I am going on the plane from Shanghai to Moscow.

It was like my first time hearing Russian spoken around me in real time. Before it was all on YouTube and Vk Video. Russians are very beautiful and tall.

I went on the plane. Many Chinese people on the plane seem to have varying hygiene practices. Behind me is a Russian family, 2 sons and their parents. I slept for an hour. The screen actually works terrible - it was likely because Russia was sanctioned. I watched ballet (some interviews with Tsiskaridze, Tereshkina), USSR women in cosmos (Tereshkova), and Pushkin (from МИНАЕВ LIVE) in Russian.

I am arriving at Moscow soon, and then I will go to SPB! I hope everything would be fine. My plan is to first fly to SPB, then fly to Kazan, and then take the train to Nizhny, then to Moscow.

The flight attendant came to me with drinks. She spoke to me in some Chinese. I said, "Яблочный сок." She was delighted that I spoke Russian. I said, "Спасибо огромное." She gave me another cup. Then I slept again. Green forests appeared outside of the windows, some kid crying loudly, and we are at Moscow.

Sheremetyevo looks like a normal airport, except you only see Chinese and Russian companies on the planes. There is an "International transfer" venue, but it seems closed. There are many people and it's hot. Speed and efficiency are not exactly the best here - there are many people in a small space, and half of the people are Chinese. Most of them speak Chinese and it annoyed me, not because of the lines or the fatigue traveling - I slept well on the plane - but because there are Chinese people all around me. After half an hour I went through fine. The customs person didn't even look at my eVisa, she just looked at me very closely, as if checking if I am the same person from the passport.

Please do not forget your migration card, you need it in Russia.

There is a big Yoomoney store over there, but the lines are very long, so I left. I have 10000 Rubles and around 5000 RMB. I asked them where to get a sim card? They said you can't get one in the airport.

My flight was delayed from 21:30 to 0:00.

I don't have Internet! I asked again, where can I get a sim card? "Здесь нет." Fuck this airport. I have no Internet! I can't even use Yandex Go - because I simply have no Internet.

As the plane is delayed, I walked back to Yoomoney. They gave me my bank card and I deposited 5000 Ruble.

I can see from the screen the flights going to a lot of familiar Russian city names. I am not nervous and I am not tired. Russians are very beautiful.

The check-in line for the plane from Moscow to Piter is so long, that I have waited 1 hour already. I saw a huge group of soldiers for SVO? They are in uniforms anyway.

I saw another dozens of soldiers. And my flight is delayed until 2:55.

I need a phone number for the Internet here! And I finally got the SMS from my Chinese number. Finally I have Internet in the airport! I thought most American airports have free Internet, but here it took so long to get it working.

23:00. I went to terminal B for the flight from Moscow to Piter. The baggage check took so long and the line was breaking down, it was quite chaotic. But here we are. At terminal B there are just so many people and all flights seemed to be delayed. People sat everywhere.

Among the people with the uniforms there are Asian faces, are they from Buryatia or Tuva?

I bought a bottle of water for 325 Rubles. There are just so many people. I am spending my first night traveling like a homeless person, but fortunately, there are many people stuck here like me.

I shouldn't have gone into this damn place. What the heck is going on?

I do not know what is going on. I have never seen so many soldiers in my life. I sat there and I see soldiers walking around every several minutes. I tried to open Kyiv Independent, it is blocked. Turned out that there is a drone attack. Many flights are stuck here for more than 8-10 hours, or just canceled.

It is my choice to travel to war-time Russia anyway - I got into this myself.

All toilets are full. There are people just everywhere. And do you know that the water costs differently in the airport? At one end it's 325 Ruble a bottle, and the other end, 59 Ruble. Блин, I bought 2 from each side.

The plane delayed till 5 am! It's such an awful experience for me. The only other time as bad as this was when I went to Hong Kong and I was stuck at the airport overnight, and then I realized that I forgot my visa as I only had a traveling visa, and I went back to Shanghai the same day. No matter how well prepared I was, I did not prepare for such a situation.

I went to the less crowded part of Terminal B. I lay down on the floor and there are many young people and couples around me. I slept for a while.

It is already 4:20. I looked at the gate, and it said, "Samara".

It's around 5 am. Nobody is organizing any protest, or even demanding an answer - there's simply nobody. A toddler was climbing along the entrance of the gate, Another small kid was sleeping on a suitcase. You will hear "Блять" once in a while between conversations. And I already saw smile appearing on some people's faces as the sun rises. Everything is normal!

There are some South Asian laborers waiting there.

It's already 5 am, nothing happened. The plane isn't taking off. And there is no staff at the gate.

I am leaving this hell.

By the way, UnionPay doesn't work in the airport.

And there is a place for taxis, but I am afraid they will take advantage of me. I do not have Internet right now, so I can't use Yandex Go.

Thank god I left the airport! Everything was becoming just worse and worse. I was extremely tired and I didn't sleep all night. I managed to get on the train from the airport to Moscow. I bought the ticket with my Yoomoney Mir card and it costs 635 Ruble.

And here we are at Белорусский вокзал.

I memorized most of central Moscow's landmarks and famous locations, so we are heading to Hotel Ukraina now.