Welcome to the Hotel Orlyonok

I admit struggling to pronounce this Hotel's name correctly, it means young eagle in Russian I think-a name used for the young pioneers back in Soviet days, but of course that time is long gone. This hotel is in a great location, next to a park, Moscow State University and the nicest view in Moscow. They even have a casino on the first floor, how cool!

We checked in, yes the lady at the desk spoke English, and we received our electronic keys. How cool is this, when you open the door, you have to put your key in this place holder just inside the door, this turns on the electricity for the room. It's a pretty high tech feature I thought-well until all the diet coke got warm one day-the refrigerator really should be exempt from this thing!

It's a good idea to know your number s in Russian cause it comes in handy throughout the day. Dialing phone numbers, being asked what your room number is or which floor in the elevator. The strange thing is, I would say our room number when we would sit down for breakfast, and they would just stare as if...what was that? Are you TRYING to speak in Russian?...then they would look at my girlfriend and she would say the same thing I did, I swear the exact same thing, no fancy dialects, and then they would nod..like..ohhhh well why didn't he say it that way?

It's the same here in America, people often lean forward as if they cant hear her when she talks, and I say the same thing and pow they understand. I think the slight accents throw people until they get to know you a bit.

So we settled in and then went for a walk around the park. Here was something kind of cool. We walk down this sidewalk along a busy street...and there are some items laying just off in the grass. It looked like a mans shirt, maybe some keys and a wallet. Wow kinda personal stuff to be laying there and no one around. I asked what that might be, and my girlfriend explained...ok, this is probably someone's stuff who got robbed.

What?! I was in shock. I looked around for a police officer as if to motion and say..hey, here is someone’s stuff, maybe you are looking for it, or him or whatever??? Well guess what-bad idea! In Russia this would have landed me in jail as suspect number 1. Why did you call the police? Did you know the man who was robbed? etc.
I guess they see someone acting like a good Samaritan they suspect you are trying to cover up your deeds instead. Um. good tip for those preparing to travel-mind your own business when it comes to finding stuff on the street!

I thought that was just so strange, and saw that same shirt and items lay there the entire week we were in Moscow, crazy huh? Look a wallet...don't touch it!!

The next morning we went to see the Kremlin...more on that in my next blog.