The Travel Log

It took a grand total of 26 hours to get from Detroit to Tyumen. Only one leg of the journey is really interesting, so I’ll tell you all about it:

We arrived at Moscow and needed to pick up our own tickets to head off to Tyumen. Went off without a hitch and I even managed to pay the excess baggage charge without too much embarrassment.

Here’s where the story gets good. We’re coming in for a landing in Tyumen – only a little behind schedule at 1am local time. Amy and I are looking out the window to see if we can see the ground when – FLASH lightning strikes the airplane. No joke. The whole thing shook. I looked back at Amy and really couldn’t see a thing. My retinas were scorched!

So we ended up circling the airport for about an hour because of the storm until they finally close Roshino (that’s the Tyumen Airport). So we were rerouted to Ekaterinburg. I was clearly delirious with the need to sleep by the time we landed in Ekat, so I just crashed out for a bit… you know that fitful sitting up kind of sleep?

Well we made it and all of the luggage made it through as well! The only issue was that the folks picking us up from the airport weren’t there. So (I was so proud of myself). I went and bought a phone card so I could call Jim and Sally. But it didn’t work. Looks like the phones at the airport only take one kind of phone card… and they’re not sold at the airport! At least that’s what I gathered from the VERY unfriendly lady at the information desk. Campus Information Center staff – you make me so PROUD.