Moscow

After a quick transit through Frankfurt, I arrived in Moscow for my week in Russia. Moscow, is the capital and the largest city of Russia, actually it's the largest city in Europe. Moscow is the country's political, economic, religious, financial, educational and transportation centre. It is located on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District. Historically, it was the capital of the former Soviet Union and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the pre-Imperial Russian state. It is also the site of the Moscow Kremlin, which serves as the ceremonial residence of the President of Russia. Moscow is now a major economic centre and, would you believe, is also home to the largest number of billionaires in the world. In 2007, it was also named the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row... so far I'm guessing it will probably take this credit for 2008 also!

After a relatively painless customs experience, I somehow found my driver in the crowd at Domodedovo Airport, and we set off on the 1 hour trip to meet Jacqui at her office. This actually turned out to be a fairly tame Russian traffic experience, but I was later to learn this is because peak hour doesn't start until around 630pm. I met up with Jacqui and went back to her place where I met the latest addition to her life... her puggle Charlie Brown. He was super excited to have a visitor, and took a lot of calming down! After taking him for a walk, we stopped at a local restaurant for some dinner, and by this time it was 11pm and time for bed!