Sunday, March 7, 2010

Domodedovo Airport Moscow

I had never been to Domodedovo Airport Moscow.



We flew into Moscow en route to Singapore, two very different countries! As we prepared to leave, a little girl at church reminded me she had been born in Moscow and asked if I would take some pictures for her. I have already emailed them to her but thought I'd post them here as well.










I was not impressed with the airport at Moscow. We had to get off our plane while it was being cleaned. This meant we spent our 1 1//2 hour layover going through customs, in order to get back onto the very same plane we had been on. The staff in Moscow during our short stint there were not very friendly. The bathrooms, at least where we were, stank (on both sides of our trip.) And the process of getting through customs was not fun, to say the least.

We were traveling in a group of eight which included three women and five children ranging in ages 2-13. On our return trip, as we got in line to go through customs, it seemed to move well. Until we got into the small enclosed area where we went through security. After going through one of the two scanners, there was only one person checking each document. There was no line, only a mob type situation waiting to get through.

Then, we heard that our flight was being announced for all passengers to report immediately to the gate. But there was nowhere to go. We were still standing waiting to have our documents checked. As we finally got through this security check in, we made our way to the gate. All the while they are still calling for all passengers on our flight to report immediately. We found that another reason we were all still standing outside the gate and thus the plane, is that each of us and our bags were being hand-checked. Needless to say this took a very long time. I am thankful for security in travel, but it would be nice if the folks doing the checking were a little bit nice about it. I was sad to have experienced nothing but a stereotypical Russian atmosphere during my time in the Domodedovo Airport. Maybe it's just because it's still really winter there. Hopefully, if we ever travel this route again, we will find some Russian airport workers with a little more cordiality to their attitude.

That I'd like to see.

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