It was very interesting but I would not go there again. Flew direct form NY. At the airport in Moscow they motioned me out of the cab line and asked where I was going to. I told them the radisson and they pointed for me to follow a shabbily dressed kid to his little car. He drove like a madman. The highway was bumper to bumper, and the kid cut people off and maneuvered onto the median, and just flew into the city. At one point he stopped for a cop -- I guess he was a cop -- and showed some pass, and pointed at me in the back, and off we flew again. I was relieved he got me to the hotel. He didn't speak a work of English and could have taken me for everything I had on me.

The worst part of the traffic is when Putin comes and goes from the Kremlin twice a day -- just horrible traffic. Every time I went into a public bathroom in the hotel it was filled w/ men smoking cigarettes. And prostitution is legal so in the evening the hotel bars fill up w/ ladies who glower at you for not stopping. I was curious so I stopped and asked one "how much?". I think she said "six-hundred", I gave her a look of disbelieve and laughed. She was beautiful -- they all were -- but $600? Please. The pros stared daggers at me after that.

N.Y. is tough and dirty too, but full of life. Moscow is a soulless city.