"Into The Great Unknown"
"The 'Book of Songs' tour goes to Russia"
Day 1-2
I like
Domededovo airport best of the four Moscow airports. Itīs shiny and new, modern
and comparatively efficient. The passport control area is spacious and much less
intimidating than Sheremetyevo for example.
We had arrived
on time, the bags were waiting and so was Dima, my tour manager for this short
tour.
We had a
ground stop of more than 6 hours here and I donīt like the airport that much so
they got me a room at the nearby Aerohotel which gave me an opportunity to rest
and relax before the super late S7 flight to Ekaterinburg.
Dima and Boris
met me in the lobby and we went to the aiport where we quickly faced our first
challenge
.. I had bought two bottles of fairly good Spanish wine in duty-free
at Madrid airport, totally forgetting that I would not be able to take them onto
the next plane! So we faced losing them at the security check which forbids you
take over 100 mililitres of any liquid on board commercial aeroplanes.
But this is
Russia and all things are possible and, by producing the receipt from the
duty-free shop I was able to take my wine with me. Of course you can take as
many Bic lighters as you like on board but somehow they donīt see this as a
threat!!
Dima and Boris
went to school together in St. Petersburg and they were already working well
together here! Boris is my official translator for this trip and he is obviously
well qualified.
S7 Airlines is
fairly new and growing fast both inside and outside Russia. For some
inexplicable reason they chose a ghastly shade of lime green for their planes
but I only commented on this in passing. It was 01:00 and I wanted to get to
Ekaterinburg and go to bed!
We arrived
safely (which is, after all, the most important thing, regardless of the colour
of the plane!) and I eventually got to bed around 07:30, after travelling for
almost 24 hours.
Thank God for
a day off tomorrow
.. er, today!
And the
snow didnīt bother me at all
yet!
