A long day, thus far, and I am only a bit closer than halfway to my final destination.
I am in Moscow presently, and I have been awake (for the most part) for about 24 hours. Not too unusual for me, but all the traveling has left me travel-weary. The flight(s) have been the usual song-and-dance… three hours to Chicago (none of which I can remember presently… apparently a very uneventful 3 hour trip. I think I watched Law + Order) followed by speed-shopping for business gifts in Chicago. I also got snapped at for asking where I could have a cigarette, and had to leave security. 10 hours on a plane after expecting to be able to have a smoke would have been too much.
Pretty long flight, all told. I was on the aisle in a row of five, and shared it only with one girl who sat at the far end of the row, and regarded me with sleepy skepticism for the majority of the trip. I kicked it off with a double feature, Be Kind, Rewind and Hitch got me through the first four hours. The next six were a mix of walking around, reading, watching the Office, and sleeping. We flew right through the night over Greenland, and it never got dark. Which was very peculiar. Greenland, unbeknownst to me, is covered in a huuuge layer of snow.
A pretty good flight, given my nap, until my pen exploded everywhere while trying to do customs paperwork. Two more pens also exploded, but less so. I’m not sure why…. The altitude, maybe? Either way, I left some unhappy flight attendants in my wake.
I have now been at Домодедово airport in Moscow for the past four hours, with about three to go. Smokers are everywhere. As soon as I got off of the plane, the smoking area consisted of several high-top tables slightly off to the side of the customs line. Pretty great. I small-talked a few people that I knew spoke English, and that sums up the last time that I have had successful human contact in Russia. Since then, I have been met with cool disregard, or extreme confusion/irritation. Getting myself checked in was hard enough, and she spoke English. I had to pay a heavy bag surcharge in some ungodly number of Rubles, which I haven’t converted in my head yet. Since then, everything has been a challenge. A lot of pointing and waving money around seems to have gotten me this far, but I’ve kept to myself at the airport. I found a nice, empty waiting area equidistant from Fantas and the smoking lounge (which, interestingly, no one stands in… they just stand around the front door of it.)
That’s all for now. Hopefully I can maintain this in Irkutsk, no word on whether or not I will be cut off from civilization yet. I suppose I will find out when I get there.
Update: I am still here. In Moscow. After being switched to five different gates, sometimes within a matter of seconds, and uncountable delays with no reason. To top off al of this, of course, no one speaks English. At least not anyone who can help me. I’m tired of the smoking lounge, although I find it interesting that no one acually goes inside the room, but rather a crowd of 20-50 people will stand near the door, smoking up the entire terminal. Which is interesting. Furthermore, it would be nice if I could inform the people meeting me at the airport, but alas, I have neither a phone nor their phone number(s). E-mail will have to suffice.
