The Airport in Nizhnevartovsk on Our Arrival
Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia (ACN)
I have traveled all over the world and thought that I would not have any new experiences at the airport here, but as usual I was wrong. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning.
On Sunday evening at 11:40pm, we departed Moscow for Nizhnevartovsk, deep in Siberia, approximately 3000 kilometers (maybe 2400 miles) and two timezones away from Moscow. We were tired and so we slept on the plane. When we were awakened by the announcement that we were descending it was nearly 5:00am in Nizhnevartovsk.
The plane landed and we deplaned by walking down the ladder to the ground. It was not terribly cold, maybe 30 degrees Farenheight. We could see the terminal building and a corrogated metal fence with a gate through which we walked. The gate was so narrow, that only one or two people could fit through it. As I approached the gate I was thinking that maybe we would be entering the building, but we were not. The gate opened onto the parking lot of the airport and the passengers were being greeted by their friends in the cold and the wind.
We had no idea what had happened to our luggage and even Anya was a little panicked not knowing where to go or to whom to speak. Finally, she spotted a man in a hurry walking away from us, but she persisted until she had his attention and then asked where to go to get the luggage. Obviously they spoke in Russian, but even I as sleepy as I was could tell he had told her where to go. His intonation and her relaxed manner led me to believe that we were not going to lose our luggage.
At that moment I was not even thinking about the fact that Andrei was to meet us, I was just worrying about my luggage. I can only handle one crisis at a time and in the order of importance. While my luggage contained nothing of value to anyone else, it did contgain nearly all of my clothing I have here in Russia and by George I was going to find it and now. So we proceeded to the right towards a relatively small builidng for an airport terminal, where I supposed the man in a hurry had told Anya to go.
As we were walking a man in a red jacket, whom I had noticed over by the gate out of the corner of my eye approached us and in a Russian accent he asked Anya if we were Americans and if I was Andy Nelms. She said, "Da" at the same time as I. I then began to worry about where Andrei was and in the same moment realized, oh yeah that was Andrei. Ok, so I was a little tired and the panicking side of my brain was working faster than the rationalizing side. So in one moment we were told where our luggage was and that we had been met. Now I began to relax.
As we went into the building a woman, said "Good morning," in flawless English. I first thought she was a Russian and a member of the church and then I realized that she was an American and I guess a stranger even to Andrei. I was not being very sociable, because I was not fully awake and I had not had very much sleep.
We picked up the luggage and headed to the car. Anya and I both felt a bit of relief now that we had arrived and been met and we had our luggage. By 6:00am I was being shown into the home of a wonderful Russian couple whose names are Vasily and Olga. They have a very pleasant and comfortable home. They speak very little English and so I am struggeling to remember every Russian verb, noun and adjective I have ever studied. What a difficult, but rewarding task.
I have traveled all over the world and thought that I would not have any new experiences at the airport here, but as usual I was wrong. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning.
On Sunday evening at 11:40pm, we departed Moscow for Nizhnevartovsk, deep in Siberia, approximately 3000 kilometers (maybe 2400 miles) and two timezones away from Moscow. We were tired and so we slept on the plane. When we were awakened by the announcement that we were descending it was nearly 5:00am in Nizhnevartovsk.
The plane landed and we deplaned by walking down the ladder to the ground. It was not terribly cold, maybe 30 degrees Farenheight. We could see the terminal building and a corrogated metal fence with a gate through which we walked. The gate was so narrow, that only one or two people could fit through it. As I approached the gate I was thinking that maybe we would be entering the building, but we were not. The gate opened onto the parking lot of the airport and the passengers were being greeted by their friends in the cold and the wind.
We had no idea what had happened to our luggage and even Anya was a little panicked not knowing where to go or to whom to speak. Finally, she spotted a man in a hurry walking away from us, but she persisted until she had his attention and then asked where to go to get the luggage. Obviously they spoke in Russian, but even I as sleepy as I was could tell he had told her where to go. His intonation and her relaxed manner led me to believe that we were not going to lose our luggage.
At that moment I was not even thinking about the fact that Andrei was to meet us, I was just worrying about my luggage. I can only handle one crisis at a time and in the order of importance. While my luggage contained nothing of value to anyone else, it did contgain nearly all of my clothing I have here in Russia and by George I was going to find it and now. So we proceeded to the right towards a relatively small builidng for an airport terminal, where I supposed the man in a hurry had told Anya to go.
As we were walking a man in a red jacket, whom I had noticed over by the gate out of the corner of my eye approached us and in a Russian accent he asked Anya if we were Americans and if I was Andy Nelms. She said, "Da" at the same time as I. I then began to worry about where Andrei was and in the same moment realized, oh yeah that was Andrei. Ok, so I was a little tired and the panicking side of my brain was working faster than the rationalizing side. So in one moment we were told where our luggage was and that we had been met. Now I began to relax.
As we went into the building a woman, said "Good morning," in flawless English. I first thought she was a Russian and a member of the church and then I realized that she was an American and I guess a stranger even to Andrei. I was not being very sociable, because I was not fully awake and I had not had very much sleep.
We picked up the luggage and headed to the car. Anya and I both felt a bit of relief now that we had arrived and been met and we had our luggage. By 6:00am I was being shown into the home of a wonderful Russian couple whose names are Vasily and Olga. They have a very pleasant and comfortable home. They speak very little English and so I am struggeling to remember every Russian verb, noun and adjective I have ever studied. What a difficult, but rewarding task.
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