Anywhere but Moscow

Now, that title had a unintentional negative connotation...but what it really means is that all three of us (will) find ourselves in different places in the next few days that aren't Moscow. Yes, we love this place and seeing St Basil's on a casual everyday errand will never get old but it's also rather refreshing to escape the sweaty metro and angry babushka every now and then.

Separation anxiety has kicked in already with me having left earlier this morning to a seaside spot called Gelendzhik. Jackie is on her way out to the country side for the weekend and Ree is jetting off to live in Italy for 2 months. The life we're living hey.

Since I can pretty much only speak for my one third of this trio, I will share some news with the black sea lying just outside my window. A wonderful family that I work for invited me down here to spend a couple of days so I was able to see a different part of Russia.
This place is definitely a different part of Moscow...so much so that I feel like I might have even left the world. I cannot describe how beautiful it is. It is a mixture of a people beach, steep cliffs and mountains, forest, valleys, a holiday beach town that you see in movies and then a clear and flat ocean with no waves at all. People are Kenton-on-Sea chilled out and everyone is brown, happy and relaxed. There are boats and jetskis out on the water, people tanning under thatch umbrellas, playing all sorts of games and sports...it's all activities and summer.
The place where I am staying is comfortable and lush with a tennis court, playground and infinity pool that are screaming my name. Yes, the playground too...my student and I have the best time coming up.
The airport here is an interesting one. Its basically all outside as the waiting area is outside and the luggage can be collected off the back of a trailer which parks under a shed...and then its a grab and run situation. But don't people steal each others bags, you might ask...Noooo, because a) this is Russia and b) everyone's so happy to be here they dont care about stealing someone else's stuff.
"Putin's Palace" is rumoured to be here too but it's a bit of a Nkandla situation so he denies that it is actually his. Needless to say, he doesn't have to wait in any luggage sheds with his helicopter waiting to jet him off to his palace as he lands. Also, "palace" being in the name kind of says it all. We flew past it...and basically if something's big enough to be seen from up there, it pretty much has to be a palace.
Anyway, we're going to check it out for ourselves sometime so I will try use my South African background to help add some light on it.
For now, I'm happy that I'm here, and not anywhere else.