Travel days are both hectic and tiring. All arrived at Portland Jetport on time, followed by some repacking to ensure we did not exceed weight limits. We are down one person (who we will meet in Moscow as he is in Germany at our partner school Aalen). I am constantly amused at Delta people who insist we use the Kiosk's to check in--despite the fact that it never works for us going to Russia--we have to show our visa. So I use the Kiosk, it rejects me, the agent comes over and says do it again in front of them, and lo and behold it rejects me again!!! So they reluctantly allow us to check in with the agents (not joyously mind you).
When we arrive in LaGuardia, we are met by our bus to take us to JFK for our onward flight to Moscow. The traffic is quite light and we make it there in plenty of time. Then we have the wait (16 of us) until boarding time. Some folks cannot sleep on an airplane (sad, as this is a ten hour flight). We arrive groggy and safe at approximately 11 AM in the morning where we clear customs and passport control and are met by our guide Svetlana, meet our last comrade (we are now 17 in number) and are bussed to our hotel--which was built for the 1980 Olympics. We are about 3 minutes away from a Metro station and a 20 minute ride to central (Red Square) Moscow.
We take rest, exchange money (what an experience that was) and head off to Red Square and to dinner. The end of the day is a welcome relief for all.
1st photo--Svetlana our guide
2nd photo--resting on airplane
3rd photo--Moscow airport
4th photo--at Red Square
5th photo--St. Basils.
John F. Mahon
John M. Murphy Chair of International
Business Policy and Strategy and
Professor of Management
www.umaine.edu/business/
www.umaine.edu/business/faculty-staff/mahon/
Nice to see sunny photos from Russia - the grass is getting very green [and wet] here in the Orono area...BTW, if possible pls increase the photo size of your uploads, they click open as thumbnails...1980 Olympics hotel! - India's population was 800 million...there are 300 million more from what I hear!!! Is that Jacob with eyes shut and a Virginia sweatshirt? He looks studious even in slumber :))) Pank
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