21 September

Another interesting day dawned. But before it did I was up and had washed (no shower, that I could see) and dressed and had discovered a power outlet in the compartment and was transcribing my blog for yesterday.
Before too long, day had dawned and soon my breakfast called me from my writings. I had a slice of pork with chips and tomato sauce, peaches in syrup (ate the peaches, not the syrup) and cheese with olives (had the cheese, left the olives). By the time I had finished it was time to pack and the train glided it at its appointed time of 0755. This time I made sure I was first out and then walked to the head of the platform. Guess what? People with signs for Norquist and Pilot, another for a yellow taxi, but none for me. I wasn’t sure if I was to be met, so I waited until about 0815 with stern “Nyet!” to all the taxi drivers who approached me. I didn’t see the one from a fortnight ago, and by 0820 I headed off on foot (it is only about a mile or so). As I was leaving the station proximity, I saw a Mazda MPV, silver, P 519 XP with the driver I recognised. So if you are ever in Moscow, unless you want to throw money away, avoid that vehicle and driver!
It was only a few minutes before I was able to confirm I was in the right street, heading in the correct direction, and only about fifteen minutes before I realised the worse – I would have to cross an intersection underground, therefore meeting at least two sets of thirty steps. There was no choice, so I did it and found myself on the correct street for the hotel, with a Metro station next to me and a Macca’s opposite. With a joyous heart (it’s always good to get something right for a change and to be able to do it by myself) I progressed the hundred or so metres down the street and found the hotel.
Naturally at this time (about 0915) I wasn’t able to check in, but I was able to complete passport and formal details and leave my luggage. Off to the Metro, and because I will be here for another two days and a few days on my return from Beijing, I went for the superspecial saver – ten rides for 155 py6. I went down, rode into the city circle lien and looked at a few stations. Then I remembered – I had a purpose today. I had to go to the New Maiden Cemetery, visit and photograph famous gravesites (for myself and for Cindy – or should that be Cyndy? I changed for the Red line and got out at the correct station to find myself in familiar territory. A brisk walk down the street in bright sunshine and I was at the cemetery (whoops, no I wasn’t – I was at the Novodevichy Cemetery – but then I remembered that was its Russian name). Another pleasant surprise – no entry charge today! Off I went and found a number of graves, and found myself in the company of many others also trying to find gravesites. Some of them, despite being listed on a number of maps and in many publications, were not easy to find. There was only one I gave up on, but I found all the others. I will ist them all in an addendum to this blog, but currently they can be worked out by reading the (Russian) names and checking the birth and death dates. I was working n tandem with a family from New Zealand/England, an individual from south Africa/Spain and a group from England. It was so easy to be looking and go straight by the gravesite. By 1430 I had enough and caught the Metro back to where I was staying, called into Macca’s for a late lunch/tea and then to the hotel. Ah, no lift, so I got assistance with the suitcase. I then wrote up and completed my blog for yesterday and today, downloaded and processed my photos from yesterday and today, charged the mobile, batteries and the iPod and found (despite knowing there was only WiFi in the lobby, getting three networks from the room and then checking mail, uploading photos onto Flickr, checking my hit rate (fans are fickle – don’t post for a few days and they desert you) and uploading blogs.
The I checked on breakfast for the next few days, looked around the hotel, did some washing, showered and retired early to catch up on sleep (the train wasn’t bad, just too short a sleep time).