The final push Moscow, Kiev...... Istanbul, Sofia, Cyprus and Greece
With the aircraft safely put to
bed in Helsinki I caught a flight to Moscow via Stockholm, It took an age to
clear customs and I was met in the arrivals hall by the Moscow relay staff and taken
straight to the pre-meeting at SVO terminal 1, this took some time to complete and
once it had been it was down to the hotel for the night. The next day turned
out to be a little special with having put the aircraft to bed we went in
search of the relay which we knew would be somewhere near the end of day celebration
schedule for red square. We arrived at the square to find it closed and people
trying to see what was happening, we showed our ID’s to the guards and were
waved through the barriers, as the celebration was at the edge of the square
the main area was totally empty and the five of us had the entire square to
ourselves. It was an amazing experience to walk about this iconic area with no
one else present. The next day was a
rest day and I had opted to fly to Kiev in the morning and spend the day there,
this turned out to be a great decision.
The weather in Kiev was very pleasant
and I decided to take a walk about. The entire city was out and about, the main
street had some street vendors trying to earn a buck, amongst these vendors two
stood out as remnants of a rapidly disappearing age. The first was a middle
aged man sat on a chair reading a book, in front of him was a pair of bathroom
scales that people were paying him to weight themselves on the scales. The
second was an elderly man with a wind up gramophone. People would pay him and
he would play them a record. I then attempted to walk to the Dynamo Kiev
stadium just to say I had been there but got lost and ended up walking into a
residential area. I sensed something was abnormal but could not put my finger
on it, after a while I realised that there was a total lack of traffic and
looking at the number of cars parked in the car parks of the flats it appeared
that very few people owned a car. From time to time a black limo with tinted
windows would drive past me. On one occasion the window was down and I was
being filmed, I assume this was some sort of state security service, I also
noticed that I attracted the attention of the locals, It would appear that I
stood out as a foreigner and I assume they seldom got them wondering around the
residential areas, that said I never felt threatened and just saw myself as
being treated as an oddity.
As I walked down one road in a direction that I
hoped would take me back to the city centre I saw what looked to be a large
statue some distance in front of me. I decided to walk to it and see what it
was. To my amazement it turned out to be what I now know to be the “mother
Motherland” statue which is 62 metres tall and therefore 16 metres higher than
the Statue of liberty. I had no idea this statue even existed and it took my
breath away. It was the centrepiece of the “Museum of the great patriotic war”
this is a stunning museum dedicated to what we would know as World War 2. After
spending a great couple of hours in the museum I walked a little further and
came across the Assumption cathedral a stunning building. I topped this off by
sitting in the Park Slavi 6 overlooking the Dnieper River whilst the sun went
down. After that I took the subway back to the Hotel, the station was a
typically soviet style station that seemed to go down into the centre of the
earth before we got to the platform. It’s not often I am surprised but Kiev was
a revelation, it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited and
not what I expected at all. The next day was relay day and we
ran into a bit of a crisis, I was advised that the crew did not have visas for
the Ukraine and therefore they would be confined to the airport hotel for the
duration of the stay. I had seen the airport hotel as we drove away and it did
not look to be a high quality establishment. Based on the low standards of the
western hotels in Kiev at the time I knew this would not be acceptable. There then
started a game of telephone ping pong with ever increasing levels of
bureaucracy I eventually ended up with the foreign ministers private secretary
and I told them that the aircraft were being held in Moscow until this was
resolved ( the support aircraft was in fact already airborne) eventually he
begrudgingly caved in and allowed the crew downtown. Having got the aircraft
sealed up I played tour guide for the day with those from the aircraft that had
spent their day off in Moscow.
It had been decided that I would
join the support aircraft for the last four days of the trip and I was away to
the airport early for the trip to Istanbul. The support aircraft carried the
same passengers every day and they had taken to decorating their own personal
space with all sorts of trinkets we would never pass a CAA ramp inspection but
being such a special flight we were unlikely to get one. In Istanbul we opted to spend the day in town
as we knew that the following day was going to be busy, again we went to find
the relay and tagged along with them. I overslept the following morning through
sheer exhaustion and was woken by the crew as they were ready to leave the
lobby; it’s the first and only time I have done this. Arriving at the airport
late my colleagues had done all the work and I just had to board. 45 minutes
later we arrived in Sofia where we had decided that we would have a major sort
out of the cargo as the following day it would all need to be loaded onto the
primary aircraft which would be the only aircraft going forward to Greece on
the final day. The temperature was well over 30C and even though I was wrapped
up against the sun and regularly drank water I am sure I gave myself heat
exhaustion in the five hours we were sorting everything out. This may not have
been helped by going for a sauna after I got to the Hotel or having a couple of
beers in the bar. The next day was to be the final live day of the relay and we
had a 1:33 leg to Paphos where we dropped everyone off and then departed to
Larnaca where we would be departing from the next day once in Larnaca we, and
by that I mean everyone except me, transferred everything from the standby
aircraft to the primary one. I sat in the primary aircraft lounge felling sorry
for myself and a little sick. As this was the last night with the two crews
together a party was thrown for everyone, fortunately I had recovered enough to
take part. The final day was a late start as we were just returning the flame
to the Greeks and we were scheduled for a midday departure. It had been
arranged that the backup aircraft would remain on the ground in Larnaca for an
hour after our departure just in case there was a technical issue on the
primary aircraft. At 11AM the relay
arrived at the airport and we loaded everything onto the aircraft, for the
relay staff this was the “end of term” as the relay was finished for them, we
still had the last leg to complete though to get the aircraft back to Greece.
It was an on time departure for the 1:12 leg to Heraklion in Crete.
As we
touched down the largest Greek flag I have ever seen was flying from a building
adjacent to the airport. The apron was crowded with airport officials and
hangers on all of whom wanted to see the arrival of Greece’s Olympic flame, there
was a real party atmosphere on the ramp and talking to some of the people a
real sense of pride in the Olympics coming home. We offloaded the bikes which
were being loaned to the domestic torch relay. With this complete and the
flames handed over we were off again on the final 0:40 leg back to Athens where
it all started 37 days earlier. Once we were on the ground we had to offload
everything off the aircraft and had this included a lot of promotional material
or “rubbish” as it was now, that needed to be discarded. It took us about 2
hours to get everything off the aircraft and with this job complete it was time
to go to the Hotel where the final party was being held that evening. The
primary crew were invited but were due to leave early the following morning so
did not attend eventually after several fully clothed dips into the hotel pool
we got to bed at about 2AM and needed to be up by 5AM for the flight. Bleary
eyed we made it to the airport for the flight back to London and that was it.
The train home a couple of days off and then back to the office to resume
“normal life”.
