: in our haste to leave for the Bolshoi earlier, we forgot to note the landmarks (except for HSBC Bank which shared the same building as the apartment), the exit from the metro station, the street name... but finally we managed to find the apartment alright.

To be continued

Getaway 2010: Episode 1

This trip had been planned since January. Flight ticket to Europe was bought in February and the subsequent flights bought in February and March, causing quite a dent in my pocket. Oh well. This time, I’ve decided to share my experience in bite-size entries (OK, some bites may be large). And this is how the story goes...

Thursday, 20 May 2010: KUL-CDG

I left home for KL Sentral at 8.30 pm (Mummy and Abah insisted on sending me to KL Sentral because they don’t trust lil’ me taking a cab at night alone all by myself, yes, believe it) and met up with Lin after 9 pm. We bought KLIA Express tickets and checked in our bags. Our flight took off on time and we settled in, hoping sleep would take over. No success for me on that point.

Friday, 21 May 2010: CDG - RIX

The Terminal/Rīga Rigour

We landed at 0645 Paris time and it was already a bright early summer morning (or late spring). It would be a long wait until our next flight out - we decided we’d fly out on the same day instead of going into the city and then back to the airport again a few days later. Seriously, I hate Charles de Gaulle Airport. It’s ugly and doesn’t offer comfortable seats for travellers to relax. Why, KLIA is so much better. And no eye candies either.

We finally boarded Air Baltic for our flight out with an overnight transit in Rīga. We purposely chose this flight for a number of reasons: (i) the direct flight also transits in Rīga for a few hours (it’s a direct flight but not a direct non-stop flight); (ii) if we took the direct flight, we’d arrive into the third city of the day after 9 pm and I wasn’t keen to navigate the city to our hostel at that hour; (iii) this flight cost less than a direct flight to the third city; and (iv) we get a free city thrown in at a lower cost so why not? Besides the Historic Centre of Rīga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We landed at Rīga International Airport after 6 pm, well after the scheduled time of 1750 (Latvia is two hours ahead of GMT) and met up with Fifi who flew in from London Gatwick to join us. After changing money at parex bank, we took bus #22 to the city. The bus stopped right opposite our hostel in the Old Town and we checked in first before venturing to check out Vecrīga (Old Rīga). Because it’s in Vecrīga, the hostel had a really serious and narrow staircase and we had to haul our bags up the three (or four? Well enough to make us huff and puff on our way up) floors to our room. Fortunately, our room with its three double-decker beds and one double bed had its own bathroom.
(Actually Fifi only confirmed joining us on 20 April and bought her air tickets two days later as she only received the green light to take leave then. I had already booked double rooms in three cities and had to make new search for triple rooms in those cities upon her confirmation. Only hostels offer triple rooms hence why we had to stay at one of those. I still refused to book three beds in a dorm though.)

We walked around Vecrīga and visited the Statue of Roland, the Blackheads House, Town Hall, saw St Peter’s Church from afar, walked past the Dome Cathedral and the Dome Square, the Cats’ House, the Three Brothers or Trīs brāļi (the oldest stone houses still standing in the city), past the Old City Wall, Jacobs Barracks (the longest building in the city) and the Powder Tower before crossing over to the Lalma Clock and on to the Freedom Monument. We even walked the extra block to the Navity of Christ Orthodox Cathedral before returning back to the Blackheads House and then to the hostel. We met the occasional drunk English and Irishmen on our way around Vecrīga – not surprising as Rīga is considered a destination for stagnights. We also met a young friendly Latvian who took the time to show us around some places.

Dinner was had at the hostel kitchen. Knackered, we then decided to call it a day. Only to be woken up in the wee hours of the morning by some drunk trying to open our door. Scary, but not as scary as what I encountered in Bonn last year.

To be continued