The trip to Russia was long and hard – 22 hours to be exact. From Asheville to Newark we flew the small Contential jet which is great except for the small seats. You know, we're all a bunch of "husky boys" so needless to say it felt like a much longer flight than it actually was.
We arrived in Newark on time, found the gate for Air France, got strip-searched for the second time, and presented our passport for the 20th time :-) We then found a bar, had a couple of Guinness and some dinner during our four-hour layover.
We boarded the flight to Paris which was a big plane ... 8 seats across. You would think a big plane would have larger seats. Yeah, right. Brad, Alan, Dan and Mike had the middle four seats. I sat next to an Austrian who was, literally, a rocket scientist. The plan was to sleep on the flight across the Atlantic because we had two rehearsals immediately upon our arrival in Russia. We tried the ear plugs and eye masks, but no one was able to get any real rest.
Finally, we arrive in Paris, late, and we don't have that long a layover. So, Brad did a good job of navigating to our next gate which involved a rat maze of shuttles. Stripped searched for the third time, and presented passport for 348th time :-)
So, we just make our flight to St. Petersburg -- a smaller jet, but luckily it's not full, so we can stretch out a bit, and finally catch a few minutes of sleep.
We land in Russia, and the fun begins ...
