Friday 8 April 2005

My first Internet Date - Olga in Moscow - Part 3

With my first couple of days out of the way, I wanted to see if there was any potential with Olga.  We'd arranged to meet on Monday evening for dinner and I was going to ask some probing questions...


It was the third time we had met up and I was more than a little peeved that she had made minimal effort and probably told me a pack of lies about herself and her situation.  So I asked her to book a nice restaurant for Monday evening.  We'd had another stab at eating Russian food the night before, but I'd drawn a line under that one.  'Which type of meat is this?' to which I got the reply 'meat, you like meat, you want morrrre?'.  I have no idea what it was we ate on Sunday night but it was as tough as old boots.  Olga seemed to enjoy it though.

On Monday evening we met at the hotel again and we flagged down a passing motorist who took us to the restaurant for a few rubels.  The restaurant, was more to my liking, tablecloths, napkins, waitresses without beards and edible food.  Olga warned me this was going to be expensive.  It was about the same as you'd pay for a meal in a good restaurant in central London.  She told me she had been here once before with work when they celebrated getting a big contract.

I asked about ex-boyfriends and she went to some lengths to tell me about how mean Russian men were and how badly they treated their women and yes, she'd had a few boyfriends, but nothing for a while and nothing long term (this worried my, if a woman hasn't had a long term relationship by her mid-thirties, is she ever going to have one?).  She asked more about me and for the first time we had a fairly relaxed two way dialogue which we both seemed to enjoy.

Next day, I did more sightseeing and bought tickets for the Bolshoi.  It was ballet rather than opera and I had misunderstood my orders for buying tickets at the front of the box, I thought she had said the best views were from the back of the box.  At the second interval I suggested we left and went for a drink.

Boshio Theatre on my first internet date
Bolshoi at night
We did and she took me to a really swanky place (I paid, of course).

A pleasant enough evening we had, although I was thinking that it might be better to look for someone a little closer to home as I couldn't imagine a long distance relationship (Paris would have been alright, if it had been the truth).

I think I had guilt tripped her in to taking my final day off work and we went sightseeing around Moscow, she showed me the monument to Yuri Gagarin and then we walked around Gorky Park for a bit.  I went back to the hotel, checked out and we went to the airport together.  She kissed me quite intensely for a while, which was more than I was expecting and it was if to say 'maybe there is something there'.  Then just before I went to the gate she said, if we are going to see each other again, it will need to be after you divorce.

Okey dokey, I thought, there's not time to have this conversation now.   I kissed her again and said goodbye for now.  Whilst I didn't really see a future for Olga and I, I did enjoy my trip to Moscow, I probably would have never gone otherwise.

We kept in touch for a while and it became clear to me that divorce was a big thing for her, separated was not enough.  Oddly, a couple of years later I was driving between Glasgow and Edinbugh and I received a call from her, she was now living in the US (or was she?) and wanted to tap in to my Private Equity connections.  I said I'd get back to her, but never did.

Anyway here are some more photos from Moscow and my first internet date:

Tomb of the Unknow Warrier - I had a lot of time to kill on my first internet date
Tomb of the Unknown Warrier

One of the main roads in Moscow
Moscow roads are BIG!

I didn't expect snow when I went internet dating!
There's still snow on the ground in April...

MacDonalds in Moscow
They even have these things in Moscow and no, I didn't take Olga, my internet date to MacDonalds!

Shopping near Red Square
A very swanky shopping mall, just off Red Square

London Bus in Moscow
I didn't expect to see a London Bus in Moscow!

Notice on the wall of the Convent, below...

The Novodevichy convent - closed!
Olga and I visited this Convent.  It was closed.  Perfect!

Moscow Metro Station
Moscow metro station - just like the Northern Line!

The Kremlin
The Kermlin

Wednesday 6 April 2005

My first Internet Date - Olga in Moscow - Part 2

All my travel documents were ready, my visa was glued in to my passport and I was at Toulouse Blagnac Airport ready for my transfer flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle - business class!  As I boarded the plane I thought 'I wonder if she's been telling me the whole truth, after all you do hear stories?'.

The transfer went smoothly at Roissy (hint: if you want to impress a French person, don't call it Charles de Gaulle Airport, call it Roissy).  I sat at the front of the plane and I was the only one in business class, after everyone had boarded I took what I thought was the best seat, at the front in the middle, by the door - loads of leg room.  Just as they closed the door to the aircraft I had a call from Olga, the flight attendant was lightning fast and ordered me to turn off my phone.  I sneaked a quick text to say 'sorry just leaving Paris, flight about to take off, I have to turn my phone off, see you at Shermetyevo x'.  Olga had kindly offered to meet me at Shermetyevo Airport and take me to my hotel.

The flight went well, so comfortable was my seat that I promptly fell asleep.  I awoke to the sound of rattling trays as the lunch was cleared away - damn it, I was going to have to wait until Moscow to get food.  Never mind.

As we went further east the landscape changed and ground turned to white.  I had done a little research in to the weather in Moscow in April and that research had told me that the days would be cold and probably dry, what I hadn't figured on was the amount of snow that remained.

On landing I filled in a plethora of forms, which took me a good 30 minutes.  These were then promptly ignored as I went through border control and customs.  I rang Olga to find out where I should meet her at the airport.  She told me that the reason she had called me earlier was that she was ill and wasn't able to make it to the airport, but she'd meet me at the hotel at 6pm, we could then go for dinner.  I was a seasoned traveller by this point in my life, having spent a six month period, fairly recently being in a different country every week, so how difficult could it be to get a taxi in to the centre of Moscow?

Quite difficult actually!  I had currency (in Europe or the US I never bother getting currency before I travel, I just get it at the airport when I arrive, but I did get some Rubles and some US Dollars before I arrived in Moscow, having done a little research), I had the address of the hotel, what more could I possibly need?  After queuing for 15 minutes at minus 20, I eventually reached the head of the queue.  I was told I needed a voucher from inside the terminal building.  Back I went to the terminal building and got myself a pre-paid voucher (about £50 from memory).  The queue had dissipated, thankfully and I jumped in to the next cab.

As we drove in to Moscow I looked at row after row of social housing flats, lining the massive road.  It was a grey day and I'm sure it all looked a lot worse without sunlight, but it was pretty depressing.  Moscovites drive like absolute maniacs (not quite as bad as when I was in Shanghai, the year before, but pretty close).

Arriving at the hotel was actually very pleasant and the room I had was massive, with a great view of the city.  I could just make out the Kremlin from my room.  I called Olga and she said she'd come to the hotel at 6.  I put my suit on and went down to reception at 5.50 to wait for her.  I was pretty nervous by this stage, the first date I'd been on in 10 years and it was about to happen!  I kept looking at my watch in anticipation.  At a minute to six my hands went clammy (my hands never go clammy) and I was inspecting every single woman that came in to the busy reception area to see if it was Olga.

Six pm came and went.  At twenty past six I rang Olga to see where she was, no answer.  She eventually arrived at 7.00pm.  We kissed on the cheek and I asked her if there were traffic problems.  She replied that there weren't and that it was alright because I had had to wait inside, it wasn't as if I had to wait in the cold outside.  I put that down to cultural differences and decided to keep quiet about her being one hour late and not doing what she had said at the airport.  We had a bit of idle chit chat and the she told me off for not answering the phone whilst I was on the ground at Toulouse - 'if I call you, it is because it is important, you should take my call, I wanted to tell you I couldn't come to the Airport as I was ill'.  I explained about the thoroughly efficient flight attendant.  She tutted, shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, at the same time looking thoroughly disappointed in me.  I should mention that her photos were somewhat more flattering than the reality of what stood before me.

At his point, these days, I would probably say 'do you know what, I don't think this is going to work', but given I was a few thousand miles from home and had nothing else to do for the next few days, I thought better of that.  A few 'never minds' later and we headed off in to the centre of Moscow.  We caught the underground from near the hotel to somewhere near Red Square.  Growing up during the cold war, this was pretty exciting for me to see Red Square and the Kremlin.  She asked my what type of food I wanted to eat and I said something typically Russian.  We went to a restaurant, which was more like a theme park than a restaurant with Gypsies prancing around.  The food was foul.  We had a few shots of vodka and that seemed to make the whole thing a lot more acceptable.

We talked about her time in Paris in London and I got the distinct impression, from the fact she couldn't remember where she had lived in Paris that she may not have been telling the complete truth about that part of her story.  Anyway, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.  At the end of the evening we took a taxi.  In the taxi, her hand touched mine and she said, did I know what the large building was we were passing.  It was dark, it was a new city, I didn't have a clue.  She leant over and whispered in my ear 'It's the FSB, what used to be the KGB'.  Now, you may be thinking 'so what'?  You have to remember at this point in time that I hadn't had any degree of intimacy with a woman for months, if not years, so that actually made me quite excited.

We arrived at the hotel.  I paid (as I had done for the meal) and she said she would get a cab.  I said 'what's wrong with the one we were just in?'.  Apparently the one we had been in was for rich people and tourists, the way everyday Muscovites move around is to hail any old car down and offer them some money.  This didn't seem terribly safe to me, so I offered her the taxi fare.  She declined and went on her way.

She had things to do the next day, so she couldn't meet me until the evening.  It was Sunday, it was a crisp sunny day.  So I got myself a map and walked in to the centre of Moscow.

This is one of Stalin's Seven Sisters (bureaucratic offices), near the hotel:

Internet Dating - Olga from Moscow - on my first internet date this was near the hotel
My first Internet Date - One of Stalin's Seven Sisters, near the hotel in which I stayed
I took a guided tour of the Kremlin.  In 2005 I was 37 years old, my guide was incredibly attractive and aged early thirties.  She was also quite a flirt.  I was sorely tempted to ask her out for dinner, given the way things were looking like they may turn out with Olga.  For two reasons I didn't - it wouldn't have been fair on Olga, but more importantly, I bottled it!

The tour of the Kremlin was really interesting.  Here are some of the photos:

internet date number 1 - visiting the kremlin
On my first internet date - the cannon balls were actually larger than the bore of the cannon!

a church on my first internet date
Didn't Lenin ban religion?

I visited the Kremlin on my first internet date
The Russian Federation flag flying above the his main residence meant that Vladimir Putin was at home.


I was having more fun sight seeing than I was with Olga on my first internet date
Famous bell within the Kremlin.

A tour of the Kremlin whilst on an internet date
Then when you get around the other side of the bell...
I thanked Elena, my tour guide, for showing me the Kremlin and made my way to Red Square.

Here's some pictures of me and Red Square:

Me in Red Square

Another on of me in Red Square

Outside Lenin's Mausoleum on my fist internet date




Monday 4 April 2005

My first Internet Date - Olga in Moscow - Part 1

It was Spring 2005 and I was living alone in South Western France. After the day at work I would travel back to the great big farmhouse that I was renting and try and understand French TV. There was a dial up connection available at the property. I soon got fed up of French TV and started using the internet as my entertainment. It wasn't long before I started to investigate online dating. 


Even though I had been around the internet for seven or eight years I was still cautious about using internet dating sites.  I was aware of the stigma attached to them.  I certainly wasn't going to tell any of my friends anything about my secret online life!

At first I would put some scant details about myself, mostly truthful, but never a photo and I would never pay, just relying on the features of the sites that were given to non-paying members.  In those days there were two UK sites that stood out - Match.com and DatingDirect.  I was a non-paying member of both.  After several weeks of nosing around I eventually started to 'wink' at some of the women I liked.  Nothing.  Then more nothing.  Ok, I thought, let's take the bull by the horns and get on with it, so I subscribed to Match.com. 

I kept on looking at profiles and, since I hadn't dated for around a decade, didn't really know the correct form for approaching women.  I got it wrong so many times.  In the end I thought 'I'm in France, very few people know me here, what have I got to lose?'. 

Months of nothing happening passed by and I was just about to throw in the towel, when out of the blue, Olga dropped me an email.  It was a very long letter-type email.  Still, it was the only bite I had had to date, so I thought about how I was going to answer.  She was working in Paris, a place I passed through a couple of times a month and also went to London frequently, again a place I went to often.

We corresponded a lot, maybe even as much as 50 'letters' backwards and forwards.  We had taken so long to do this that I felt like I knew every detail about her life and she about mine.  It was time to move in for the kill and get that first internet date!  I suggested we speak on the phone, we were both in France, after all.  She tried to call me a few times and couldn't get through.  I put it down to the telephone exchange in the local area, which was in a very remote part of the French countryside.  I suggested that I call her.  Then she went very quite all of a sudden, no emails, nothing.

A week or so later I received an email from her saying that she had had to return to Moscow at short notice and that she would like to talk again.  So, taking this at face value, I arranged to call her in Moscow.  The line was very bad and we kept getting cut off.  We finally had enough conversation pieced together and we agreed to meet.  We started talking about where and when.  She offered London and I said that sounded good to me, but then she had problems with her visa.  

I had been running international development for the French company I had been working for, so I had accumulated tens of thousands of air miles with Air France.  I used these to buy my ticket.

I then had to travel to London to get my visa.  I remember it was Easter Monday 2005.  The reason I remember the date so clearly is that virtually all of London was closed, except for the Russian Consulate, which was open as Russians don't celebrate religious festivals.

I thought I had all the paperwork I needed on arrival at the consulate.  I presented the bundle of documents (including my pre-paid five star hotel accommodation voucher).  The brusque man behind the desk passed the documents back to me 'you need two photo, not one'.  Damn it, I was running out of time, the fastest the consulate will process an application is an hour and it was 11.30, the consulate was closing at 1.00.  I ran down the road and found a convenience store owner who gladly gave me the photos in return for £10 - bargain!

I went back to the consulate, there was a sliding scale of charges, based upon how quickly you needed the visa.  Two weeks and it costs £10, then half day around £100, but if you want it in an hour, then it way £200.  Ah well, she was a very pretty girl and I was getting a holiday out of it, besides I'd already spent the money on the hotel and used my airmiles on my plane ticket, so £200 was nothing at this point in time.

At 11:55 the man behind the counter said, 'ok, we issue you visa, now you go to counter 4 to pay'.  I looked at counter four (I was at counter one).  Counter 4 was closed.  Anyway, not wanting to point out the obvious, I wandered over to Counter 4.  As I did, the man from Counter 1 got off his seat and made his way over to Counter 4.  We went through the process of me handing over the money, my passport and all the stamped documents were then sent down a chute.  I was informed to go downstairs to collect my visa.

On arrival downstairs I was met by a stern looking woman.  I said 'hello there, I think that's my visa, any chance I could take it?'.  She replied 'What service you did pay forrrr?', I told her about the one hour service, she replied 'you wait', so wait I did for 55 minutes!

I was ready!  Moscow and in partcular, Olga, here I come!