Russia baby!

Okay, we’re not in Norway anymore. We’re on a train from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. It’s Monday morning and we’re recovering from a crazy day yesterday and a fantastic match last night. The train we’re on is a free World Cup train so the atmosphere is electric. We’re sitting across from a group of guys from India and two dudes from Argentina. It’s super fun swapping stories and sharing info about our experiences. The guys from India said they heard there are 10,000 Indians in Russia for the World Cup. It’s a 6-hour direct flight from Calcutta to Moscow, so not too bad. Our match tonight in Nizhny is between Sweden and Korea, so we have a lot of fans from those countries on our train as well.

Back to yesterday. We had an “Amazing Race” type adventure from Oslo to Moscow, starting with a 4:30 wake up call and ending with us finally checking into our hostel at about 10:00 p.m. Luckily everything went off without a hitch, because we got to the match just in time for the Mexico national anthem. We had a lot of connections before that including a layover in Brussels, a long passport entry into Moscow, a train from the airport to the city, a wild metro ride to our hostel to drop off our bags, then another metro ride to the stadium where we ran up to the gates to make it there in time. The kids admitted later that they were pretty overwhelmed with the experience but I couldn’t really tell. They did an incredible job of rolling with the punches.

In my naivety I made an assumption that getting around the Moscow would be relatively easy due to the World Cup. I assumed that metro signs and other signage would be in English to assist international travels. Well, that’s not the case. And it’s not even true that signs are written in the Roman alphabet. Many of the signs, including those in the metro, are written only in Cyrillic, so when it comes to figuring out where we are or where we’re going, we’re sort of screwed. We did manage it okay, but not without a bit of stress. I’m lucky the kids have a good sense of direction and getting around by metro. They’ve been a big help.

So, the game last night between Mexico and Germany. It was, to say the least, incredible. It felt like a home game for Mexico. There was green and red everywhere, fans from Mexico all over the place in sombreros and wrestling masks chanting and singing songs like Cielito Lindo. It was wild. And the game itself was outstanding, too, with Mexico scoring in first half and hanging on for a 1-0 victory. We got beer showers twice, first when Mexico scored and then again at the end of the match. It was one big Mexican party. Because we hadn’t had time for anything to eat earlier, we grabbed food at the half. It wasn’t anything great. Burgers and hotdogs and Budweiser. Pretty familiar stuff. 

After the match was another party, as all of us filed onto the streets. It was about a 15-minute walk to the metro, like one giant Mexican parade. Of course there were a fair amount of German fans there as well. It was neat to see the comradery between the fans. We captured a lot of handshakes and hugs between the fans from opposite countries. A spirit of friendship and sportsmanship like FIFA always proclaims.

The metro was packed returning to our hostel. When we got up to the street we finally had our first chance to really breathe since arriving to Moscow. We sat in a little plaza and people-watched before going across the street for Big Macs and fries at McDonalds. By the way, a Big Mac in Moscow tastes exactly like a Big Mac in Minneapolis. I suppose that’s not a shock. It’s how Ray Crock wanted it, right?

At around 10:00, after buying much needed soap and bottled water from a little drug store, we finally made it to our hostel. Some day, ask me about the Russian guy and the slippers. Our exchange with him at the front desk felt right out of some comedy sketch about stereotypical Russians. Put on your thickest Russian accent and say the following out loud to yourself, “So, you have the slippers? Follow me. I show you the hostel.” We each showered the beer off ourselves then crawled into our sleeping pods, the kids in one room, me in another. I was given a taste of my own medicine during the night, sharing a room with a fellow snorer. All in all it was a restful night, before getting up early again and walking to the train. Now, here we are. Tonight, it’s Sweden versus Korea and an Air BnB. We’ll see what that brings!