Taxi to Pulkovo was okay, though I had to explain the driver how to use FTPOS device. Flight to Moscow, also nothing worth noting.
Domodedovo was like a huge beehive. Found a quiet corner and slept for couple of hours. S7 self-checkin kiosk refused to check me in, and advised that I should check-in at the desk. The queue to the check-in desks was a few good hours wait, or so it seemed (thanks to soon-to-depart flights to Erevan and Tbilisi). Playing dumb, I complained to S7 personnel about the problem with self-checkin, and was quietly ushered to the baggage drop-off desk. After a few minutes wait I was successfully checked-in through to Sydney, so good thing was that not only I don't need to get my luggage at Frankfurt, but that I also don't need to check-in and I have my boarding pass with me. The bad thing (there could not be only good things, could it?) was that she forgot to ask me where I want to seat, so now I am a bit scary that my seat is number 68H (how many rows are in that plain?!).
Anyway, time to board. While the bus is taking me to the plane, I (and other passengers) see a luggage train ahead, and its loosing the bags on every bump! Passengers, assuming this is their luggage, start to shout at the driver to "do something". The driver says something into his radio and the luggage train stops and its driver starts to slowly walk back and gather fallen bags. The interesting thing was that, while bags were falling off the train, there were lots of airport workers watching this, even walking by the fallen bags, but nobody cared enough to do anything about it. They just ignored the situation. What a nice people.
Sitting in the last row on the place to Frankfurt, near the toilet. Not that I need it, but still. The food was awful, could not sleep thanks to the child nearby, and people rushing to the loo also did not help. Moreover, the toilets become "broken" near the end of the flight, and the stewards locked them both, causing a constant confusion for the passengers, who thought that "occupied" sign literally means occupied and just stood and wait for them to become "unoccupied". Of course, leaning on my chair. But who cares?
Arrived to Frankfurt Airport. It’s huge. Told a girl at border control that I just want to go outside for few hours. She was not surprised, so I guess many people do that. As long as you have a visa, she said, there should be no problem. Since I had the visa, I had no problem, apart from where to find that fecking train to the city. I want to go the Naturmuseum, at least that’s the plan. I know where it is and I know which trains to take. Okay, I found the platform, but the fecking ticket machine won’t sell me the tickets. My card is non-EC, you see. Of course, Gold Mastercards issued in Russia are all fraud, everyone knows that. So I went upstairs again to the DB (Deutche Bahn) help office and told them I want to go to Bockenheimer Warte station, wherever it is, and the see the damn dinosaurs in Naturmuseum. No problems, they say, here is the timetable, go to the ticker office, buy your tickets and off you go. I did that, card was okay this time, got a ticket, went back to the station, took the train, changed the train at Hauptbahnhoff, and few minutes later arrived to the station beside museum.
Heck, front door is closed, so they must have some side or back door to lead visitors to the famous dinosaur exhibition. Two of the specimen are standing in front of the building, suggesting a great experience inside. Alas, no side entrance. Not even the back door. And not a single person around to ask. What the … ? Okay, I have to face it, the museum is closed. No dinosaurs today, sorry. Maybe on the way back from Sydney, when I have similar stop in Frankfurt, even though it’s a bit earlier in the morning. Frustrating. Its getting cold I am not dressed to walk in 5degrees, so I retreat back to Hauptbahnhoff to get some warmth and food, simply to find out that even McDonalds is closed to the day. So I retreat further, to the airport, and finally finding my peace in my Terminal, in one of the restraints, eating pasta and drinking dark Weise-beer.
A long day! And it not over yet, need to board my flight to Sydney safely and think about what should I do on a 22 hour flight (should have though of that earlier, haven't I?) A few hours (three!) from Moscow to Frankfurt were quite hard to survive, so let's see how it goes with flight to Singapore.
Will keep you posted.
Domodedovo was like a huge beehive. Found a quiet corner and slept for couple of hours. S7 self-checkin kiosk refused to check me in, and advised that I should check-in at the desk. The queue to the check-in desks was a few good hours wait, or so it seemed (thanks to soon-to-depart flights to Erevan and Tbilisi). Playing dumb, I complained to S7 personnel about the problem with self-checkin, and was quietly ushered to the baggage drop-off desk. After a few minutes wait I was successfully checked-in through to Sydney, so good thing was that not only I don't need to get my luggage at Frankfurt, but that I also don't need to check-in and I have my boarding pass with me. The bad thing (there could not be only good things, could it?) was that she forgot to ask me where I want to seat, so now I am a bit scary that my seat is number 68H (how many rows are in that plain?!).
Anyway, time to board. While the bus is taking me to the plane, I (and other passengers) see a luggage train ahead, and its loosing the bags on every bump! Passengers, assuming this is their luggage, start to shout at the driver to "do something". The driver says something into his radio and the luggage train stops and its driver starts to slowly walk back and gather fallen bags. The interesting thing was that, while bags were falling off the train, there were lots of airport workers watching this, even walking by the fallen bags, but nobody cared enough to do anything about it. They just ignored the situation. What a nice people.
Sitting in the last row on the place to Frankfurt, near the toilet. Not that I need it, but still. The food was awful, could not sleep thanks to the child nearby, and people rushing to the loo also did not help. Moreover, the toilets become "broken" near the end of the flight, and the stewards locked them both, causing a constant confusion for the passengers, who thought that "occupied" sign literally means occupied and just stood and wait for them to become "unoccupied". Of course, leaning on my chair. But who cares?
Arrived to Frankfurt Airport. It’s huge. Told a girl at border control that I just want to go outside for few hours. She was not surprised, so I guess many people do that. As long as you have a visa, she said, there should be no problem. Since I had the visa, I had no problem, apart from where to find that fecking train to the city. I want to go the Naturmuseum, at least that’s the plan. I know where it is and I know which trains to take. Okay, I found the platform, but the fecking ticket machine won’t sell me the tickets. My card is non-EC, you see. Of course, Gold Mastercards issued in Russia are all fraud, everyone knows that. So I went upstairs again to the DB (Deutche Bahn) help office and told them I want to go to Bockenheimer Warte station, wherever it is, and the see the damn dinosaurs in Naturmuseum. No problems, they say, here is the timetable, go to the ticker office, buy your tickets and off you go. I did that, card was okay this time, got a ticket, went back to the station, took the train, changed the train at Hauptbahnhoff, and few minutes later arrived to the station beside museum.
Heck, front door is closed, so they must have some side or back door to lead visitors to the famous dinosaur exhibition. Two of the specimen are standing in front of the building, suggesting a great experience inside. Alas, no side entrance. Not even the back door. And not a single person around to ask. What the … ? Okay, I have to face it, the museum is closed. No dinosaurs today, sorry. Maybe on the way back from Sydney, when I have similar stop in Frankfurt, even though it’s a bit earlier in the morning. Frustrating. Its getting cold I am not dressed to walk in 5degrees, so I retreat back to Hauptbahnhoff to get some warmth and food, simply to find out that even McDonalds is closed to the day. So I retreat further, to the airport, and finally finding my peace in my Terminal, in one of the restraints, eating pasta and drinking dark Weise-beer.
A long day! And it not over yet, need to board my flight to Sydney safely and think about what should I do on a 22 hour flight (should have though of that earlier, haven't I?) A few hours (three!) from Moscow to Frankfurt were quite hard to survive, so let's see how it goes with flight to Singapore.
Will keep you posted.
