Leaving the plane and getting her bags, Sunset immediately got the feeling that she wasn't in the US anymore. They were numerous, but beautiful, or at the very least interesting to be around.
Current time is 5:45 AM Moskva Time. Flights to Kiev, Minsk, St Petersburg now boarding gates nine, ten, twelve, a Russian-accented voice said over the PA system, Kiev at Gate Nine, Minsk at Gate Ten, St Petersburg at Gate Twelve. Spasibo.
"This feels just like Kiev last year," Autumn said as a few hundred people went to the gates.
"Minsk," Seth corrected.
"What?"
"We went to Byelorussia last year. It was over the summer we went to East Berlin and The Ukraine."
"Oh," she said, her smiling face in her gloved hand, "Nobody knew where exactly to cross the streets."
"Why are you happy?"
"Five minutes after we got there, Sunset," Autumn said, "we figured 'Can't beat 'em? Just go across the streets wherever, too!' It's not like anyone in Belarus is a crazy driver."
"Yeah, leave that to me if we're in a blizzard and need to get somewhere, or if I'm rally crossing a car made of cotton that weighs three ounces and has less horsepower than any scooter made in the last two-and-a-half years. Thank you, Aging Wheels for doing that in your Trabant," the two cousins were laughing so hard.
"That was an amazing thing to do."
As soon as their luggage came around, they grabbed it, Seth exchanged his US money for Soviet rubles and kopeks, and then the trio set off, but Sunset's happiness soon turned to shocking fear when a few blocks later...
"Hey!"
The trio turned to see a policeman.
"Yes?" Seth said.
"Where do you live?"
"On the east coast," Seth said, him and Autumn getting a kick out of the situation while Sunset was uneasy.
"What do you mean 'The East Coast'? Where do you live!?"
"We came here as tourists."
"Where do you work!?"
"From our garage."
Could Seth mean 'our' like his and Autumn's, or 'our' like the three of us?
"Why do you break the pedestrian laws!?"
"We didn't know where to cross."
"You didn't know? How couldn't you know!?"
"Well, we just didn't know!"
Autumn was failing at not showing some kind of amusement to it, while Seth wasn't far behind.
"This will mean we'll fine you," the officer said, perturbed.
"Go ahead."
"I'll check on this and at work, they'll make a note of this and talk to you," he said, giving Seth a ticket.
Jaywalking - 3 Rubles
Lipping off to a militiaman - 2 Rubles
Total fine - 5 Rubles
Date - 26 December 2018
Seth took the ticket and just paid the fine on the street, signing a carbon copy of the ticket that he paid it, along with the officer's signature, then continued on their way.
"That... what's so funny?"
"Every time we come to the Soviet Union," Seth said, cramming the ticket in his laptop bag, "we end up doing something like this at some point, so it's kind of funny now. Besides, five rubles really isn't a lot of money for us."
"By the way," Autumn said, "What's the rate of dollars to rubles?"
"One US Dollar for 63 Soviet Kopeks."
"What is all of that?" Sunset asked as they came to the car lot with rentals.
"In the US, we have dollars and cents. In the USSR, they have rubles and kopeks," a few minutes later, they found the office for the rental lot, "Be right back," he said, going in.
A few minutes later, he came back out with a set of car keys.
"Our car is the green 2016 Škoda Citigo," he said, leading them to it before turning to Autumn, "And yes it's a manual. I made sure of it this time."
"I have the instructions to the hotel and to get to Uncle Ivan and Aunt Natasha's place."
It took a few minutes, but they were able to get everything into the small, city hatchback.
"You know what's sad," Seth said, starting the car, "a 2016 Citigo has exactly ten more horsepower than our station wagon from 1983 DDR, which only has 50 hp."
"Well, you did say that you just needed a car for city roads, so..."
"True," he said, shifting into gear and going onto the road, "But in all seriousness, do we need anything? Other than coats? USSR winters are a lot colder than Delaware winters, Sunset."