[story] adventures in russia-Part 1: Unforgettable ways to reach you, Russia

1. God! I almost missed the plane!

TaiwanTaoyuanAirport

This is the story when I begin my journey to get a life changing experiences. I got an internship to teach children and share about my culture in Omsk, Russia, which is hasn’t started yet by the time I wrote this. You know what, this is just a begin for my unforgettable adventures here, in Russia.

Because I applied for an urgent visa which cost a lot of my money, I need to find a way to get really cheap routes to Omsk, Russia. As I was extremely busy for my experiments with my professor before I off for six weeks and need to prepare for my final exams, my friend, Dias, helped me a lot to prepare my tickets, some simple Russian phrases, praying schedule and  many things that I may missed for my journey. To reach omsk, Russia, first I need to depart to Beijing, then fly to Novosibirsk (the closest city to Omsk. Russia is a big country anyway), after that I need to take a train to Omsk.

By 12. 55 PM, 16^th January 2012, I had a flight to Beijing. I went from my dorm by 09.00 AM and arrived in the airport to check in by 11.20. It takes a time for me to check in as I have a transit time in Beijing, so the airline I used needed to fill some procedure to transfer my baggage to my next flight. After that, I need to go through a really long queue at the immigration post while carry a bit heavy bag for my cabin. Aaah..so tiring. Can you imagine I run like a crazy to catch up with my flight??, and you know what, I lost my direction at Taoyuan airport!. Hah…. Really need to stay calm in a rush time. Lucky me, I still found the way to my departure gate, checked in with my boarding pass and got in to the plane for my flight by 12.51. what an unforgettable moment. Hahaha

Because I have really bad experiences for my first flight when I was abroad to Singapore and Malaysia, somehow I became really scared to fly. But this time, I really enjoy my flight to Beijing. As I took a big plane, so the turbulence was quite small. In the short time I arrived in Beijing capital International airport, and hei!Welcome Beijing!!.

2. Waiting time, alone.

Beijing Int Airport

I landed around 04.30 PM at the local time. The terminal is quite far from the aircraft runway and we need to take a bus and sky train to reach the airport. The airport is really modern and nice. Quite similar with changi airport, Singapore I guess. As my next flight is in 17^th January 2012, 06.00 AM and I need to wait almost 12 hours at the airport. alone…

Since I couldn’t able to change my money at Taouyuan airport, I tried to change it in Beijing. And daaaa…. I couln’t be able to change it!!. all the money changers at Beijing airport don’t take any Taiwanese money to be exchanged. “political matter” I guess. The only way I can change my money is change it at the bank which is closed by 05.00 PM and it was already 06.30 PM. Well, seems I need to change my money (NTD= National Taiwanese Dollar) to rubble in Novosibirsk airport.

Don’t want trapped in a rush hour anymore, this time, I checked in by 03.00 AM in the morning. I almost not slept at all in the airport and just departed to Russia around 06.15. I saw my first snow and beautiful sunrise through the window in the airplane. It was really amazing and so beautiful… it’s like you saw a really big white lake then it turned into glowing amber. You know, this is the first time I even fallen asleep in the plane and forget my phobia for flaying. Well ya, not because it’s convenient actually, guess it because I was really tired for my journey. Hehe

Then finally, I landed at Novosibirsk international airport. yeeeeeey! Actually I was really surprised that the airport is quite small compare with international airports I’ve visited before. Also, the environment was quite different to be honest. Somehow you can feel it if you come here. Everybody stare…felt a bit strange.

3. Unpredictable situations, take a high risk

ruble

After I landed at Novosibirsk, Russia, the first thing pop up in my mind was I needed to change my money to ruble right away and took a bus into the Omsk rail station. It was a bit hard to find signs in English here, even in the airport also a bit hard to seek for help since many people don’t speak English. But after a moment, somehow I could found the only one money changer in the airport. And you know what, I can’t change my money! Not even one dollar. Aaaaarrrhh!. They only serve dollar or euro to be changed into rubble.

This unpredictable situation brought me into big troubles, “Trapped at the airport”!!!. Suddenly I was broke!.No money, no food, don’t know directions, couldn’t communicate with others, even couldn’t seek for help. Though I’ve already booked the train to Omsk, I couldn’t reach the train station with no money left in my pocket. Can you imagine this situation suddenly happened? Really need to stay calm even to face this situation.

wanna know how I can overcome this unexpected situation?  Wait for the next part guys!

To be continued…

by sangbintang

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