Thursday 21st of august: the day my stay in Novosibirsk ends. I had a Super time here. And through this way want to thank all my old and new friends for their part is making this stay wonderful. My alarm went off at 6:15. I did not have breakfast in the fridge so why get up very early and then sit and wait on the couch… I took of the bed linen, washed my last glass after the usual shave and shower. Packed my last thing and threw away the garbage. Five minutes early before the driver arrived… very good.
Seven sharp the driver was there, nice, away to the airport to have breakfast. Vladimir is a very friendly man, he was dressed for a fishing trip, so a mate of him picked up the stuff that had to go back to the office, I met his wife for she was going with him on the trip… Every day I am more grateful to Ms. van Brink, for the fact that she taught me the secrets of the Russian language. We had a nice conversation and were about five minutes on our way when we had to stop for a red light. Two seconds later we were rear-ended by another car pretty strong. No personal injuries luckily, but now I started to worry about my flight… Vladimirs first action was to check both cars and all the people, but his second action was to call a friend of his to take me to the airport. Although I had ample time to get there initially, I was a bit worried, because traffic was getting stronger and stronger…
It turned out that the driver in the car behind us had been talking on the3 phone and did not take notice of traffic at all, I did not hear screeching breaks and the force of the collision felt like she did not break or slow down before she hit us… this again proves that talking on the phone and driving should be done with caution, and spe3cifically if you need to call during driving, do it hands free or put your car to the side of the road.
After a couple of minutes, Petrovich (Vladimir’s friend) turned up, a nice man, ex-Army, friendly and VERY talkative… we had conversations as good as I could manage with the man on everything: the situation in Ukraine, the situation in the middle east, Where I came from and all other subjects that arose… he was a cascade of words, sometimes I was not able to recognize the individual words. But he was friendly and a very safe driver, not very safe in the meaning that he was slow, he had good speed, but did not (like some other drivers here switch lane every two hundred meters..) it was very pleasant to sit in his car. And what is more important: he got me to the airport in time to check in, go through security AND have breakfast.
Normally I hide that I do this sometimes, but today I have to put it here in this article: I had breakfast at Burger king: not because I want to have a burger or whatever for breakfast, but here they had syrniki, and that is something I so much love to eat for breakfast. I would not know how to explain what this is. I will try to get a recipe somewhere and put it up some day. I did not take pictures. When I prepare them at home, I will do that to share it with you.
The plane turned out to be one of the SkyTeam planes, not an Aeroflot one, for me that is a first time, so I was curious how “unbranded” it would be. From the inside it was just another Aeroflot plane. After boarding it turned out I was bumped to first class. So this means nice chairs, enough legroom and no bother when the person in front of me wants to sleep… or that I have to think about the person behind me. Furthermore: a easier way and a more comfortable place to get some work done, while watching a movie with one eye. Today’s movie: The desolation of Smaugh…it is not the first time I see it, but it is such a good movie I like to see it again…
I have to say: it is 9:40 now and I already had a nice and eventful day… I am curious about what is to come yet… J
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