At 3:45am on Wednesday morning I got a taxi to Heathrow terminal 3 for my 7 o'clock Scandinavian Airlines flight to Moscow via Stockholm. The taxi driver was nice chap who had, funnily enough, lived in Moscow around 1993-94 and he reckoned I would have a great time. Good stuff.
The flight was probably the most simple and stress free flight I've ever been on. Something to do with the unflappable Swedes and the fact that the last 4 or 5 flights I've been on have been with RyanAir (never, ever again!).
I think we arrived in Stockholm about 10 ish. The airport was nice and it was early so it wasn't too crowded either. I had a little wander around and then went outside for a cigarette where I saw the first of what, I am sure, will be a lot of snow.
It was bloody cold but the fresh air was great after the stuffy, re-cycled airplane stuff and made me feel quite awake again.I only had a few hours before I had to get the second leg flight so I went and found the departure lounge. Unfortunately I also found what must have been a Russian school football team taking up all the seats near the gate I was supposed to be at. I looked around for an empty seat but no joy.
I did however see Mikael Akerfeldt, just sitting there with his headphones on! For anyone who doesn't know, he is the dude from Opeth, one of my favourite bands and pretty much a pioneer of modern progressive metal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxaFANthouM
I did a proper double take and then made some terrible attempt at going to say hello but bottling it! Slightly embarrassed I shuffled off to find the smoking room, with it's kind instructions on how to smoke.
"Er, excuse me, terribly sorry to bother you, but you are the Opeth chap aren't you, Mikael Akerfeldt?"
"Yes, that's right" said he. And the rest is an embarrasing mix of something like "love the music!" "thank-you" "where are you off to?" "London" "Have fun" "Thanks, bye" "bye"....
Thoroughly nice chap!
So, next leg of the flight was pretty good, got talking to a nice lady sat next to me. She was Siberian and an English teacher! So we chatted all things cold and schlolastic and exchanged emails. Things were going pretty well so far.
We landed safely and did all the boring customs nonsense and went through arrivals where I was greeted by Roman, the driver! Nice bloke, not much English, which was a shame because we spent the next hour in a traffic jam. Eventually arrived at the apartment block, which looked rather depressing from the outside, very soviet as you can imagine, and the inside didn't seem much better, smelled of damp dogs and a bit crumbly.
But the apartment is lovely. Quite small, but very moden and has all the essentials. Good shower, good kitchen, comfy bed. No complaints at all.
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| My bedroom |
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| View from my room |
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| Lada! |
So I got to the apartment about 7pm Moscow time. The person I'm sharing with, John, was still at work so I made myself at home, unpacked and had a shower. I figured John would be home about 10pm or so. By 12 o'clock there was still no sign so I went to bed. About an hour later I was awoken by a loud buzzer which must've been the front door. Unknowingly I had locked poor John out! So it was in a rather confused, half asleep state that I met my housemate. Very nice bloke from Yorkshire but a Liverpool fan, result.
Next day and we trundled off to the school to meet people and have a bit of a look at the city in daylight. I know it sounds daft, but it all feels so Russian! Obviously the alphabet is completely different so I'm constantly trying to read everything, largely to no avail, but occasionly I get something and get a bit excited! There are lots of tower blocks and very socialist looking buildings everywhere and lots of people with hats! The fact that it's late autumn/winter just adds to the feeling of austerity and bleakness too, but I love that so it's great!
Basically all the stereotypes you can think of are true (in a positive sense of course!). And I could listen to people talking all day. Now I just have to learn a bit of the language so I can talk back.
The people at the school are all really nice and helpful. I know it's early days but to use the first of what I'm sure will be many football analogies, it makes Korea and Sicily seem like Dr Martens league teams, while this is probably somehwere near the top of the Championship. I'm gonna take them into the Champions League of coure!!
Anyway, after the meet and greets, John went off to work and I went shopping. I found a little shop, like a co-op, and went inside. First thing I see is the beer fridge! Typical eh? There's a very nice selection of Russian and other beers but I think to play it safe and go for a couple of cans of Grolsch. So I open thefridge, take a can and.....wait, what's this water doing pising all over me?!? Turning the can around in my hand to find the source of the problem I inadvertently spray beer all over some poor old lady, before hurriedly shoving it back in the fridge, still spraying everywhere, and move on! Bit of guilt and some beer spilt, but hey-ho...
I managed to find some stuff anyway, here's my receipt to give you an idea of prices :
Overall, very happy and excited to be here. More soon amigos....
