Okay, just how bad is Шереметьево?

I'm flying in from Riyadh through Istanbul (Terminal 2). The stories I hear about that airport, the immigration, customs and services seem to scare me more than neo-Nazi skinheads.

After a conversation with my friend on ICQ, he told me:

Москва а тем более Шереметьево - это мне кажется пиздец
извините за мой французский
но мне кажется приветсвие Москвы начинается именно с таких мест
т.е. они показательны

Also, can I buy a temporary SIM card at that airport? I'm staying in Moscow for more than three weeks, so I kind of need a local number.

I can not say for sure, but as I remember you can buy the temporal SIM card there. Do not try to catch the taxy nor be catched by the taxist - you may be "robed" - go to the usual public bus (the station is ten steps from the main entrance) which goes to the metro station. I think somewhere there must be also the electrotrain whcih goes right to the metro or somethig like that. The most horrible thing you could encounter in the airport - the stinky toilets without the toilet paper in the cabins and lack of comfort and clean. In the rest all must be fine. The people which work there are quite polite. Or go on the маршрутка - it's not as safe as the municipal buses, but faster and cheaper.

The airport is OK. It's a bit outdated and grubby but there's nothing functionally wrong with it.

As for buying a SIM card, probably, but Arrivals is pretty mental so you'll probably want to go upstairs to Departures to see if you can buy one at a shop up there before going back down to make your way into town.

By the way, you can buy the Sim card right near the any metro station in the places like Связной or Евросеть.

Toilets in Ш2 aren't that bad. And the airport isn't that scary at all. Just say f*ck off to all taxi drivers and go straight to a public transport stop which is right in front of the exit and take a bus 851(c) or a marshrutka and in half an hour you'll be at Речной вокзал undeground station. And there's a Евросеть office there as far as I remember.