Clifton: Russia Trip-Day One

Editor's Note: Engage Russia's newest team member, Michael Clifton, made his first trip to Russia earlier this month. Michael is a media producer living in Kiev, Ukraine. This summer Michael will start leading Engage Russia production trips while Marc Hooks is in the States meeting with churches and others who are interested in becoming Engage Russia partners. The following is posted from Michael's personal blog.

I had an eventful first trip to Russia, to say the least. I am still trying to unpack all that happened. I will use the next few blog posts to “backtrack” the week.

The first day started early. We already lost an hour due to Daylight Savings Time taking effect. My friend, Brad Atkins, was there to pick me up around 5:30am.

I got checked in and through all the exiting procedures. I sat in the boarding lounge and watched the sun rise. I got in my (preferred) window seat on my first Aeroflot flight, and slept through taxiing and takeoff. I awoke to somewhat of a surprise, breakfast! Of course, it was minimal, but it was something.

I always find it humorous that people from this part of the world applaud upon landing the aircraft. I don’t know the reasoning behind it. The clapping seems to be a sign of relief that the plane has re-established contact with the ground. On this occasion, I think the applause happened a bit too early. The back wheels touched down (clapping commenced), and the pilot showed the maneuverability of the 737 all the way down the runway. I thought we were on a road-course rather than a drag strip.

My friend, Marc Hooks, arrived about one hour after I did. We made our way to the metro station. We switched over to the metro line, rode for a while, and switched again to get on the proper line to the apartment. It was right at 1:00pm when we arrived. We chatted for a while with our host, and rested a bit before going to an agent to get train tickets for the following night for St. Petersburg, Russia.

Octyabrskaya was the metro destination. The park and square had a large statue of Lenin in the middle. This is evidently the most recent erected statue of Lenin (1985) as a “multi-national” symbol of the 1917 October Revolution.

We secured our train tickets, and finally got something quick to eat at Rostick’s (KFC). It was a late lunch for the two of us, but it was something. It was just like KFC in the US (except for the menus in Cyrillic type). A “zinger” was a “зингер”!

Taking advantage of the beautiful, blue sky, we leisurely made our way back to the apartment and took in the Yuri Gagarin Monument (picture at top). He was the first person in space and the first to orbit the Earth on 12 April 1961. He died 7 years later in a MIG jet crash, and was buried in the wall of the Kremlin. This stainless-steel (or titanium – debated) monument stands 40 meters tall.

For dinner, the two of us and our hosts went to the Starlight Diner (not too far from the Lenin monument). The chrome-plated diner resembles (inside and out) a 50’s era US diner. The burgers and milkshakes (I had a bleu cheese and bacon burger with an Oreo milkshake) were great, but even the non-smoking side of the diner was clouded in cigarette smoke.

All-in-all, not a bad first day in Moscow.