Moscow - Part 1

Tuesday, 19 April 2016, 12 pm

I'm in the capital of the largest country in the world! Moscow is the capital and largest city in Russia, with a population of over 12 million people. 

After approximately 14 hours of travelling, unfortunately I developed a bit of a head ache I think due to jet lag.

The airport (Domodedovo) was rather small, and I immediately noticed that there were no signs in English, that the Russian alphabet is not Phoenician, and no one speaks English. I know I'll have a blast. 

Having cleared immigration with a lot of hand gestures, I saw a guy holding my name and I excitedly walked towards him, and excitedly presented myself to him. To which he replied with the most expressionless face I have ever seen, "bag please". And that was that. The people here are not the friendliest. Maybe due to language barrier, maybe due to the cold weather. 

He walked extremely fast. I thought he was trying to get away from me, but then I noticed many people here walked fast, I think it's their way of keeping warm in the cold weather. Oh and it was cold outside the airport! I think about 11 degrees Celcius. At first it was nice to have the cold wind on my face, sort of woke me up but after a minute it was too cold for me. Hands in pocket, face down. 

The car was warm, thank God. I tried again. I asked him if he spoke English and he brusquely waved no. My head ache got worse. There were bottles of water in the car and I asked if I could have one (hand gestures) and he nodded so I took 2 panadols and sat back and admired the scenery.

There was something wrong with the scenery but I couldn't quite place it. The head ache was clouding my brain. The journey took one and a half hours, the airport is about 50 km away from my hotel. Can't escape jams anywhere in the world.

Finally the hotel. I thanked him and got a nod in reply. No goodbyes.