April 9, Time Zone GMT, Airline 1 - KLM
It starts with a 6AM flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. I’ve never taken the city bus out to the airport before, and taking one at 04:00 is interesting to say the least. The regular airporter bus links up with the N22 ( night bus) off hours. It’s a cheap ride at £3.00 compared to a £25 taxi ride, and the entertainment (inebriated wanna be passengers arguing over cost with the driver) is thrown in for free.
I had tried to pre-order my Roubles the week before my trip but I wasn’t able to make an online order unless I was purchasing £500 or more. My decision to risk it and just pick them up at the airport was a bust as they didn’t have any. We’ll come back to this a bit later…
Flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, had an interesting seat companion who managed to chat for pretty much the whole 1.25 hrs. He was an older gentlemen that works in Oil & Gas and was enroute to Saudi Arabia for his next contract.
Time Zone 1 : GMT +1
We touch down at Schipol and I look at the time and my connecting flight is supposed to be boarding in the next 20 min. But I REALLY need to use the loo. I rush to find the toilets and there is a line up outside the door. I go back to my gate and give the sign the once over and figure I’ve got 15 min before they do a final boarding call so I should be ok.
I’ll stop at this point to say “no Mother, I did NOT miss my flight”.
I join the queue for the ladies room and while standing there a janitor just walks right in and starts emptying all the garbage receptacles in all the stalls. Maybe it’s the Dutch way of life but isn’t the normal protocol to close the loo down while a person of the opposite sex is doing maintenance? It was just kinda weird.
Boarded my flight to Moscow with no troubles even managed to catch some shut eye since I never did go to bed last night. The flight is under 3 hrs so no onboard entertainment which is fine by me. I’ve got my iPod to drown out the engines.
Time Zone 2: GMT + 3 or Moscow Time
We come into land at Moscow and I’ve got a window seat. It’s a clear sunny day but once our altitude drops I’m noticing how heavy the smog is. There are trees everywhere but no leaves budding yet so it just looks brown and gray. There seems to be a lot of rivers and waterways down below that are in some combination of frozen solid or the beginnings of a spring melt. The Pilot announces that it’s +13 C outside so at least that sounds pleasant.
Because I’m arriving international, but departing domestic I have to go through passport control, collect my bags, change terminals and check in again. I’m one of the last to get through passport control and I wander over to the baggage carousel. There aren’t that many bags left and I don’t see mine anywhere. I then begin to think of that tight connection time in Amsterdam and I realize that although I caught the flight, my bags did not. I stand in the queue at lost luggage and start the process. Over the course of the next 2 hrs I deal with at least 4 different people one of which thought I spoke French and thankfully a very nice young man who spoke a little English .
Normally if you’re bag is delayed it’s not really a big deal. They just ship it out on the next flight and deliver it to your hotel. Except I’m not staying in Moscow, but travelling on to Vladivostok and only staying for one night when we then board our train. It’s all very confusing to them, I haul out my travel documents to show the dates/times of my arrivals/departures and I just see a lot of furrowed brows and shaking heads. The nice man explains that my bag won’t arrive in Moscow until some time between midnight and 2AM. Then it will need to get on the next flight to Vladivostok (which is a 7.5 hr flight). By the time the bag gets there I will already be on the train. Hmmm not good.
Its decided my best chance is for my bag to be sent from Moscow to Irkutsk. Except a small snag there as although our train is stopping in Irkutsk we are being driven out to a small town on Lake Baikal called Listvyanka. To make it even more complicated, because there is no KLM agent in Irkutsk my bag will need to be picked up at the airport. I’ll come back to this later.
So once all the paperwork is done, I need to find my way to Terminal D for the domestic flights and that is also where I will hook up with the girls. But first I still need to purchase some Roubles. I see a Travelex counter off to the right so I wander over and say I’d like to exchange some pound stirling. No problem they say until they see me pull out my cash and notice that it’s Scottish pounds. No, no no, they say. Apparently they will only exchange British Pounds and refuse my Scottish pounds. ARGH!!! As luck would have it I find a Barclay’s ATM and thank goodness it accepts my Bank of Scotland ATM card and I take out some money, phew!
In all the airports I’ve been in (and I’ve been in quite a few) the signage is usually fairly universal. Bright yellow signs with black lettering pointing out where the taxis are, the train into Moscow, check in, departure desks etc. What I am NOT seeing is where the heck terminal D is. I’m assuming if it’s not walking distance or attached then they should have an inter-terminal shuttle bus. But you’d never know it as there is no signage and a plethora of slightly sleezy looking men trying to flog their taxi services.
Being a woman I’m not afraid to ask for directions, but I can’t even seem to find the information desk (there is signage for it, but can’t find the actual desk). So I settle for the Air Italia counter and they inform me that yes there is a bus and the stop is just outside. So out I go, more taxi drivers wanting to offer me a ride but I still can’t see the bus stop. I ask the traffic warden and he points me in the right direction and I wait in the queue. The bus comes about ever 15 min so I don’t have to wait too long and it’s literally a 5 min ride. I’m sure I could have walked it had I known what direction it was (next time). Makes me glad I held my ground and didn’t believe the guy that told me I must take a taxi and it would cost 1000 roubles to get me there (approx £25).
I’m not sure if it is due to the recent bombings in Moscow but I need to once more go through security. Hand luggage is x-rayed for the third time today, I am instructed to walk through a metal detector and even though I’ve not set it off I’m still frisked. Did I mention this was just to get inside the building????
I do the self serve kiosk check in and get my boarding pass. No line up as I have no bag now. Go through my final security for the day (4th time now). At this one we are all instructed to take off our footwear and we are to put on these oh so attractive blue slippers. I get to the other side find a seat and attempt to stay awake and upright for the next 2 hrs waiting for the girls. The insistence at keeping the departure lounge I was in at what felt like 0 degrees helped a bit.
From what I can gather this terminal is fairly new as it still looks kinda shiny and fresh. The downside is not many services are actually open yet other than a handbag/lingerie shop, an Irish pub (they’re everywhere) and small cafe. I was wanting to find a book shop so as to purchase a phrase book but there isn’t one to be found. I eventually run into the girls and it’s not too long before we are called to board the flight
Airline 2 - Aeroflot
I’ve never flown Aeroflot before so not exactly sure what to expect. But on first impression it looks pretty much like any other big plane. It’s got the in seat monitors for movies, a pillow and blanket waiting as it’s an overnight flight. As luck would have it I’ve got 2 seats to myself so I am able to stretch out a bit for the long flight. I won’t kid myself with the illusion of being able to sleep (I never do) but it is nice to give the knees a chance to stretch out straight for a change.
The flight is 7.5 hrs and skies look clear and calm so should be fine. Even with room to stretch out it’s still a long time to be sitting in a confined space even if you’re only 5’ 2.5” We are served 2 full meals (one dinner, the other breakfast) and it’s fairly healthy and not half bad for airline food.
One thing I’ve not seen before is the under the fuselage cam. As the plane taxis the runway the camera is on right through take off, then again on landing. Not sure that’s such a great idea so I turn my monitor off until the on-board entertainment is available.
April 10, Time Zone 3: GMT + 10 or Moscow Time + 7
By the time we land in Vladivostok I figure I have been travelling for a little over 22 hrs since I left my flat Friday April 9th at 03:15. It’s been one incredibly looooong day.
