Apartment hunting without kids

Because taking three small children on the metro (with a stroller, and a backpack, etc) is not for the faint of heart, we tried our next apartment visit without them.

We made an appointment with realtor #2 (young bright thing with good English).  She was definitely the most professional of the three, responsive to email, text, phone, in touch with us almost every day about listings we sent her or she sent us.

Then what turned out to be a bright, clear Saturday, we took our 3 children to our friends' house, across the city to the east (blue line).  A bit more than an hour on transit.  We have been there every Saturday but one, and the kids love going there.  4 kids, same ages, from America.  Plus new toys.

Then for the first time since coming to Russia, A and S left the three kids and went on our own! on the metro across town (hour plus a different direction) to meet the realtor.

Apartment # 4 (Saturday afternoon)
She met us in her car at the metro stop and drove us the two (long) blocks to an apartment building in the middle of a dozen others.  The kids would like the play space in front, we saw at once.   Ordinary ceilings, but building not too shabby.  Attentive 'concierge' (new word for old job--the lady who watches everyone come in & handles maintenance requests).  4 rooms, not just 3 (i.e. 3 bedrooms!).  100 square meters, livable space (A's first impression).  Just enough "junk" to be annoying and not particularly clean (S's first impression).  Told them we would have to think about it.

Then back over an hour on the metro to our friends, where they had already fed the kids, so we took them home, only 1 hour past their bedtime.

Rare photo of S on transit with K (because S usually wields the camera), but we were all there.  We tried two buses home instead of bus/metro/metro.  Less hassle, fewer stairs, but a lot longer time.