We’re tired, so just a short summary.

Early in the morning we left the Bottwartal for our voyage to Moscow. Getting to Stuttgart was the easy part, but Steffen already got a mail that our ICE trip was half-canceled (would’ve ended a few cities too early), so we had to rebook. That actually went well, aside maybe the tiny little fact that the other train was already 20 minutes late before it arrived in Stuttgart. En route, this ICE continued to delay its own schedule, but we managed to arrive at Frankfurt Airport in time to catch our flight.

Getting onto the plane wasn’t much of a problem… well, except for Steffen who enjoyed an intimate frisk at the security check. Turns out his shoes were the problem, probably a bio-hazard alert. The flight was okay, just a bit chaotic, since Aeroflot doesn’t seem to care much about their own carry-on baggage rules and not everyone was able to store their stuff in the compartments.

We arrived in Moscow without any further problems. And… we got into the country and out of the airport without any further problems (aside a bit lacking orientation due to the Cyrillic letters everywhere). We expected a more thorough check after all that hassle we had filling out our visa applications (during the prelude, so to speak), but no, they didn’t bother. We claimed our baggage, passed the green tunnel without a second glance, got cash from the ATM, found the shuttle train to Moscow… all way too easy and fishy.

But it hit us after that. Understanding the metro system was above our tired heads in this muggy weather with 20-30 kg of luggage on our shoulders. We must’ve looked really confused and fortunately arose the mercy of a lovely young lady who spoke remarkably well English. She explained our route to the hotel and gave us valuable starters for the metro system, so we were able to head out and finally found our hotel.

More about the metro (war memorials everywhere) and our hotel (4 stars, 26th floor, not enough outlets) in the next few day.

Okay, that wasn’t really short.