The Long Way Round

We are here in Kiev, a half a day later than anticipated but happy to be here. I kissed Isaac goodbye Thursday morning and commended him to the able hands of Grandma and Grandpa. He was honsetly more interested in pushing the garage door opener than my saying goodbye, and Grandma and Grandpa reported that he didn't seem to concerned that I wasn't around for the rest of the day. Fingers crossed! (picture of Isaac and I at the Minnesota Como Park Zoo Caresel).

The flight from Minnesota to JFK was uneventful and short. The five hour wait until our flight left JFK went by pretty fast. My biggest concern was just getting our seat assignment (sitting together) and getting paper tickets since Aeroflot (Russia's Official Airline) does not do electronic ticketing or electronic check-in. It worked out and we had a 2 seat row to ourselves. I do have to say that the food on Aeroflot was remarkably good. The smell of the breakfast Bleini confirmed I had made the right decision to come.

I think Cliff had the raw end of the deal. From what I can understand, he has been working around the clock since Isaac and I left last Wednesday and looked exhausted but excited when we met at the airport. The flight from JFK to Moscow was only ok. The seats were small and quite uncomfortable. I woke up to find Clifford playing Battleship on the computer attached to the seat-back in front of him. He couldn't sleep at all he was so uncomfortable. We got off the 8 and a half hour plane ride in Moscow quite exhausted and looking forward to getting to our apartment in Kiev.

However, our scheduled two hour layover did not board on time. We waited for an hour in line while the airlines people told us boarding would begin soon. Then they said that there were "technical" problems with the plane, and our flight was delayed four and a half hours, or until later notice! So we found a bench and took short naps. Over the loudspeaker came an announcement that all people on our flight should report to the transit desk. There was a mad rush to the transit desk, as I think people were worried they were all going to try and fit us into an already scheduled flight. Nope, we all stood in this long line until we got to the window where the employees were having us show them our ticket, then handing us..... a free soft drink voucher. To compensate us for the 6 and a half hour lay-over, of course. We were pretty tired. We kept saying to each other how glad we were Isaac wasn't with us, as we saw other young kids on our flight going bonkers.

Over four hours later, an announcement came that we were switching boarding for our flight to another gate. We all lined up and.... waited for a very long time (an hour?). What kept making Cliff and I wonder was that we didn't see a plane on the tarmac associated to our gate. Finally, an employee opened the boarding gate and checked our tickets. The line slowly moved down a long hall and then down into an dank and cold underpass. We started jokeing that the Russians would never admit the flight was not going to happen and was going to permenantely "misplace" us. Finally, at the end of the tunnel was a bus. What? Cliff suggested they gave up on flying us and had instead decided they were going to drive us to Kiev. We all got on the bus and eventually, it started driving. It drove and drove. I think it must have drove around the entire airport and ended up at a different terminal somewhere. Anyway, we finally got on the plane from Moscow to Kiev.

Once we landed in Kiev, our priority was to make it to the apartment we had rented before the guy who is supposed to hand us the keys goes home. A guy follows us and wants us to take his Taxi. We say no and opted for the public transportation of a Marshrutka (bus). We are driving in the Marshrutka when suddenly, it pulls over to the side of the road in the middle of no where. It doesn't go forward or back, and eventually the driver cuts the motor. Finally he tells us to all get off the bus and get our luggage. Yep, the bus had broken down on the side of the highway. (a picture of our broken down bus and some of us passangers waiting by the highway side).

Cliff was almost in tears. We promised each other we will always take cabs from airports. We waited, lamenting the lost day due to transportation snags. Some people wander off. Finally, another bus pulls up and loads us on. We go a short distance to the subway. We take the subway to our apartment, and it is now 9pm at night. What sane landlord would wait until 9pm at night for foreigners who were supposed to be there at noon? Well, ours aparently. In an act of grace, the guy who gave us the keys to the apartment was the nicest person we have met. Our apartment is clean and spacious. He laughed when I said I wanted to check for bed bugs, and did. He stayed to make sure that the internet worked and everything was operating well. (picture of our apartment living room)

Tomorrow the fun begins!