Moscow and Aeroflot

We returned late last night quite tired but very happy to be home.  The airport in Antalya is, shall we say, a work in progress.  Weekends are perhaps not the best time to judge an airport, but this one was clogged with German tour groups arriving by the busload at two-minute intervals.  Truly chaotic and if you know anything about German tour groups, you know that they are not as civil as, say, a mad dog with rabies and worms.

Once past all the formalities, there is precious little space to sit since almost the entire departure area has been turned over to duty free shopping.  I have no idea what duty these goods are free of, but they are among the most overpriced items I’ve ever encountered.   A bottle of the local raki is about three times as much in duty free as it is in a convenience store in town.  Scotches, brandies and gin are untouchable.  Perhaps it is the Muslim mindset that tries to make purchasing alcohol as difficult and costly as possible. (Fact: Turkey has 85,000 mosques, 270 churches and 19 synagogues.)

Our flight was flawless, departing on time, arriving on time and the service was very nice. It was a full flight, not an empty seat in the plane, but they managed to provide a beverage service in economy, no booze but lots of juices and water, and they served an excellent meal.  Our dinner tray had an appetizer of salmon done two ways, served with lemon, tomato and olives.  There was a choice of two hot main courses, fish or chicken. The fish was a good-sized fillet of white fish with a shrimp garnish, served with hot boiled potatoes, carrots and broccoli.  The chicken was a casserole type of thing with red peppers, big chunks of chicken in a tangy cream/lemon sauce served with saffron rice.  There was a warm dinner roll as well as a little slice of brown bread and butter and a small pastry for dessert.  Tell me about your last three-hour flight and what they served you to eat in coach.  Kudos to Aeroflot who operate clean, modern planes with excellent on time service in the air and on the ground. Our baggage, which was very heavy, was waiting for us upon clearing immigration and our beautiful Turkish carpets were intact!

The Old Cabins (Note the Dog)

The Old Antonov and Tupolev Planes

The New Hip Aeroflot

Modern Airbus Aircraft

Cindy’s driver was there waiting for us and there was very little traffic at that time of night so the trip home was under thirty minutes, a new land record.  It was a balmy 75 degrees in the apartment when we entered!  There are no thermostats here and as I think I’ve mentioned, you control the temperature by opening windows in various rooms to try and get some airflow and bring the temp down to a reasonable level.  We unpacked and got organized before we realized we were both a bit peckish.  I made a quick pan-fried potato, garlic and herb omelet, which we had with some cold white wine and then we were ready for bed.  It was a luxury to be able to sleep late this morning in our own bed and we were happy that Cindy is so committed to her job that she decided to come home two days early, just in case something came up preventing her from getting here for the start of school on Monday.  We haven’t had a two-day weekend together here in Moscow for a very long time and we plan to make the most of it.

We had a lot of work to do this morning that we couldn’t do while we were in Turkey. It seems that someone managed to get access to my debit card information while we were in Antalya, most likely someone who works in one of the banks where I used an ATM to get cash. I received an email from our bank in West Virginia telling me that their fraud department had noticed some unusual activity and could I confirm that these were legitimate charges.  There were eight charges, all on the 30^th of October, the first day I used the card for cash.  The first charge was only for $2.31; I’m told they always start with a small charge to see if the bank will accept the charge. From there they escalated the charges, always keeping them just under $1000 so as not to set off alerts. At the end of the day they made two more charges for $3900 each, I suppose hoping to cash in before the bank placed a hold on my card.  Two things helped us avoid more charges and troubles.  The first is that I went to the bank before we left and told them I would be in Moscow and Europe and most if not all of my charges would be from there. These thieves were charging in Pennsylvania and Maryland, perhaps thinking that if they were closer to Charles Town, they would avoid detection. The other saving grace was that we took the computer with us to Turkey and had access to get the email. We called the bank right away and they were very professional and handled things with grace and courtesy. We hope we have averted problems; I filled out oodles of forms this morning and had to scan them into the computer and email them back to the bank.  It makes you feel all icky inside when you realize how easy it is for someone to take over your identity and account, even for just two days. This link suggests how this might have happened: http://www.northeastfraudforum.co.uk/atmfraud

I’ll have more time tomorrow to summarize Antalya but for now, I need to focus on drinks. Cindy and I have decided that since we live in Russia we should learn to drink vodka, so I’m about to make vodka martinis, stirred, not shaken. 

Da Svidanya, Cindy and Wm