A road to Ningbo, part 1: All's well that ends...

Ok, wee're starting a small epic here. Ain't no Odissey, but it surely deserves telling.

So, it was a sunny saturday in Moscow. I managed to get to the airport early, like, 3 hours before departure. You see, in China that's the way you do it - arrive early, check in, pass all the security checks and then fire up your laptop and just wait comfortably. So in the big city like Moscow it must be best way as well, right? Right?!

No such luck. I got to the Sheremetyevo-2 and it started to rain, so I had to trot quite fast from the train station (which is pretty modern - just what you would expect from the airport in the megapolis) down to the airport terminal (some 500 meters, 200 of them were NOT under any sort of roof). Inside was... disappointment. Smallish place, most of it occupied by some overpriced eateries (and I mean overpriced, even by Moscow's standards!) - and few rows of seats, half of them broken, the rest filled with Indians (or Pakistanis?), Chinese, Arabs... Well, that was only to be expected - it's an international airport, after all... but there were not nearly enough seats there! Ok, I went to the check-in counter... and they told me that I came too early and the check-in won't start until 2 hours before departure. So I had to seat on the baggage cart and wait, as did most of the people around me.

Well, at least the check-in and security search were quick, and I even got to keep my lighter (sort of unexpected after having to leave it behind when flying Chinese airlines!). By the way, there are no smoking rooms in Sheremetyevo-2 - just some stands with ashtrays near the walls (stupid arrangement, if you ask me - being a smoker myself, I still vote for separate rooms for smoking). Anyway, the boarding started "on time" if you beleive the screen at the gates (or 20 minutes late if you beleive your own watch!), and we got on board - not too soon, if you ask me! The road to Ningbo had started...