The last time we were in Russia was four years ago. The twins were half the age that they are now and I was in the middle of writing my dissertation. We have seen Babushka a lot since we lived in Kazakhstan, but it has taken us two years to get to Krasnoyarsk to see her.
The journey started in the US when the girls and I applied for Russian visas. The law has changed since we came last time, and we were encouraged to apply for multiple entry three-year visas, which we did. They are the same price, so it will save us money and time from having to apply again if we want to go. We were able to get the visas with minimal trouble. When we got back to Kazakhstan we had to renew our visas for here, so we couldn't book our travel until we had our visas and passports back.
We flew to Novosibirsk on July 18. The flight from Astana was about 90 minutes long and pretty smooth. We overshot the airport on our first pass, so that was exciting and we had to circle back around. The weather was rainy and the cloud ceiling was very low, so that made it a little more dicey coming in. Once we landed it took us a bit over two hours to get through passport control. Two flights had arrived and no one was getting through. One of the border agents came out and announced that the hail storm had knocked out the computers. When we did get through it was me and the four girls. The woman who was processing our passports called her supervisor to see if we needed extra scrutiny. We got through, though, and that's all that mattered.
Once we were through we got in a shuttle van directly to the train station. Unfortunately our delay meant that we hit rush hour traffic. We were standing still for much of the drive from the airport to the train station. We did eventually make it - and got to our train with about 10 minutes to spare. It was just enough time to board and for Yulia to buy some water and snacks before our train left. We had a twelve-hour overnight train to Krasnoyarsk. The kids love trains and sleeping on them, and this was a pretty nice train (clean and with a modern toilet system and nice conductor[1]) so it was a nice easy trip. Our overall travel time from Astana to Krasnoyarsk was about 18 hours and it was easy travel compared to trans-Atlantic followed by trans-Russia air travel.
We arrived at a bit after 7:00, got right on a bus that got us to Babushka's house in about 10 minutes - the fastest we've ever been.
It was good to be there. The apartment is still small, but it is fun for the kids to all be together and for Yulia and I to sleep on the balcony. It's as close to camping as I'd like to be most days, anyways!
Our first few days it was a bit rainy and we were stuck inside, but on Saturday we took a trip to Stolbi - the National Park that is just outside of town. That will be the next post!
_________
[1] Apparently you pay extra on the trains with conductors who are not rude. Standard tickets include rude conductors. We were happy to have paid the extra. It was really a pleasant trip.
The journey started in the US when the girls and I applied for Russian visas. The law has changed since we came last time, and we were encouraged to apply for multiple entry three-year visas, which we did. They are the same price, so it will save us money and time from having to apply again if we want to go. We were able to get the visas with minimal trouble. When we got back to Kazakhstan we had to renew our visas for here, so we couldn't book our travel until we had our visas and passports back.
We flew to Novosibirsk on July 18. The flight from Astana was about 90 minutes long and pretty smooth. We overshot the airport on our first pass, so that was exciting and we had to circle back around. The weather was rainy and the cloud ceiling was very low, so that made it a little more dicey coming in. Once we landed it took us a bit over two hours to get through passport control. Two flights had arrived and no one was getting through. One of the border agents came out and announced that the hail storm had knocked out the computers. When we did get through it was me and the four girls. The woman who was processing our passports called her supervisor to see if we needed extra scrutiny. We got through, though, and that's all that mattered.
Once we were through we got in a shuttle van directly to the train station. Unfortunately our delay meant that we hit rush hour traffic. We were standing still for much of the drive from the airport to the train station. We did eventually make it - and got to our train with about 10 minutes to spare. It was just enough time to board and for Yulia to buy some water and snacks before our train left. We had a twelve-hour overnight train to Krasnoyarsk. The kids love trains and sleeping on them, and this was a pretty nice train (clean and with a modern toilet system and nice conductor[1]) so it was a nice easy trip. Our overall travel time from Astana to Krasnoyarsk was about 18 hours and it was easy travel compared to trans-Atlantic followed by trans-Russia air travel.
We arrived at a bit after 7:00, got right on a bus that got us to Babushka's house in about 10 minutes - the fastest we've ever been.
 |
| Eating once we were there. For some reason I don't have travel pictures. |
Our first few days it was a bit rainy and we were stuck inside, but on Saturday we took a trip to Stolbi - the National Park that is just outside of town. That will be the next post!
_________
[1] Apparently you pay extra on the trains with conductors who are not rude. Standard tickets include rude conductors. We were happy to have paid the extra. It was really a pleasant trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment