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Early
Summer Tours 2004 - Moscow June 3 - 12
Moscow is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is especially beautiful in summer time when it is green outside, when the churches golden cupolas are glittering on the sun…It’s fascinating, believe me.
The beauty of our city amazed the gentlemen who came with this Tour too. One of the men asked me right in the airport how to get to the Red square from the hotel. He had been to Russia a couple times before, that’s why he was so eager to see his favorite sights again.
Well, I believe I’ve got to introduce myself before I continue my story. My name is Olga. I live in Moscow and I have been a full-time employee of AnastasiaWeb for 2 years. What I can tell you for sure is that I have a really wonderful job and I like it very much. As for this very tour, I was a senior assistant there.
The group was scheduled to arrive on Thursday, June 3. There were 2 more AnastasiaWeb people in the airport: Irina, the second assistant, and Bella, our Cultural director. As usual we got to the place some time prior to the arrival.
After everyone left the plane, it turned out that one man was missing. We checked several times to make sure he hadn’t been registered on the plane. No! Well, sometimes things like this happen -- one misses his plane and usually arrives the next day. Unfortunately, we can do nothing about it.
One more stressful thing happened to us right after the arrival – we witnessed a horrible accident on our way from the airport. A truck turned over and blazed up. Due to the accident the traffic in the direction of the airport stayed paralyzed for about 40 minutes. We just fell on evil times I guess! It is not very surprising for such a huge city as Moscow though. I believe everyone from our group understood it -- nobody complained.
After we finally got on the bus, it took us only about 45 minutes to get to the “Cosmos hotel” where we were supposed to stay. On the way there our irreplaceable tour guide Bella was paying the guys’ attention to the interesting surroundings, architecture of the buildings, modern shopping malls, green fields and Russian birches. She also told us some exciting facts from the history of Russia and everybody was listening with great interest. Nobody noticed how the time flew.
The modern 25 storey building of the Cosmos hotel impressed the guys by its unusual semicircle shape. One man was surprised to see a large casino in the lobby and even cried out: “Wow, Las Vegas !” Already then I knew that they would like their stay in the hotel and I turned out to be right.
We collected everybody’s passports and checked the group in very quickly. The briefing was traditionally scheduled for 6 p.m. so the guys had some time to take a shower, to change and simply have a rest after a long trip.
The briefing was held in Terassa Bar, a very cozy and nice place situated right in the hotel. This time the briefing was very unusual. It was combined with the Optional dinner. The guys were very much relived by the fact that they would not have to travel anywhere -- they obviously were very tired after a long journey. After everybody had placed their orders, Julia (Customer service department manager of the Moscow office) started to tell the guys the important things about the hotel, surroundings, transportation, currency exchange, the work of our Hospitality Center and of course, the Socials. There were two new people, who arrived from Dnepropetrovsk the same day. They joined another AnastasiaWeb Tour there.
Since those guys had already had some experience, they made their comments about the Socials which were very helpful for the rest of the guys. After Julia finished her speech, she gave a floor to Bella who told everybody about the forthcoming cultural program. Many of the guys got very interested in visiting the Bolshoy Theatre so she read out the repertoire to help them choose an opera or ballet to their taste and book the tickets in advance.
After the Briefing was over we continued to communicate with each other in a very friendly and warm atmosphere. Everybody tried to get to know each other better and we became friends very quickly. We were joking and laughing very much and couldn’t part till 10 p.m. Though it was late the guys did not want to let us, the assistants, go and in the end they decided to accompany us to the closest subway station situated right across the road. It took us only 2 minutes of walk to get there.
By the way, I forgot to mention that the guys from the group were pleasantly surprised with the weather. Although this summer happened to be pretty cold and rainy, which is unusual for June, it was one of those rare sunny and warm days. We kept telling the guys that it was they who brought sunny and nice weather from their distant and warm country. Everybody smiled.
On Friday Irina and I came to the Hospitality Room at 9 a.m. and as soon as we opened the door we already had our first visitors. One guy wanted us to call a lady he had been corresponding with to make sure that she was coming, another one asked us about what to wear and how to behave, some guys just wanted to chat. We were glad to help everyone. Nobody was passed over!
The two Socials were held at the Solaris night club situated in the ground floor of the hotel. It was very well equipped, cozy and modern. It was unbelievable that Solaris club is considered to be the first night club opened in Moscow .
So at 1 p.m. the Social started and little by little the ladies were arriving.
At the very beginning our gentlemen felt a little shy and awkward. It was very unusual for them to see so many beautiful women gathered in one place. They did not know how to behave. Fortunately, our American representative (Amrep, in short) and Richard (the guy from the group who had been to Russia seven times) helped them “to open themselves”. Very soon we could see all the guys busy talking to the women. There were guys who spent the whole day with the only one lady, there were guys who met several women, but still did not find a special one. Well, it did not seem to be a problem as we had two more socials to come. On the next day even more ladies came and it was a real fun. The ladies were dancing with pleasure. As usual, Florence – our representative at the Moscow Socials - held different contests to entertain everybody. Anastasia hired a huge number of interpreters, but not every interpreter had a chance to interpret during the Socials as very many ladies from Moscow speak pretty good English.
The 2 nd city Social was held in the provincial city of Tver -- in the club named Zebra. We traveled there by bus. Not everybody went with us though. Some guys had the dates arranged and couldn’t join the group.
The Zebra club was very spacious, decorated with mirrors -- everything was in “zebra” style.
The Social went very smoothly. Most of the guys were a kind of old fashioned and spent the whole day with just one lady, the one they considered to be the best. Some of them even returned to Tver the next week to see their “special” ladies again.
Well, the Socials were over, but it does not mean that since then nothing exciting was going on. Visa versa, since Monday the hospitality room started its work.
Most of the guys from our group lived on the same floor in the hotel. Our room was situated near the elevator area on that floor as well, so many guys stopped by every time they went somewhere, just to say hi sometimes. We were always glad to see every one. And they also were very happy to talk to us in their “free” (from dating) time – an exciting alternative to sitting alone in their rooms. Richard, the Amrep, brought a bouquet of beautiful flowers to our room and it became cozier and brighter.
To tell you the truth, we had a very busy schedule. We had hard time calling ladies, arranging dates, helping to solve the problems that arose from time to time. For example, despite the rooms did have a central conditioning system, some guys complained that it was stuffy in their rooms. Fortunately, there were some fans available at the reception of the hotel. We even managed to move one man to a different room. In general, everybody was satisfied with the accommodation. The rooms were very cozy with a king size bed in each room. Another problem was that Jason, a guy from the group, lost his passport. This could result into a big problem: when somebody looses his passport in a foreign country it can get him in a lot of trouble. This can even makes him stay in the country longer.
Fortunately, the story ended up well. We called every possible place where he might have lost his passport and it was soon found in the bus that we took to get to Tver. Next day we got the passport back and it was a great relief for Jason and for us.
From Monday on the guys were busy with cultural program. Although it may seem strange, every time the group left for an excursion we even felt deserted -- we got used to have many pleasant visitors so much. When they were back from the excursions they usually came to Hospitality room to share their impressions, to show the souvenirs and simply to tell something funny – they felt excited. Well, although every guy had many dates, we also did not lack their attention. J They brought us flowers, chocolate and one fellow even brought a very funny balloon in the form of heart with the inscription “We love you” on it….
ell I think it is time to sum up and tell a few words about the results of the tour. Six guys found their special ones and some of them even decided to apply for Fiancee Visa. Other four were put in a very difficult situation when they had to choose between the two ladies they liked. Those who did not meet their soul mate during this tour did not leave “empty-handed” either. They met many ladies and got their contact info so that they could keep corresponding with them. So, everybody had a great time, met many friends and really enjoyed their stay in Moscow . Some guys said that they would come back very soon, maybe even next autumn to give it the second try…
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