Today we leave for New York. I called the bus company earlier in the week to check on times and fees, and told the bus was leaving at 7:45am, and arrives in New York at 1:45pm, and the cost was $77 each ticket round trip. When we arrived at the bus station, we were told that the bus was leaving at 10:25am and the fee was $83. So, we went back to Edie & Ron's, and I called the bus company, only to find out that the fee was $77 and the bus did leave at 7:45 am. We went back to the bus station for 10am and spoke with the same elderly gentleman we dealt with before. He insisted that his supervisor was wrong, along with everyone else at the main office and he was still going to charge us $83 each ticket. So, I called his supervisor again, who spoke with this same gentleman. Even after the phone conversation, and being told that he was overcharging, he insisted he was right. When he hung up the phone, he stated, "This changes nothing". Of coarse we had to pay it because we had a plane to catch. While waiting for the bus, we called the bus company supervisor, who was very kind and understanding., and told me that he was going to call the general manager on Monday. He wants us to write a letter them also and file a formal complaint.
It is now 11am, and we are on the bus headed for Springfield, Ma., where we will change drivers and then head to New York. Hopefully our Visa's will be there.
3:15pm: I just called the hotel, and our visa's are not there yet.
4pm: Our visa's arrived at the hotel 20 minutes ago. Thank God they are there!
9pm: We arrived at the Port Authority at around 4pm. We purchased tickets for a ride to the airport, and arrived at JFK at about 5:30. We called the hotel for a ride 5-6 times, and they finally picked us up at around 7pm. We were told that when we saw them drive by, they did not see us and we were considered a "no show".
We checked into the hotel and decided it was time to eat, so we ordered a pizza. I went down stairs to get a coke for Kevin and they wanted $5 for 2 10oz bottles of coke--I don't think so. We will drink juice from the vending machine.
We are both very tired, time to get into bed and watch TV before he go to sleep.
It is just past 6:30am, and I can't sleep. Check out time is 11am, and our plane leaves at 8:30pm to head to Moscow. The plane is to arrive in Moscow Monday afternoon. Then we will go to register our passports, then tour Moscow a bit, get some supper, then head to the train station, as our train leaves at 9pm to Voronezh. In 2 days we will be meeting our precious Marina.
When the plane landed, those that got on at Dullas got off the plane. Debbie and Lynne approached us and introduced themselves, and we got together with the 2 other couples we are traveling with for a brief meeting to discuss what we should expect once we arrive in Moscow.
I am not sure if this is Sunday or Monday, but my watch says 11:15pm Sunday night. But in 6 hours it will be 1:15pm Monday afternoon. We got on the plane at 8:30pm after waiting in line for what seemed forever.
Supper was served at 10pm. Kevin ate chicken and I had fish, also some sort of roll or biscuit with cheese and a salad consisting of lettuce, black olives and walnuts, with a frosted brownie for dessert.
Kevin is having a hard time because the guy sitting in front of him keeps his seat back and is constantly pushing it back. We are going to try to nap, as we are going to be up until at least 10pm Monday night when we leave Moscow on the overnight train to Voronezh.
While trying to sleep, we were woken at 2am New Hampshire time because they needed to make sure everyone had their seat belts fastened. I was able to fall asleep again for about an hour. They served drinks at 3:30am, and breakfast at 4, which consisted of cut citrus fruit wedges, a roll, some type of meat with lettuce, 1 cherry tomato, and 1 black olive, and a small cup of yogurt.
The plane finally landed at 2 pm Moscow time. We went through customs with out a problem. Leo, who was our driver while in Moscow, met us at the airport. We also learned a few things about Russians today. 1. There are no rules for driving- they all have very old cars. 2. They love to push food. 3. They love to push booze. We were at Leo's house for a couple of hours, and his wife had made a very good mushroom noodle soup, with sour cream added. (We later learned that in Russia, sour cream is almost always added to soup. Then we had boiled tortellini). He was hurt that we didn't ask for seconds. At about 7 pm we headed for the train where we met Julia, our translator. Later while I was helping Kevin study for an accounting exam, there was a knock at the door. It was Julia & Tatiana. Tatiana came in and Julia went to get the other couple we were going to Voronezh wih. She then handed out snack bags, which consisted of a sandwich (a slice of bread cut in half and put together, 2 yogurt cups, a carton of juice, and a packet containing sugar, teabags, salt, pepper, and ketchup. Then we had lemon wedges and Tatiana gave a toast to our children and us. She told us that tomorrow we go the hotel to shower, and then we go to the ministry of education to have our dossiers reviewed & accepted. If asked, we do not have a referral, have not seen pictures, video, medical report. Then we go to the orphanage - after lunch to get referral of Marina, talk to the orphanage director and doctor then back to the ministry of education to accept the referral & hopefully have a court date upon return.
Awake at 3:00 am, (this is Moscow time. They are 8 hours ahead of the EST) with 4 hours of sleep. Our beds were narrow, hard benches with very uncomfortable 1" thick "mattress" with two hard pillows and scratchy sheets & a blanket that looked like it was used as drapes!
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