Having flown to Moscow from Toronto, we had passed through eight time zones. We had left at approximately 1800 hours in Toronto, and, had arrived at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport at roughly 1400 hours the next day (0600 Toronto time). On two separate flights, and with only a minimum of time for changing planes, it had taken us some twelve hours of flying time to get there.( Please see P.S. at the end of this article.) Having made our way through the busy airport building, we managed to find the Alumni Holidays International (AHI) representative before we started to panic in this quite unfamiliar surrounding. It took a while before all of us guests had been safely gathered like chicks around a mother hen. Then, finally, we headed off toward the bus which was to take us to our temporary home for this trip, the river cruising ship Илъя Репин (Ilya Repin). Our luggage was loaded onto the bus, and once we had all boarded this luxurious vehicle, we were ready to start.

The bus ride, though fascinating, was quite slow. It took as almost as long to get from one corner of Moscow to the other, as it had taken us to fly from Frankfurt to Moscow. This is not intended, by the way, to be at all critical. Being here in Moscow and seeing the place that just a few short years ago had been securely tucked behind the Iron Curtain, kept us easily entertained.

And what was it we saw? There were huge and often moving, rather hi-tech, advertising signs such as might be seen occasionally in the Western world. The only difference was that the pitch here was being delivered in cyrillic letters which to us at least carried a minimum of a recognizable message. Beyond that, there were many cars. Cars that certainly were very familiar to us: Volkswagens, Mercedes, Hondas, Toyotas, even the occasional Chevrolet, but there was hardly a Lada in sight. Was this Moscow, the place that used to be the head of the 'Evil Empire'? Obviously, these people had adjusted more quickly to the change in circumstances than I had.

The driving we saw was intimidating. Cars pushed their way into a lane with an amazing aggressiveness. This place sure did not seem to be the 'Do-as-you-are-told' society. There wasn't a policeman or army officer at every other corner to keep these drivers in line. People drove as agressively as they do in Toronto or perhaps even more so. Intimidated by authority? They weren't, as far as I could see.

There were other sights that seemed familiar and yet, after a while, the difference too, became obvious. Moscow is a very big city, having anywhere between ten and fifteen million people. There were apartment buildings here like in any large city in North America. And here, as at home they are large and unimaginatively square ones, and occasionally also, still large, but stylish and inviting-looking. But, during the whole long bus trip, I cannot remember seeing a single-family home!

Eventually, we reached the Northern River Terminal, the place where our vessel and a number of other, similar ones were docked. We went aboard, were given a key to a cabin, and took possession of it. When our suitcases arrived from the bus, which we had loaded on the bus, we freshened up a bit and eventually went to the dining room to be served dinner. Having that business taken care of we once more retreated to our cabin. It had been a long 29 hours since we had had our last uninterrupted sleep and we were ready for our first night's rest in Russia.

P.S. If I were you, my dear reader, I'd not put a great deal of credence into my time and duration calculations, for, along with the fact that we were passing through all these time zones,there is, I just found out, one further complication. It turns out that for some time now Russia, between the end of March and the end of October has gone on their version of daylight saving time. The only problem is that unlike North America it did not advance the clock by one hour in the spring and retard it by the same amount in the fall, but it moved ahead and then back by two hours! In other words, it hardly seems worth mine, or your time, to figure out just what time it was here or there, or for that matter, just how long we were actually up in the air.

I think, if you don't mind, we'll just agree on the fact that it was quite a long trip from here to there.

G.J.H. Jan. 2009