Destination Yerevan

For those who plan on flying Aeroflot, expect to wait.  When you're tired of waiting and it seems like it can't get any worse, plan to wait some more.  Eventually, the flight itself, as long as it is, seems much shorter in comparison.  Apparently, the Aeroflot staff are trained repeatedly to become detached and careless.  What's important to them is to delay relevant information to disgruntled passengers until the absolute last moment. 

My flight took off from Los Angeles about 7 hours late, and by the time I landed in Moscow, the 6 1/2 hour layover that seemed as though it would take forever wasn't quite enough time.  Once in Moscow, I had no choice but to be placed in a hotel until the next morning.  What's more, since I was a transit passenger with no Russian visa, I was treated like a Chechen prisoner.  They put me up on a special hotel floor with its own security guard, and the -15 Celsius outside apparently wasn't a barrier enough to prevent my roaming the streets.  At some point, thanks to jet lag, I stepped out of the room to ask to use the computers but was told that the security detail was unavailable till 6 am, and I was left trapped in my own room.  Sure, they provided some breakfast, and shuttled me back to the airport on time, but my frustration towards Aeroflot wasn't fully reduced.  Once there, the plane managed to take off an hour late as the wings were deiced on the runway.  After some tortuous turbulence, I finally arrived in Yerevan to a balmy winter.  Instead of snow, it was rain that greeted my arrival.