After a great day of Manny Road football fun (5-a-side tournament that my team won and End-of-Season Awards in which I got the “Least Improved Award”) it was time to jet off to Russia to start the epic journey that would take me from St Petersburg, across Russia on the Trans-Siberian express, to Mongolia, which I would traverse on the Trans-Mongolia Express, to Beijing!
I was freaking out about forgetting my passport and so I made sure that it was the first thing I put in my bag when I started packing. I put in the top pouch of my backpack and then proceeded to pack everything else into my bag. However, while I was packing everything else, the top of the bag was hanging over and, unbeknownst to me, was open, causing my passport to fall out! So, when I finally got everything ready and got into the taxi cab at 7:30 Sunday morning, I was putting my house keys into that top pocket of the bag when I realized the glaring absence of a passport! I basically shouted at the cab driver to stop, ran inside panicking, and there, on the floor of my living room, was my stupid passport. Bullet dodged at the very start...
After that auspicious beginning, everything went as smoothly as you could possibly want. Left Oxford 15 minute late on the bus but got to Gatwick in only an hour and 4 minutes, arriving exactly when I wanted to get there. Check in took about 15 minutes, security took maximum 5 minutes, and I was sitting at my gate. I passed the time by BBMing Soupy and pretty soon it was time to board my flight.
The flight to St Petersburg is only 3 hours which went quite quickly. When we landed we took the shuttle bus to the terminal and went through customs. Considering the trouble it was to get a Russian visa, I was expecting the customs/passport control to be quite a hassle but it was quick and absolutely painless! I guess they do their screening during the visa application process which saves them time at the airport itself. After that it was a short 10 minute wait for my bags and I was out meeting the guy from our tour group. He drove me to the hotel where I met up with the rest of the Astro crew including Col France and his wife Becky, her friend Margaret, and the 4 cadets: Addy, Katherine, Sky, and Mike.
We went to dinner at a restaurant whose name translates to “Hokey Pokey” but is basically just slang for “whatever” or something like that. The food was alright (I had chicken kebabs while others had stroganoff, borscht, julienne, or other soups) but the portions were a bit small. After dinner we just walked back to our hotel to get some sleep before our first full day in St Petersburg tomorrow!!
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