August 27, time to leave Khabarovsk and start our way back to real life. The Aeroflot flight was early - 9:40am, so none of us had a good sleep. We had our final breakfast with red caviar. The taxi we had was the smallest you can imagine when you need space... My mom, aunt and uncle came to the airport. No tears - we will be back next year!
Pablo and I were in different cabins. Pablo was in Comfort and I was in the Economy. Reason: Pablo's ticket was bought with airmiles (mines!!!) and mine with money. There was no economy available for airmiles, so I had to spend the double amount to pay for Pablo's ticket and was left with nothing for myself. Oh well, we saved good money! Obviously, Pablo's flying conditions were much nicer and he managed to nick a cutlery set because he liked the design (for some reason he got two sets of cutlery, but gave back only one...).
As we took off, the magnitude of floods became clear. That was just one big river/lake with several islands of land and elevated roads. As we moved further North-West, the picture was very different. There were naked river beds - dry, no water!
We arrived to Moscow at 10am. Full day ahead of us! We checked in to the Renaissance Monarch hotel, went for a walk in the area and had an early dinner at the hotel lounge located at the top floor with excellent views over Moscow. As we were walking, we saw a small Lenin statue and I had an idea - we are in Moscow, we have to visit the man himself, not his statue.
August 28, we walked for about an hour from the Hotel to the Red Square to visit the Lenin Mausoleum. We queued for more than an hour to have a 1-minute visit - not allowed to hang around at all! Then we went for a walk and met with our friends for dinner.
August 29, we started the day with a short walk in the Petrovsky Park nearby where we found a monument to Laika - the first dog in space that never made it back (that was the design of the mission...). Quite moving... Then we went to the airport, had lunch at the BA lounge and boarded the plane. Surprise! We were upgraded to the Premium Economy as the plane was full. That was an excellent way to finish the trip! Comfortable sits and a glass of champagne!
The smallest possible taxi
Maybe you can't tell from this photo, but the rivers looked dry when I saw them from the plane
In the Aeroflot Comfort Cabin
Lenin mummy, photo courtesy of Internet. No pictures are allowed.
Laika Monument
On the way to Domodedovo Airport
Video taking off from Khabarovsk over the flooded Amur river
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