As usual with me starting a backpacking trip from Halewood train station it was raining heavily.  I managed to make it to Manchester Airport easily enough, which is no mean feat with British trains!  I had a very pleasant meal and a very enjoyable flight with Air France, who I have always liked flying with.

Before long I was sat on one of the infamous Aeroflot planes ready for takeoff.  The staff don’t speak any English and so some of my food orders proved rather interesting.  I know I had some form of chicken but not what vegetables I had with it.  The vegetables looked like shotgun pellets and were spicy.  Everything was written in Russian Cyrillic, including my complementary paper which I’ve kept for a keepsake.

I couldn’t sleep but the spectacular view of the sun rising over the Russian Steppe more than made up for it.  We had to fill in immigration papers on the plane, which were in Cyrillic, and I’m sure I filled half the questions in incorrectly.  Anyway, I managed to get through the hustle and bustle and general corruption of customs without any real problems.  All that was left was to find my driver and go to the hotel.

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