November 21, 2006: Six international flights in four days.

Some people would understand this, and some would not: when a close friend (and I rarely use this word loosely) of mine decided it's time to tie the knot, I had to be there. The first obstacle was that Andrey still lives in Moscow, Russia, and I live in Nashua, NH, USA. That said, having to fly to Moscow is overcomeable. The second obstacle was that I had to do it over one weekend. I had some serious doubts about that being doable, but eventually I figured that yes, at least when the reason is Andrey's wedding (which some of us were not quite sure would ever happen), flying eight time zones and back over one weekend can be done. Now, Andrey added a third obstacle. The official ceremony was in Moscow, but the following party had to happen in a warm sunny place (which Moscow is not at this time of year). Moreover, since the guests were coming primarily from Russia, the place had to allow a visa-free entry to Russian citizens (and the list of such countries, for the uninitiated, is very short). So, he settled on, of all the places, Egypt, or, more precisely, the Sinai Peninsula.

It came down to this: to attend Andrey's wedding (which I have been promising to myself for years I would do as long as it ever happens), I had to fly Boston–Moscow–Sharm el-Sheikh–Moscow–Boston over essentially a two-day weekend, plus at most 1 to 1.5 days. Considering that there is no direct flights between Boston Logan and any of the Moscow airports, that actually had to include one stopover in Europe. Not that I am new to transatlantic flights, but I have never flown that many miles in that few days. In other words, for me that would have to be quite a trip.

Well, while I was having my doubts, another friend, Mike, who lives in Lausanne, Switzerland, called in. He told me he would cut short his attendance of a conference in Barcelona (which he really digs...Barcelona, I mean, not the conference) in order to attend the wedding. He claimed I can make it, too. A couple more hours of doubts followed, and the decision was made.

Flights

So, I flew out of Boston at 7:10 PM on Thursday. About 6 hours later I landed in London, where it was 6:30 AM Friday. I boarded the plane to Moscow at around 9:30 AM London time. Three and a half hours of flying later I landed in Moscow, where it was 4 PM. At 7:10 AM Moscow time on Saturday, we flew to Sharm el-Sheikh. The flight took more than 4 hours, so, subtracting one hour time difference, we arrived at Sharm el-Sheikh at around 11 AM. The logistics there were amazing: it took us over 2 hours to get from the plane to the bus. 2.5 hour-long bus ride later, we checked into the Radisson SAS Taba resort on the Red Sea cost. One long party and two short sleeps later, we were heading back to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport the sunny Sunday morning. We were back in Moscow at 9 PM local time. Three hours of sleep later, I checked in for my Moscow—London flight, which departed Monday at 5:50 AM Moscow time. I was in London Heathrow at 7:00 AM London time. Three hours later I boarded the American Airlines flight that brought me back to Boston Logan at about 12:40 PM Eastern Time.

All in all, that came down to about 28 hours of flying, about 25 hours of hanging around in the airports, about 9 hours of commuting to/from airports and about 14 hours of sleep in the span of 90 hours. There might well be people for whom this would be a routine, but I am not one of them.

Thoughts

Operating on a schedule like this, I am using the word "thoughts" very loosely here, but still here they are.

London Heathrow

London is one of the places that you know a lot about without ever stepping your foot there. So, in that sense, spending a few hours in the airport without actually going into the city doesn't add much to the impression. Still, I got a few interesting observations.

Clothing

One such observation is that most people are dressed in style. Well, the styles vary, and some people do not match themselves perfectly to a style, but still they make the effort. I get this feeling when I get from Los Angeles to Boston, but not really from Boston to New York, and considering that London isn't Paris, seeing such a difference between Boston and London was somewhat of a surprise.

Food

Another observation is food. I've heard people complaining about the food in the UK. However, just very recently I read in a major American newspaper something to the effect of "London quietly turned from one of the worst places in the world to eat in to one of the best". While I can't really attest to that, as I haven't really been to London, the food options in the Heathrow airport were certainly better than anything I have encountered in Boston Logan in the past year.

People are thin!

That might be subjective, but coming straight from Boston, it is kind of noticeable that, an average passer-by is less likely to be...well, totally out of shape.

I guess this correlates with the previous point. People eat, most of them no fewer than three times a day. Busy people don't have time to visit a sit-down restaurant three times a day (not that it would help). Nor do busy people have time to home-cook three meals a day (though in my experience this is easier to pull off than the former). So...I remember one day this summer when I walked around Terminal A in Boston Logan, trying to find a meal that I could eat in time before boarding my flight to New York, such that the meal is not a sandwich with white-bread-to-meat-if-any ratio of 5-to-1, and not a salad with lettuce-to-other-stuff ratio of 10-to-1 by perceived volume. No luck. An hour later I repeated the procedure in JFK, with the same result. (No, really, I had to settle for the protein bar that I long since learned to take with me when traveling. I guess next thing I read is that protein bars are not allowed in carry-on luggage on flights originating from or destined to the United States).

Accent! Driving on left side of the road!

Well, these were of course expected, but still interesting to encounter in practice. I vividly remembered a coworker of mine, who long time ago told me that the British accent sounds "intelligent" while the Southern accent sounds "dumb". I kind of agree, at least with the British part. So, experiencing everybody around you sounding "intelligent" was...well, new.

The only England road traffic experience that I got during the trip was the shuttle transfer between two terminals in Heathrow. Not too much, and not too interesting, but well...new!

Power outlets

Before the trip, I was naïve enough to assume the world uses only two kinds of electrical plugs (plus compatible variations thereof). The first attempt to charge my laptop in Heathrow disillusioned me. When I crossed the hall to buy a converter, I discovered converters for at least two more plugs (labeled "South Africa" and "Australia"). In horror, I immediately googled the subject. The horror was justified: just check this out...

Moscow

Moscow is...interesting. It's cleaner than it used to be. It's cold. It's way, way too crowded. Plenty of new, clean, beautiful, well-architected buildings, both office and residential. Still plenty of old, unkempt multistory apartment buildings, along with unkempt factories mixed-in. Plenty of good food and nightlife options (not that I had a chance to visit any of them this time). You can actually get a coffee there without two tons of sugar already added to it. Customer service, on average, is a lot better than it used to be even five years ago, though some instances of shocking disregard are still present. There are still things I can't wrap my head around: the airports are Wi-Fi equipped, but in order to use the service, you have to purchase a card that is not sold in the airports. (I'm still wondering if they lose 99 or 100 percent of their sales because of this.)

Drinking

Occasionally, when somebody considers me a close enough friend of theirs, they ask me politely if there is any truth to the stereotype about Russians drinking too much (as though this could offend me). I usually respond with something to the effect of "Reality beats the stereotype". This time what I saw beat the reality that beats the stereotype.

Picture this: a fairly busy international airport in Moscow, six o'clock in the morning. A coffee shop between the passport control and the gates. A nice, clean, stylish, French-themed coffee shop with well-dressed, smiling, professional staff, serving excellent coffee and pastries. Mike and I approach it, and what strikes us is this: about a third to two thirds of the patrons (and that's a big place, totaling probably about 50 tables, and it's full) are having alcohol. I'm serious: big beer glasses, cocktails, probably a few vodka bottles here and there. The patrons for the most part look okay: they are flying internationally, so presumably they have other interests in their lives beyond consuming alcohol. Just in case the reader missed it: this happens at 6 AM.

Mike and I were shocked.

The interesting part is that when we talked to those in our party who still live in Russia, they not only weren't shocked, they actually defended such a...is "approach" a good word to use here?

Of course, then people (well, not all of them) drinking non-stop in planes and buses didn't shock as much. What's interesting is that on the plane back from Egypt Andrey showed me a couple graphs in an apparently respected Russian magazine: the graphs were mapping time to "Alcohol consumption in Russia" and "Life expectancy in Russia". It's scary that the two were exact opposites of each other, down to every little bump. I know that on Slashdot, this would be "correlation doesn't mean causation". Sure, but I dare to venture a hypothesis: alcohol consumption in Russia is the most important factor affecting the life expectancy.

Domodedovo vs. Sheremetyevo

Sheremetyevo (SVO) has historically been the major (or even the only) international airport in Moscow for passenger travel. However, it has probably been inadequate for the modern travel since before it was built. A lot of people who haven't been in Moscow for a while, myself included, don't usually even think about flying to Moscow without enduring the trouble of going through Sheremetyevo. Well, turns out it's been a few years since some airlines started moving their Moscow flights to Domodedovo (DME), which is for the most part an adequate modern airport (not that it's perfect, of course).

There are a few European airlines that fly to Domodedovo, the most convenient for connecting from Boston being British, bmi, and Swiss. The list is fortunately expanding, but it would be better if there were more options. So, if you can, vote with your dollars.

Egypt

The stay in Egypt was short, so I don't feel I can make many conclusions. Also, we were in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which (as far as I know) is pretty different from the rest of the country, so whatever I do say below, should not be taken as pertinent to the rest of the country.

Landscape

The landscape is desert and mountains. Not really like anything I have seen before, but parts of Southeastern California/Southwestern Arizona (I'm thinking I-40 or I-10) come close. More on pictures (below).

Resorts

Spending time on the beach resort does not come too close to my idea of a good vacation, so I don't have much to compare the Radisson SAS Taba (or a couple other resorts I have seen from the bus on our trip to Taba) to. That said, I certainly still remember our trip to Spain (or should I say Catalonia?) in 1998. Well, in Spain, resorts just blend in with the settlements around them. In Egypt, you have a complete desert, then the gated and fenced beach resort in it. Within the resort, there's landscaping, life and everything. Outside of the resort, there is nothing. As in "nothing at all". Weird. (People say it's somewhat different in other parts of Sinai Peninsula. Perhaps it is.)

Women or, rather, lack thereof

Well, in the 20 hours we spent in Egypt we have seen some local women — cleaning the floors in the airport, and performing local dances at a hotel party. Other than that, though, there weren't any. I mean, you enter the airport, and the person in the currency exchange office is a man, then the person in the passport control is a man, then every tour guide is a man, then the cashier in the duty free store is a man, then the cashier in the coffee shop is a man, then the bus driver is a man, then all receptionists at the hotel are men, then all the waiters in the restaurant are men, and so on, and on, and on. I know some (not too many) things about the women's position in their society, but actually experiencing it made me feel...uncomfortable to say the least.

Picture time!

True to stereotypes, it was raining both times I was in London:

...and the entire north of Europe between London and Moscow was covered by clouds:

Both Mike and I had to have a coffee to stay awake early Saturday morning in Vnukovo before boarding our flight to Egypt:

The bus that we rode from the Sharm el-Sheikh Airport to Taba:

A couple typical views from the bus window on our way from the airport to Taba:

Another view from the bus window, this time of the town of Nuweiba. (It's not seen on the picture, but in reality, even in a relatively foggy day such as this, the Saudi Arabia coast across the Gulf of Aqaba is clearly visible):

A couple views of the Hilton hotel in Nuweiba. (The bus stopped there to drop off our fellow-travelers.)

A view of the Red Sea from the Hilton Nuweiba beach:

The Hilton Nuweiba beach itself:

A view of a town shortly after we departed the Hilton. Probably, Nuweiba. I should note that I'm pretty sure that this was the only non-bedouin settlement we saw in Egypt.

Another view of I believe the same town:

Not sure what those bungalows are used for, but the view is pretty good :-) :

A view of the same beach from another point:

A couple views of Radisson SAS Taba where we stayed for the night:

And that's the post-dinner party at the beach, on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. We could see three other countries from there: Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.

Left to right: Kirill (the sleeping dude), Irina, Vova, Andrey:

That's me and Mike listening to apparently something serious that Andrey has to say:

Andrey (not the one getting married) with the happy ladies — the newlywed Tanya, Julia, Lena:

Ksenia and Kirill. Not sure why Irina (who took the picture) had to wake Kirill up :-) :

Vova and Andrey talking to me:

Time to get up (AGAIN!):

Another line in another airport (this time, check-in in Sharm el-Sheikh):

Fresh air and mountains stay, and I am boarding another Airbus: