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In Moscow, and going home tomorrow...
Sep. 13th, 2005 03:41 pmThere's a lengthy post brewing about my trip yesterday from Baikonur to Ulyanovsk on the Antonov, and then from Ulyanovsk to Moscow on the overnight train, but it's hard to put one together with the clock ticking here at the Netcity internet cafe on Kamergerskiy Pereulok (not to mention getting nickel-and-dimed if you want to transfer files in order to upload them).
The brief story: The Antonov left pretty much "on time" at 2 pm and got us into Ulyanovsk at about 2:30 pm local time. We got to the train station with about 90 minutes to spare and got on the train with no problems (except that we had to get "deluxe" accommodations - two to a compartment - instead of the next lower class). Everyone we met along the way was friendly and helpful.
The main thing about flying in the Antonov is the lack of windows, so the flight consists of walking into a room and grabbing a seat, after which it gets noisy and room vibrates and jiggles for a while. When the noise stops after about 2 hours, you're about a thousand miles away and in a different country.
With trees.
The overnight train ride was quite pleasant, especially with my traveling companions: Alex A., one of the office staff on the campaign, and Sergei F. and Nicholas N., who work for the company that provides the audio-visual support.
Upon arriving in Moscow earlier today (at the Kazan station), I headed over to the Proton Hotel (a subsidiary of the Khrunichev Space Center), where a room had been reserved for me. Actually, I like the room in the Proton better than the accommodations at the Marriott, although the hotel is out of the way (read: away from the center of Moscow).
I managed to change my departure from Thursday to tomorrow, and right now I'm slated to be picked up for the ride to the airport at 4:15 am in order to arrive in time to redo my ticket (which oughta be a formality, unless there's a line) and catch the Lufthansa flight that's scheduled to be wheels-up at 7 am. I think I will walk around a little bit more and then head on back to the hotel (with the idea of arriving at the Fili Metro station on the hour, so as to pick up the shuttle back to the hotel at 10 after; it's a fairly long walk otherwise).
Cheers...
The brief story: The Antonov left pretty much "on time" at 2 pm and got us into Ulyanovsk at about 2:30 pm local time. We got to the train station with about 90 minutes to spare and got on the train with no problems (except that we had to get "deluxe" accommodations - two to a compartment - instead of the next lower class). Everyone we met along the way was friendly and helpful.
The main thing about flying in the Antonov is the lack of windows, so the flight consists of walking into a room and grabbing a seat, after which it gets noisy and room vibrates and jiggles for a while. When the noise stops after about 2 hours, you're about a thousand miles away and in a different country.
With trees.
The overnight train ride was quite pleasant, especially with my traveling companions: Alex A., one of the office staff on the campaign, and Sergei F. and Nicholas N., who work for the company that provides the audio-visual support.
Upon arriving in Moscow earlier today (at the Kazan station), I headed over to the Proton Hotel (a subsidiary of the Khrunichev Space Center), where a room had been reserved for me. Actually, I like the room in the Proton better than the accommodations at the Marriott, although the hotel is out of the way (read: away from the center of Moscow).
I managed to change my departure from Thursday to tomorrow, and right now I'm slated to be picked up for the ride to the airport at 4:15 am in order to arrive in time to redo my ticket (which oughta be a formality, unless there's a line) and catch the Lufthansa flight that's scheduled to be wheels-up at 7 am. I think I will walk around a little bit more and then head on back to the hotel (with the idea of arriving at the Fili Metro station on the hour, so as to pick up the shuttle back to the hotel at 10 after; it's a fairly long walk otherwise).
Cheers...
