Our cab was waiting for us at 4:50 for a 5:00 pickup. We thought that was probably a good sign and headed out the door. Our first clue that something might be out of kilter was when we turned the wrong way to go to the airport. I questioned this and received a suspicious answer but as the fare is by the trip not the time it was not too disconcerting that we took the scenic route. I pretty quickly realized we were taking strategic allys and such to avoid police checkpoints. Now that seems unusual but as the Russian traffic Police at times in the past have had a somewhat questionable reputation I decided that discretion may be the better part of Valor and the driver just wanted as few hassles as possible.
His plan worked well too as we avoided all police checkpoints until the last one. He was invited inside the guard house and our next suggestion of trouble was the officer taping on my window telling me that we would not be going on with this taxi and that we would have to find another. As my friend Rosane says, "OOOOkkaaaaaaaa". We were about 10 miles from town, it was snowing pretty well, and we had just under 2 hours to catch our flight.
Well, the police did not live up to the feared reputation we had heard about. They just asked each car that they stopped to take us to the airport. We jumped into a nice SUV with a couple Russians who refused to take anything for hauling us the rest of the way. 7 hours later we were in Moscow trying to figure out where the bus to town was, but that could be another post.
So what cool thing happened to you today, that makes you wonder, who should you thank for it?
1 comment:
So glad it worked out OK!!! Whew.
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