First day

Well we were finally given seat assignments- after boarding started, so you can be sure I was calm and collected and not panicking at all. It worked out in the end though, because Ashley and I were upgraded to economy plus, which apparently means comfy seats, extra leg room, and complimentary bottles of water. Our flight to Copenhagen was then uneventful, and we actually arrived a half hour early because of wind. We got there just as I had finally drifted off to sleep, and as we groggily stumbled around the Copenhagen airport at 7 am but 1 am out time, we were directed toward gate b, although our gate hadn't been posted yet. While this meant going through passport control, we were assured we could get to any gate we wanted once we got to gate b. unfortunately I think the Danish man who told us that was a little confused, because when we got to the other side and saw that our gate was a c gate, we followed signs back through passport control, where the bewildered border control officer looked at the stamp in our passports and said "you just got here". And that's the story of how I accidentally went to Denmark for 10 minutes.

Our flight to Moscow was easy and crisis free, and customs and border control felt a little like a bunch of people went home early today- desks where they might have checked our immigration cards and items to declare, but no people doing any checking. So, having collected our bags (the baggage claim gods were smiling on us and they were some of the first we saw), we consulted our detailed hostel directions. Once we determined that we were at sheremetyevo airport and not domodedovo like I thought (for whatever reason, I guess I thought that double checking the airport we were flying to was overkill...) we found that we needed to get on the aeroexpress train and after many minutes of turning in circles and shrugging, we enlisted the help of a security guard who guided us up an elevator and down a hallway. We bought tickets without (much) trouble and hopped on board toward the city! Then we found the metro and used my negligible understanding of Cyrillic to figure out where to go. Ashley was a rockstar reading the metro map and somehow we managed to make it to our stop (we even had to change trains!). The directions from the metro stop were a bit unclear- "take the path, it goes on a ways" - but only a handful of wrong turns later, we arrived at the front door, checked in, were given a tour, and were left to our own devices. We decided to find coffee and then maybe real food. Coffee turned out to be 5-7 dollars so we probably won't be doing that again in a hurry. The map we got at the hostel had a minimart nearby, but also a grocery store a little farther away, so we decided to be adventurous and find the grocery store. We didn't find it, but managed to navigate in a circle and never get lost! In the end, since it was 8:00 pm and we were exhausted and wanting to get back before sunset, at least our first night, we decided to check out the minimart. It turned out to be more than enough of a store, and we stocked up on some apples, bread, yogurt, and cheese, so maybe we won't starve to death or go broke in this city. Now we are all tucked up in bed- ready for Lenin, the Red Square, and the Kremlin tomorrow!! Can't wait!

(Forever roommates, taking on a third continent 😃)