As the result of a serial of coincidences and delicate consequences (I don’t want to get into the story here), I end up going to Saint Petersburg alone to attend a small ICC event for Ubuntu, I was also required to give a speech to about 50 people there.
My first Russian impression was the Russian lady who sit next to me on plane. Using Asian eyes I couldn’t help to admire her hay-colored blond hair, marble white skin, typical western face figure and dramatic body curves. Yet I also knew that with her typical russian outfit nobody would consider she is stunning at all. She wore a heavy fur coat, tight stockings, and long boots up to her thighs – like every other Russian lady I met on street. A huge metal mickey mouse watch embroidered with fake diamonds on her wrist made me amazed about how different fashion in different eyes.
What was more interesting… was that she still look traditional in my eyes. For judging conservativeness from appearance is not about outfit/makeup, to me it is a facial expression, or more specifically it’s the blandness in people’s eyes. This lady had an obedient and bored expression on her face, as if there was nothing interesting or challenging going through her life.
When I went around in Russia, I saw similar look in many people’s face, and that was the general impression I had on Russia: a great country, solid people, but they all seem waiting for something exciting to happen to their lives.
Back to my trip. It was about 6pm when I arrived Moscow, and found there is no physical connection between terminal 2 and terminal 1 in this airport (ridiculous). Later I read from internet that the airport I landed in Moscow is Sheremetyevo airport, which is “the worst airport of Europe” according to Wikipedia. The physical separation of its international and national terminals is rare around the world, the only other case would be Perth airport in Australia.
I must take a taxi to get to the national departure hall in order to catch my next flight to St. Petersburg. There were very few people spoke English in airport, the lady in information desk spoke little English but seemed understand my problem well, she pointed me to a taxi driver. This guy (with strong smell of Vodka in his breath) asked 100 US dollars for a ride from terminal 2 to terminal 1!!! I could hardly believe my eyes when he showed me an elaborately printed quotation on paper. The fact that he was recommanded by the airport’s information desk made me skeptical about the so called official service here, I decided to get a taxi by myself, like a local Russian.
I am not a local Russian and I don’t speak Russian, I waited for 15 minutes ouside and there was no taxi passing by (is this normal at 6pm? I wonder… )
Finally another Russian guy approached me offering taxi service, I managed to bargain the price down to 500 rupees (about 22 USD) and agreed to take his taxi. In the country of big people, this driver was at least as twice as big of my size. His old, shabby and dirty car had no license or taxi headlights, and there was an unpleasant smell when I sit into it. It was all dark and cold at 6:30pm, I couldn’t see anything slightly familiar or assuring in this strange environment and I didn’t have much options. I looked into the taxi driver’s eyes again and decided to trust him (it was actually a very quick decision, like all intuitive decisions).
It took me 20minutes from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1!!! What an inconvenient (and expensive) setting for travelers! I had no time to complain but need to rush to my next flight to St. Petersburg. Before I run into the departure hall, I left a 100 Rupee tip to the taxi driver, for his worth of my trust and judgement.
At midnight, I finally checked in the hotel in St. Petersburg, contacted the local Intel manager for the second day meeting, set the alarm to wake me up at 7am, and crawled into the dry and warm hotel bed.
I am proud of you, Amy Jiang.
