this is the second part of the final journey home, we'd said goodbye to everyone one by one, Mennat at Moscow Domodedovo and now the three of us were at Sheremetyevo.
We seemed to be at Moscow airport for ever, it was indeed a day. It was very sad to say goodbye to Shinod whos presence had filled the symposium with laughter and joy. He checked into his Delhi flight an hour before ours. Emotional and drained we did all the security, the officials no longer intimidating to us. Just at check in I noticed that my bag had split but it was too late to buy a luggage strap or get it wrapped in cellaphane on one of the machines which seems to be the norm in some airports. So we hastily shoved some masking tape around the bag and hoped for the best that my strategically packed precious gifts and souvenires would not burst out and be lost.
Very sleepy! We kept nodding off every time we stopped. But as the Moscow plane lifted up and Russia started to drop away from us then the pain hit, flying above the land I always dreamt of roaming, flying away, I think emotions were hitting both of us at the same time. there I was in the russian sky, no longer on Russian soil. There was something special about those clouds we flew through that day.
Again as we landed and headed for the transfer plane, Shipol airport was full of different nationalities, usually I love this - but this day I resented everyone for not being Russian, for speaking English, for being too tall, for behaving slightly differently. But then we’d noticed in Moscow that the faces were a little different to Tatarstan and people were a little taller, We had to stop our selves saying ‘Sapassiba’ to people, English grating on the toungue. However the KLM flights are very comfortable, food and refreshments provided. Moscow and Shipol appear to be major jump off points for air travel so the passengers on the plane were a complete mixture. We both kept zonking out asleep, even during take off and landing, completely exhausted!
Edinburgh airport, here we are again, it not hitting home or making sense, time and place lagged. We’d travelled back in time 3 hours, but been up since 2am so we’d in effect done 27 hour day, but then more!
Shuttle bus quick wi-fi connect message that we had landed. I got us off at the wrong stop , meadow bank, murray field hey ho- so our heavy heavy bags with us ( mine had made it intact the masking tape holding the split okay ) we grabbed a taxi and headed to my eldest daughters flat for the night, it was 10pm Scotland 1pm our time. Tal had cooked us a lovely homemade pizza, glass of wine, quick catch up, Lynn literally nodding off on the sofa. I stayed up until 1.30am Scottish time 4.30am our time showing Tal all the photos.
Tuesday? 24th August. Taxi to bus station, bus. Megabus home. Met at Inverness by Lynn's husband Sandy. stop for cup of tea & bite to eat. Inverness smelt different the air was cool and humid. drive west, met Rich at Achnasheen, and then there was one symposium artist left. home. content, floating happy for a couple of days serene. then the come down hit hard. decisions to be made, work life balance, art- family life- picking up all the threads again from anew. onwards and upwards. I still dream that I'm there in Yelabuga, at the symposium.
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