Moscow and the Hotel - Journal Entry #2
Slideshow of All Moscow Day One Photos

We reached the hotel after maybe 20-30 minutes. I got out, thanked him (“Spaceeba”) and went inside. I felt bad about not giving him a tip, but had only been able to get 500 note rubles in London so had no change. The hotel was practically deserted. I approached reception and asked in English if the woman sitting there spoke English. The answer, still kind of surprising to me then, was nyet. I showed her my reservation form faxed into them by Svezhy Veter and she began working at her computer. She finished by giving me a little card with the floor and room number and explained that the key to the room was “on the floor.” I was utterly confused but trusted I would figure it out when I got to the floor – number 16. I asked about paying also and she indicated I would do that later – I assumed upon checkout.

I went to the elevators and rode up to the 16^th floor. I got to my room, half hoping to see the key in the lock, but didn’t. I tried the door – it was unlocked. I entered, set down my things and wondered what to do next. I searched the room, wandered down the hall looking for some kind of key room or office, and finding nothing, returned to the room and chained the door. I was quite tired at this point and figured I could sort out the key thing after a nap and before my city tour.

After lying down for maybe 15 minutes, I heard the door open and then close. I was surprised of course, got up realizing I needed to get it figured out now, packed everything up, intending to return to the front desk and left the room. Upon entering the hallway I was met by a woman walking toward me. She started speaking Russian and after a brief conversation I got across to her that I wasn’t leaving but was only looking for the key. She took the card I had been given by the desk and nudged me back into the room. She left and quickly returned with the key. She tested the door to make sure it would be locked from the outside and then spoke to me, made a sleeping gesture with her hands under her head and once again nudged me into the room. She was very pleasant but I’m sure thought me fairly incapable, which at that point I guess I was. I might add that upon first getting into the room I looked up the words on the hotel card I had been given, trying to figure out how to get the key and was able to make out that the card had to be traded for the key – but had just never experienced anything like it before so didn’t know how to go about doing that.

I lay down again, feeling more secure in the room and tried to sleep. My mind was a whirl though. I got up, tried to call home to let them know I had made it to Moscow but was unable to get the phone to work. I laid down again, set the alarm to 11:30 and finally fell asleep.

At 11:24 the phone rang. I answered it, was greeted by Russian I didn’t understand, said so and the woman hung up. A minute later there was a knock on the door. I quickly got dressed and answered. Yet another woman who didn’t speak any English greeted me and I finally understood she wanted me to pay the bill. I got across to her that I wanted to use my credit card, but apparently that wasn’t going to work. She insisted on rubles. In a sleepy haze I thought I only had 1000 rubles – the bill was 1700. She was distressed by this and wanted me to follow her. Barely dressed I got on the elevator with her, bringing my money bag and went down to the lobby. She spoke with a woman at the front desk, presumably explaining the situation while it suddenly dawned on me that I had 2000 rubles, not 1000. I pulled out the money, gave it to the bill woman while the other, who spoke a little English, told me to have a seat while the other collected my change. She brought me my 300 rubles and I returned to my room completely baffled. These were certainly strange ways of doing things – maybe it was just the prevalence of Russian bureaucracy – one person for every conceivable job. In any case, I had the key, had paid the bill and now needed to get ready for the tour.

I took a shower, ridding myself of that travel grunge buildup, got dressed and went down to the lobby. I looked around a little as I was early and noticed the closed bank and ATM along the far wall. An ATM that I was very thankful to see since I had used up most of my money on the hotel.

I came back into the main lobby and saw a man holding my name. I had assumed the travel guide, who was to speak English, and the driver would be the same person. I was wrong. This was the driver who spoke no English – he got across to me that we were waiting for one more, a young woman who arrived about five minutes later. She was very pretty with long brownish-red hair and was named Natalia. We got in the car and started the city tour.

I now can’t remember half the names and dates of things she told me, but we visited a number of really inspiring parks and monuments, starting with Red Square or Krasnaya Ploshad. She explained that its name had nothing to do with the color red or communism, but rather had been named Beautiful Square after all the wooden market stalls that once had been there were removed - krasni in old Russian originally meant beautiful, not red. Many of the monuments and parks were in memorial of either WWII or the Russian’s war with Napoleon. Both of which, I gathered, were sources of great pride for the Russian people.

Natalia was very good at speaking English but seemed to have much of what she said memorized – which made sense when I found out she did tours like mine every day during the summer. I enjoyed speaking to her more when we got somewhat off topic – when she would tell me things about herself or little Russian jokes – about the recent freezing winter and the bad fortune that there were no enemies to kill (since in both WWII and the Napoleonic wars the enemy was overcome and helped to defeat by the unusually cold winters of those years) or about the statue of Alexander (NOTE: later was told that it was Peter the Great so this story may have all been untrue) on a very undersized boat that was supposedly originally Columbus but was refused by the US so his hat was removed, his map of North America became documents to unite Russia and he was Alexander – a statue that is a joke among Russians. Our tour was only three hours, but I felt I had seen a lot, some of which was hopefully absorbed, and my mind was made up even more that I must return to this city to explore it more in the future.