Our flights turned out to be “uneventful” until we got to Domodedovo Airport, whereupon arrival we went to claim our luggage and it seemed to be the only luggage that hadn't arrived yet. Everybody from our group was already gone and we were still asking around for our luggage. A lady working at the airport got on her squalkie talkie and interpretted back to us that it would be 7min late. Well, our minds weree going “why is only our luggage late?” We would soon get the answer when 20min later she brought it over to us. Our main bag, the heaviest and largest one whose survival I've questioned on the previous trip already, was limping along on one wheel; the rollerblade wheels on one side were totally gone along with the frame for the wheels. Our luggage was searched via their random luggage searches.The only reprieve we were offered for the busted bag was to file a claim with American Airlines to get compensation on return to the USA.
At this point we were already running 1hr behind regular schedule and making our way through this huge airport with (personally, I had no hopes of still meeting up with our coordinator who had been arranged for meeting us here and helping with arrangments for next leg of journey.) all our luggage, dragging along the heavy broken one which now is like only half its weight is riding on wheels, the other half is just dragging on ground. When to our surprise we meet someone holding up a paper sign with “WIPF” on it. Despite all our delays with our luggage and finally finding our way to the exit, the coordinator had asked the airport to page us already, had looked in various places, wasn't sure if we even arrived on this flight, none of us knew of each others efforts but, it all turned out well in the end.
Having first real meal on foreign soil. This is at the AirHotel at the Domodedovo Airport. Just walking distance from the airport is this hotel that we stayed at. We had just gotten the time difference straightened out in our heads, and thought we had 1hr for supper before heading over to the airport to fly from Moscow to Siberia, and sat down to eat our food and Jen decided that we didn't have 1hr but rather 10mins and so we gulped down the wonderful food in a few minutes and hurried up to grab our stuff and something clicked in her head again and she said "no no its right... we have 1hr before we need to be back at the airport. So all the wonderful food could have been wonderful for even longer.
(Jen here, let me explain myself about the time issue: on the plane upon landing in Moscow, the pilot, or whoever does the talking on the PA, told us the time for Moscow. I found it confusing, I knew Moscow was 8 hours ahead of us at home, and the pilot announced the time as only 7 hours ahead. Now, which is it? When catching a flight, you can't take such chances of being an hour out on the wrong side. And being sleep deprived doesn't help, especially if you've over-thought the situation. Turns out the pilot's time was wrong...and was still wrong on the way back, but we made it on our next flight. But ya, Jonte was being yanked around a bit, eat slowly, no... quick eat fast...no, it's ok. :)
Considering my luck with this blog so far, I'd better post this blog and start a new post. I don't want to break my chain of luck now.
The food does look delicious. What was it? Maybe I'm just hungry!!!
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