Early start off to St. Petersburg, 6:50am Polish air to Warsaw then connecting flight to St. Petersburg. Warsaw flight was a little late arriving and consequently a mad dash at the airport to try and transit through to the departure gate for my next flight. 20 minutes is not long to get a connecting flight luckily my bags are checked the whole way through, hopefully they've made it onto the next flight as well ?
Arrival at st. Petersburg pretty much on time 14:45 local time, 3 hours ahead of the UK. Passport control is the next challenge, I'm in the wrong queue methinks.... almost the whole plane of passengers gets through taking about 3 minutes each with just 4 channels and I'm stuck behind a chinese guy who is going nowhere fast!
Finally through, bag has made it too! and out into the arrivals hall to find the driver who has come to pick me up..... 30 minutes later I'm still here no one to be seen! A few frustrated calls to the hotel, I have the incorrect number for them and no-one is picking up! I get through to the local office of the booking agency that I have used and they give me a different number for the hotel. Maria who my visit is to meet also gets involved and we find out that the car coming to the airport has allegedly been involved in an accident.
All is well as ends well and finally I get to the hotel around 16:30. Pay the driver cash after a short trip to the cash machine and then check in and into the hotel room. I have been upgraded as there are no superior rooms and now I'm in an executive room !
I get unpacked, a bit check the Internet and get ready to meet up with Maria, a nice Italian restaurant and great conversation.... what a great evening! Tomorrow some sightseeing and some Russian cuisine!
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