Traveling to Russia has not been the most pleasant experience. Here’s the short of it:
- Check-in at DWI took 20 minutes because they were conducting “training”. (Fearing the trainee might put the wrong luggage tag, I double-checked to make sure my suitcase was going to DME.)
- The British Airways (BA) plane had an engine failure on the tarmac, delaying us by about an hour… the pilot eventually made up about a half hour over the Atlantic.
- I look at my BA boarding pass instructions, which tell me that my connection, set to depart 60 minutes after I actually landed, is at Terminal 4 of LHR. Great! Because I disembarked at Terminal 4.
- After going through the mandatory security screening again at Terminal 4, I don’t see my connection to Moscow. BA’s information desk tells me that my flight is in fact out of Terminal 1 – a 15-minute shuttle-ride across the airport. I have 30 minutes until the gate closes at this point.
- With a severe cough and swollen lymph nodes, I run across Terminal 4 to again have to wait in a security screening line. With 5 minutes to spare I run up to my gate.
- Of course, this plane is delayed, I’m winded, need water… get in line at the cafe and realize I don’t have any British pounds on me. So I suffer.
- Eventually get into DME about a half hour late.
- Spend two hours in passport control line, because there are apparently no such things as orderly lines in Russia.
- Get to baggage claim and my luggage does not arrive!!!
- It take another two hours to file a claim between sign language, broken English and broken Russian.
- We meet our driver outside the airport, and it takes us two hours to get to the hotel because of Friday rush-hour traffic.
- Six hours after landing in Moscow, finally a warm bed, but alas, no contact lens solution, pajamas or toothbrush….
- On top of the fever, coughing and just symptoms of a severe head cold, I’ve had two bloody noses because of the dryness.
- AND as the Kremlin guard accused me of being a professional photographer and my incessant head shaking while saying “NYET!” I drop the Nikon. Thank goodness the only thing that was damaged was a chip in the UV filter…
My luggage eventually arrived as I was heading to breakfast the next morning:
I guess all-in-all I haven’t had the worst experience.
One guy went to Chicago, got caught up on a snowstorm, diverted back to LAX, then finally to Moscow two days late.
A few others had luggages that disappeared on different flights, all through LHR however, but one guy’s still hasn’t shown up and he’s been wearing the same thing for three days now.
There’s only so many times you can turn your underwear inside out…. no?
Posted in:
Random on
24/03/2008
