Report #4: Moscow to Ulyanovsk
After arriving at Vnkovo airport, we checked-in and got tickets to the business lounge to await our 8:45 PM flight to Ulyanovsk. The replies below have some photos of the Vnkovo business lounge for those of you who may soon be traveling through there. Please pardon that poor focus in the photos. The lounge is comfortable and has a bar where yu can buy beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks and snacks. The staff also call you when it's time for you to go to the gate and board your flight.
At around 8:20 we went to the gate. From there we walked down some concrete stairs to a bus that drove about 0.5 miles out onto the tarmac to our waiting aircraft from Volga-Dnpr Airlines. We disembarked from the bus and walked about 50 yards through approximatley 1.5 feet of snow to the tail of the aircraft where we boarded up the satirs that drops down from under the fusalage like the 727's and DC-9's you used to see more often in the US. The aircraft seated aboit 35-40 passengers. The spaced was very confined. You would be luck to fit a deck of cards onto the overhead storage rack. I held my backpack on my lap for the two hour flight to Ulyanovsk.
When we arived in Ulyanovsk at almost 11:00 PM, we deplaned and walked through mid-calf deep snow to the "terminal". This building really was more akin to a an abandonded WWII Army Airforce base in the middle of nowhere Nevada than the airport for a city of over 700,000 people. But at least they had a cat we could pet while we waited for our bags. When we picked our bags up, a young lady actually checked our claim checks against our bags. Not something you see too often anyomre.
Much to our distress, our local Ulyanovsk coordinator and translator who were to meet us were no where to be seen. We waited as everyone else left the terminal. Soon it was 11:30 at night and it was just me, DW, a local militia officer, a tenacious cab driver soliciting our fare to a hotel in town, and a cat. I tried to call our coordinator in Moscow and our agnecy back in the states, but my MegaFon Moscow mobile phone was roaming in Ulyanovsk and I cound not for some reason make outgoing calls. Desperate, in my poor Russian I started to negotiate the fare to a hotel with the cab driver. Then, as we had bags in hand and we were headed fro the door, our coordinator and translator pulled-up. We introduced ourselves and they themselves. We then boearded their van for a forty minute ride to an apartment where we were to stay. A few observations about auto travel in Russia. First, many autos have no suspension to speak of. Second, becuase of the harsh climate and the almost exclusive use of asphallt to pave roads, they are replet with potholes resembling children's wading pools. Third, they do not plw the roads wo hurge ruts accumulate in the ice and snow. Combined this produced a van ride what I would describe as being shaken in a coffee can for forty minutes.
At about a quarter after midnight we pulled into our apartment, intuduced oruselves and to our hostesses, brushed our teeth and fell into bed.
DW in Vnkovo Business Lounge
Nungesser at the Vnkovo Business Lounge
Bedroom at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Living Room at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Shower at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Toilet at our Ulyanovsk Apartment
At around 8:20 we went to the gate. From there we walked down some concrete stairs to a bus that drove about 0.5 miles out onto the tarmac to our waiting aircraft from Volga-Dnpr Airlines. We disembarked from the bus and walked about 50 yards through approximatley 1.5 feet of snow to the tail of the aircraft where we boarded up the satirs that drops down from under the fusalage like the 727's and DC-9's you used to see more often in the US. The aircraft seated aboit 35-40 passengers. The spaced was very confined. You would be luck to fit a deck of cards onto the overhead storage rack. I held my backpack on my lap for the two hour flight to Ulyanovsk.
When we arived in Ulyanovsk at almost 11:00 PM, we deplaned and walked through mid-calf deep snow to the "terminal". This building really was more akin to a an abandonded WWII Army Airforce base in the middle of nowhere Nevada than the airport for a city of over 700,000 people. But at least they had a cat we could pet while we waited for our bags. When we picked our bags up, a young lady actually checked our claim checks against our bags. Not something you see too often anyomre.
Much to our distress, our local Ulyanovsk coordinator and translator who were to meet us were no where to be seen. We waited as everyone else left the terminal. Soon it was 11:30 at night and it was just me, DW, a local militia officer, a tenacious cab driver soliciting our fare to a hotel in town, and a cat. I tried to call our coordinator in Moscow and our agnecy back in the states, but my MegaFon Moscow mobile phone was roaming in Ulyanovsk and I cound not for some reason make outgoing calls. Desperate, in my poor Russian I started to negotiate the fare to a hotel with the cab driver. Then, as we had bags in hand and we were headed fro the door, our coordinator and translator pulled-up. We introduced ourselves and they themselves. We then boearded their van for a forty minute ride to an apartment where we were to stay. A few observations about auto travel in Russia. First, many autos have no suspension to speak of. Second, becuase of the harsh climate and the almost exclusive use of asphallt to pave roads, they are replet with potholes resembling children's wading pools. Third, they do not plw the roads wo hurge ruts accumulate in the ice and snow. Combined this produced a van ride what I would describe as being shaken in a coffee can for forty minutes.
At about a quarter after midnight we pulled into our apartment, intuduced oruselves and to our hostesses, brushed our teeth and fell into bed.
DW in Vnkovo Business Lounge
Nungesser at the Vnkovo Business Lounge
Bedroom at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Living Room at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Shower at Ulyanovsk Apartment
Toilet at our Ulyanovsk Apartment
posted by Nungesser at
5:29 PM
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