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Yesterday was a long but smooth day. After my sleepless night, I shared a departure breakfast with Alla and got picked up at 9 am for my ride to the airport. Traffic on the MKAD (a 110-km highway that circles Moscow) was light, and my driver regaled me with stories of how, in the winter, if conditions were just, um, wrong (e.g., if a couple of tractor-trailers jacknifed in a way to block the entire 4-5 lanes going in one direction), you could be stuck in place for a long time (6-8 hours). We got to the airport at around 9:40.
Check-in for the flight was announced a few minutes after I entered the terminal. Sheremetyevo is set up so that there are two distinct check-in areas, and unlike in US airports, there are no permanent counters associated with this or that airline, though Delta flights are almost always checked in on what I think of as the "left" side of the building.
I went through the green corridor for Customs and then wound my way to the very short Delta line, waiting for the airline staff to get ready for security procedures. Security and the actual check-in went smoothly, and the seat I requested, 21B (second exit row, aisle) was assigned to me.
I slept for most of the 9-1/2 hour ride home, albeit fitfully, falling into some kind of posture from time to time that involved some painful effort to get out of. The meals were reasonable, and I even managed to catch most of Spiderman 2, in which the character of Peter Parker all but takes out a full-page ad in the Bugle announcing his alter ego's identity.
Smooth was the watchword after landing, too. The passport control folks had some insane number of booths open, so there was only one person in the line in front of me, and the passport official took probably less than 30 seconds before letting me into the country. Retrieving luggage went nominally, and once the Customs people waved me through, I was free to go find the AirTrain and go home.
There are two tracks on the route around JFK; the inner, or "clockwise," route simply goes around to all the terminals. The outboard ("counterclockwise") track alternates trains that terminate at Howard Beach or at Jamaica. I hopped a Jamaica-bound AirTrain, wondering how long I'd have to wait for an Oyster Bay train once at Jamaica.
I didn't have to wait long to find out. Once we got to the terminus, I paid for both the AirTrain and the train to Locust Valley at the same time -- very convenient! -- and walked about 50 yards over to the LIRR area, where the first track I came to announced that the next Oyster Bay train would depart at 4:37 pm (which was in about 15 minutes).
This gave me an opportunity to call home and warn everyone I was back in town, but where to find a phone? Fortunately, despite the fact that seemingly everyone you see nowadays (including in Moscow) seems to have grafted a cell phone to their ear, there was a bank of pay phones on the platform (in distinction from, say, the platform in Geneva this summer, where there were no phones). I called the folks and said I'd call again once I got to Locust Valley.
Dinner was very nearly ready to eat when I got home, and it was spent talking about my little adventure and my new status as the only person in the family to have traveled to Moscow for a weekend. The food and drink, however, hit me pretty hard, and I retired around 7:30 pm, getting up around 11 hours later.
I feel pretty good.
My mom is going to want me to take her around today, which is fine by me. I plan to start my trek back to Colorado tomorrow, and if all goes according to plan, should be back home late Saturday or early Sunday.
Cheers...
Check-in for the flight was announced a few minutes after I entered the terminal. Sheremetyevo is set up so that there are two distinct check-in areas, and unlike in US airports, there are no permanent counters associated with this or that airline, though Delta flights are almost always checked in on what I think of as the "left" side of the building.
I went through the green corridor for Customs and then wound my way to the very short Delta line, waiting for the airline staff to get ready for security procedures. Security and the actual check-in went smoothly, and the seat I requested, 21B (second exit row, aisle) was assigned to me.
I slept for most of the 9-1/2 hour ride home, albeit fitfully, falling into some kind of posture from time to time that involved some painful effort to get out of. The meals were reasonable, and I even managed to catch most of Spiderman 2, in which the character of Peter Parker all but takes out a full-page ad in the Bugle announcing his alter ego's identity.
Smooth was the watchword after landing, too. The passport control folks had some insane number of booths open, so there was only one person in the line in front of me, and the passport official took probably less than 30 seconds before letting me into the country. Retrieving luggage went nominally, and once the Customs people waved me through, I was free to go find the AirTrain and go home.
There are two tracks on the route around JFK; the inner, or "clockwise," route simply goes around to all the terminals. The outboard ("counterclockwise") track alternates trains that terminate at Howard Beach or at Jamaica. I hopped a Jamaica-bound AirTrain, wondering how long I'd have to wait for an Oyster Bay train once at Jamaica.
I didn't have to wait long to find out. Once we got to the terminus, I paid for both the AirTrain and the train to Locust Valley at the same time -- very convenient! -- and walked about 50 yards over to the LIRR area, where the first track I came to announced that the next Oyster Bay train would depart at 4:37 pm (which was in about 15 minutes).
This gave me an opportunity to call home and warn everyone I was back in town, but where to find a phone? Fortunately, despite the fact that seemingly everyone you see nowadays (including in Moscow) seems to have grafted a cell phone to their ear, there was a bank of pay phones on the platform (in distinction from, say, the platform in Geneva this summer, where there were no phones). I called the folks and said I'd call again once I got to Locust Valley.
Dinner was very nearly ready to eat when I got home, and it was spent talking about my little adventure and my new status as the only person in the family to have traveled to Moscow for a weekend. The food and drink, however, hit me pretty hard, and I retired around 7:30 pm, getting up around 11 hours later.
I feel pretty good.
My mom is going to want me to take her around today, which is fine by me. I plan to start my trek back to Colorado tomorrow, and if all goes according to plan, should be back home late Saturday or early Sunday.
Cheers...
