Arrival

Now that we finally have a moment to stop and think, we'll back up a few days and try to fill you in on the journey so far...starting with the beginning of course!

Domodedovo Airport, Moscow, Russia

The flights over were rather uneventful.  Arriving in Moscow proved to be quite interesting however.  We immediately felt lost as we were unable to read a single sign in the Moscow airport, Domodedovo (DME). 

More of DME

Due to a good tailwind, we arrived almost an hour early, which immediately caused us to wonder if our contact here would be there yet.  After following the crowds to the baggage claim and then through customs, which really went quite smoothly, we found ourselves standing among a crowd in Russia looking for a tall, young man named Anton.  Trouble was, everyone was tall, most of them were young men, and I suspect several of them were named Anton!  We just camped out off to the side of the crowds, pulled out the laptop and went to the CCCPM website, and looked for a picture of Anton (just to be sure we didn’t get in a vehicle with the wrong Anton!).  Almost as soon as we found his picture, he came walking right by us! 

Does this (x5) look like a $60 lunch?

After exchanging some money, spending almost $60 on lunch at the airport (yikes!), we, well actually Anton, found our taxi driver outside and began the almost two hour drive towards the village of Snegiri (which is named for the beautiful little birds that live there).  The DME airport is on the southeast edge of Moscow, and Snegiri is on the northwest outskirts, in case you were wondering about the two hour drive.

The drive was long, and we pretty much sat in the back of the "marshrutka" and tried to stay awake!  Anton isn't real confident with his English, and he and the driver appeared to be good friends. We've definitely noticed that not many people here speak English at all, and even many of those that do have some difficulty with it. 

Seems like they use tractors alot for snow removal, and drive them down the freeway!

Somewhere along the drive, we noticed it was snowing, and it seems to have snowed some just about every day since we have been here.  I'll close out for now with some more pictures of the scenery along the way...