[Shaos]

Every year we have a New Year break. My husband and me, we try to skip this period full of fuss, traffic jams and sales. This year was not an exception – we thought so, though…
We were supposed to leave on the 25th of December to Morocco. And we were the first to have stayed. Our flight to Frankfurt was cancelled. Then a flight to Vienna was cancelled too. The reason was quite clear – our bad weather. The planes hadn`t made to Moscow. We had spent 4 hours waiting for any solving of our problem. I have to say that Lufthansa and the Austrian Airlines (as opposed to our national heritage – Aeroflot) did their best to help all their passengers. We were offered to take another flight in a day.
But in a day it happened – our best and biggest and the most up-to-date airport Domodedovo was totally dark, there was no light. Really, I can`t help but wondering whether that`s even possible?????!!!! Anyhow, we had to go to Domodedovo to get some information about our plans and our flights, at least. It was clear that there were not any flights this day. There was a terrible traffic jam before the airport. People went on foot – but what for? It was clear that they couldn`t be late. The airport was absolutely dark. During this jam we were listening to the head of “RusAvia”`s cheerful reports – everything was under control, situation was really tough but not that hopeless. That was stupid and ridiculous, indeed!!!
Reaching the airport we were turned away by the police. Of course we didn`t find any information there, representatives of air companies were not able to work.
Really it seemed like a war! There were police cars under each entrance, doors were open, people tried to get lift out of the airport! Cell phones didn`t work, there were no trains, there was panic everywhere!
That was “nice”, but we were forced to go home. We decided to go to the Lufthansa office in Moscow. The next day we were there at 8am. Usually the office open from 9pm, but we hadn`t checked it in their web-site However, the office was open because of this awful situation! The head of the “RusAvia” said that the airport had resumed its work. We met several people in the office who had spent all night in the airport. They were very surprised when we had informed them about this optimistic report.
A lady who helped us in the office was really smart and realistic. She suggested we should go to the New-Year show in the Kremlin and take tickets for the 1st of January because this paranoia wouldn`t pass quickly. There were two girls intending to depart as soon as it would be possible. They insisted on getting any tickets to Morocco for the nearest date. They were offered the Aeroflot tickets for the next day… In a day the Sheremetyevo airport stopped working, and the Aeroflot declared that it was not their fault and they would not give any refunds… The poor girls!

So our trip was cut short, we had to enjoy New Year . Hope that such “surprise” will be left in the previous year!

Happy New Year! And please excuse this very long text!