Finland, Russia, Russia and Switzerland… "96
tea bags and 2 pedal bins"!
Day 4/5
The Baltschug
Kempinski hotel in Moscow is a great hotel in terms of the luxury and comfort
and it´s nice when someone else is paying for your room and breakfast but pretty
much useless if all you want is a coffee (€12.00) or a glass of wine (€30.00).
That´s right, I said A GLASS! 24 hours of wireless internet (which costs
them nothing) will run ya €30 euros and it´s neatly set up so you have to use it
continuously and disconnecting makes no difference.
Eugene found a
nice little place where we had excellent food and great service at a realistic
price and I also go to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix before heading for
Domededovo (one of Moscow´s four airports) to check in for my flight to
Vladivostok. This was an 8 ½ hour overnight flight and the promoter had
agreed to put me in business class which made a world of difference. I
slept for 4 hours and felt good when I arrived, even though I was closer to
Pyong Yang than Moscow and 9 hours ahead of my dear wife and the animals.
But I had made it and the welcome was warm.
The drive from
the airport to the city was rugged but not too surprising. We passed through the
kind of rural desolation that Westerners rarely see (let alone experience!) and,
though the roads were actually okay, the traffic inevitably jammed in places.
When you´re tired you just want to get there!
My room
overlooks the sea of Japan. My room is very Russian… dark wood, dim, inefficient
lights, worn carpets and white things that are closer to light grey. Not the
Kempinski but I can afford this one! All the cars here are right-hand
drive because they come from…. You guessed it, Japan! And that makes them
cheaper of course. But I was tired so it was important to get through the
promoter meetings and a little dinner before retiring for the night. I would
have gladly paid €30.00 for internet access in my room but here it´s only
available in the lobby.
A quick
call to my love who is now 9 hours behind me and it was off to bed to see how
bad the jet-lag would be. It´s always worse when you fly east.
