June 20, 2:30pm Moscow time.
We arrived find in Brussels — followed a Sabena person to the right gate and were on the Aeroflot samoljot (Aeroflot plane) within 1/2 hr of landing in Brussels. Sitting in a small non-smoking area. Only 3 rows of seats. Back 1/2 of the plane is smoking section. Ahead of us is I guess what you would call the Soviet equivalent of First Class seating. All the people that I saw go up there had ochen mnogo (a whole lot of) gifts, boom-boxes, etc. to go back to the ole Soyuz with.
Discovered that my left headphone isn’t working. Hope this thing isn’t busted already! Before takeoff the stewardesses didn’t go over safety regulation stuff and take off and the climb to cruising altitude (which is still going on) were quite STEEP — a bit hard on the ears and nose.
From what I can see of Europe below (probably northern Germany?) there’s NO TREES, NO HILLS! Just patches of farm & buildings. And the smog is VERY visible. Ah! The wonders of the good old Industrial Revolution. So much for “development” if this is what Mother EArth is going to end up looking like!
In about 3 hrs we’ll be in Moskva (Moscow) i potom mozhno govorit’ tol’ko po russky (and then we’ll have to speak only in Russian).
Filed under: Travel, Tver 1989 | Tagged: 1989, Old Journals, Travel, USSR
