Moving Day

Yes...I realize you are all anxiously awaiting what we did last weekend - sorry it took so long to update the blog but here you go....This weekend was another Moscow adventure for sure. We had the perfectly planned moving scenario........ Minivan comes to the hotel - takes us to our new apartment - drop off all of our over-sized bags - go to Ikea (YAY) - buy lots of stuff for the new apartment (YAY) - then settle in.

Like everything in Russia - nothing seems to go as planned.

After an excellent dinner at Goodman's Steakhouse http://www.goodman-steak.ru/ on Friday night we were up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, finished packing the bags and got everything down to the lobby of the hotel at the assigned time. 10, 15, 20 minutes later - and NO sign of our minivan - our cell phone starts ringing but the guy on the other end of the line clearly understood no English - and our Russian isn't good either. We thought it was the wrong number and continued to wait....did I mention that it was around 50 degrees out and raining?

Just a few minutes later the cell phone started ringing again - this time it was the PwC security department who explained that our taxi (minivan driver) could not get to our hotel as the entire center of the city was shut down and no cars were being permitted within the city for the big Moscow birthday bash. We were having trouble believing that they would shut the entire city down, but this is Russia and they did exactly that. We'll get to the Birthday Bash in a bit....

So in a flash of brilliance we found the hotel bellman, asked him to translate and talk to the taxi driver and to park the car as close as he could to the city. The bellman said it would be a 7 minute walk....7 minutes? TIR. So we load up the hotel carts and begin our trek in search of our minivan. Below are some pictures of the experience.

The police, our taxi driver, the bellman, Jim, & and all of our stuff being
wheeled through the intersection....can you say Dumb Americans????

In the distance you can see Jim and our stuff being wheeled
to the intersection that is open to cars.

On the corner of a VERY busy intersection...have we mentioned that cars in Moscow do not care if you are a pedestrian - the cars rule the roads and there is not a doubt in my mind that they wouldn't think twice before hitting someone if they had the right of way and you decided to walk out in front on them.

Who moves on Moscow's Birthday?!? The Will's - that's who.

After trekking our stuff across town we made it safely to our new apartment. After quickly dropping our stuff off at the apartment we then headed out to Ikea as our apartment, although furnished, did not contain stuff such as plates, silverware, sheets, towels, etc, etc.

Ikea, although similar to the store in Pittsburgh is quite an experience. The entire shopping trip took about five hours (the store is probably 15 times larger than the one in Pittsburgh and the entire population of Moscow seems to shop there.) Most of the stuff is the same and only a little bit more expensive than what it would cost in the states....So we show up at the check out line (which there are probably 40 check out lines all at least 10 people deep at each line) and the Ikea plastic bags are located at the beginning of the line - so I immediately grab 20 bags since we have now filled up 2 carts of things - I am immediately stopped and told that I have to pay for the bags - 13 rubles a bag (50 cents.) WHAT?!? You have to pay for the bags??!?! So I put them back and only bought 8 bags and stuffed everything in the two carts in the 8 bags. Unbelievable.

Ikea is also attached to the Mega Mall - and guess what is coming soon!!!!!

STARBUCKS!!!!