This airport handles Moscow's international flights. Surrounded by forests of birch, its bucolic setting and pace are a nice contrast to Kennedy. The less said about the condition of the terminal building the better. Coming and going, I breezed through customs. Not that I had contraband, but I heard that this could be a real ordeal for a traveler during the Soviet era, and I had real anxieties about that. This minimization of official intrusiveness and return to civility is much more noticed and appreciated than the massive construction going on in Moscow.

It's the road connecting it with Moscow, Leninskaya Prospekt, that's interesting. I think it's owned by Pepsi because every (and I mean every) lamppost has a Pepsi banner hanging from it. Not conceding a monopoly to Pepsi, other putative advertisers have erected poles on opposite sides of the road and hung giant signs across the entire width of the road. On the other hand, you pass huge industrial plants and office buildings with not a sign or name to indicate what transpires within. As your taxi approaches the center of the city, every few blocks you see signs saying "Kasino, Kasino," the only lighted signs that I saw.

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