Joining ship for the first time...

The day started as I was boarding the plane to St. petersburg russia via paris... the flight was smooth.... it was abt 13 hrs from here to there in.... that part was comfirtable....then was the 4 hrs waiting in paris.... then to st.petersburg..... ok all went good till then....we got our luggage ....(i say we becoz there were 4 more coleagues of mine coming along to join the same ship).... the moment we stepped outta the airport i had a slight shock....NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH.... we were like ducks waddling in middle of a dark lake.... id not know where to go...

Then suddenly an elderly woman appeared from thin air jabbled somethin in her lang. and pointed a finger to a corridor showing 3 fingers on the other hand...we took that she wanted us to go to the 3rd room in that alley.... ok good till that.... we entered that room and atlast found 1 man who could gather some english words....we then explained him and ok he contacted our agents and merrily we went past the immigration and into the street .... that was the time i realised what chill really is...september end.... dry... 74 deg north latitude... phew.... shivering we looked around for an agent to come in a suv to pick us up... but out of a corner i noticed 2 women staring at us and then one of them gathered up some courage and asked .."indians" and mentioned our ship's name and said "I agent".... ok

then was the shock of the life... in zoomed 2 matchbox cars....i was sure that only we people will fit in there not our luggages.....but squeezed into them with great difficulty...the ride was among an xellent scenery but we cud not enjoy it coz of all the jam packing in the car....

we reached the port and when we were near rhe ship was the next shock... the ship was about to start loading... means she has the least of her hull under water... that means we had to climb all the way up the gangway...(the access point to the ship from the quay).... with all that luggage...oof...but luckily the ship's crew hopped out to help us and in no time we were standing on the deck with all our luggage....we went to our allotted rooms and setteled then had a bath and then were accompanied to dinner....

one look at the table, my mouth started waterin..it was a self serving system... with abt 11 dishes....i being a veggie took all the veg items an had a stoumptous dinner and retired for the day worked out fully due to the travel and dozed off in no time...