last day in Moscow

Always wanted to leave somewhere where I'd stay for quite some time with a little bang. Last night in Moscow was quite a parting gift. Alex and I had a couple meetings in the middle of the day with old friends, coworkers, relatives and then we agreed to meet up at 10 pm at Alex's room at the Ritz Carlton.

Alex got a hold of the room last August, when he was staying there with his girlfriend. The reason they stayed there in the first place because it just opened and the rates were half price. Also, Alex's gf's parents were on the board of the ritz so they got another special discount, making a room in the ritz on of the cheapest hotels in moscow in sumemr 07, i think they were paying about 300 bucks per night. However, the last night of their stay, Alex made a big scandal out of the fact that the airconditioning wasn't working so the mgmt was very apollogetic and offered a one night stay anytime of the year and so he took them up on their offer the last night we were in Mo

scow.

I invited Simon and Danya and Alex had some of his friends come over for some pre-gaming. Simon's friends that brought some alcohol lived

nearby so we headed over to their place later that night. When Simon first mentioned him, he told me he lived rig

ht under Samsung, I had no idea what he was referring to, but as you can see from the picture, it was quite an apt. Aparently it

belonged to Admiral Kuznetsov and our friend showed us a little secret pogreb, right under the window that looked out on red square(manezh to be exact). Anyhow, after some drinks and realizing that I had to be leaving to the airport in a couple of hours, I went out and caught a car to my place, where my bags weren't even packed yet.

Now I'm back to new york and after a 15 hour trip, with delays, annoying aeroflot service, a light that doesn't work and etc. Coming back to the airport was great, I chatted up with a guy at the passport control, which are allways so nice and got my bags and met my parents.