From Tula with love

Europe closed its airspace, and citizens of the Old World are stuck in Russia

After the Allegro train was departed from St. Petersburg to Helsinki in the waiting room, the completely bruised Frenchmen Jean-Jacques, Sophie and Noah from Lyon remained standing. Before that, they tried to get out of the country through the airports of Moscow, then Petersburg, and then, finally, they suffered Fiasco at the Finland Station

“We came to my brother,” says Noah. - He lives in Tula and in July should marry a Russian girl. We planned everything, arrived in advance to get acquainted with new relatives and coordinate preparations for the ceremony. But now we just want to get home as soon as possible, to France. On Saturday, February 26, we canceled our flight from Moscow to Paris. Then we bought tickets to Geneva right at the airport, but Switzerland also closed the airspace. And for flights with transfers in Asia or Africa, we can no longer buy tickets - they are very expensive - 2000 euros and more per person, and three of us. We have no money left.

The family arrived in St. Petersburg, hoping to leave by rail, but it did not work out on the train either.

- We have tickets, there is vaccination, but people have told us that they needed Finnish or Russian passports to go on this train. We have only French, ”Noah grins.

- We tried to contact the Finnish consulate, but it was absolutely useless - we were told that we had to go by bus.

Why - no one explained, but the money for tickets for the train also disappeared. We bought tickets for Thursday for a bus ( the conversation took place on Tuesday. - Ed. ) - before there were no places.

Having come to terms with the next failed attempt to leave for Europe, Jean-Jacques, Sophie and Noah went outside and stood on the porch for a long time. The bright spring sun shone, but Sophie put on sunglasses in the station building - so that no one saw her tearful eyes. Jean-Jacques stood next to his wife, shifted from his foot to his foot and chewed nervously chewing gum-exactly like Alex Ferguson.

“Sophie works,” explains the emotions of the stepmother Noah. - On Monday, she had to go to work. And her little son - my brother - also remained in France.

Noah is the only one of the three who have left Internet access.

“We need to find a hotel for these two nights,” the young man says thoughtfully. - And try to return the money for the ticket, although it is hardly possible.

Jean-Jacques hugs his wife and turns to Noah-he translates:

- We were left completely alone! They don't help us. Even the French embassy. They said that they could not do anything for us and that we should try to take the bus. And at the airports, we probably met a dozen Frenchmen who were in a similar situation.

... Pulkovo at the airport is little bitter. There are no European cities on the scoreboard and arrival - only red lines cancel. On the gallery of the second floor, passengers sleep, talk on the phone. Laughter comes only from the middle of the hall - there, between two carts with suitcases, they are waiting for a flight to Dubai Belgian Sorai and the French Julien and Guillaume. The guys are students: Soraya studied at a translator at St. Petersburg State University, Julien and Guillaume - at engineers in the magistracy of the University of Electrotechnical University.

“Russia is a wonderful country, there are very hospitable people here,” says Julien. - For me, studying here was the opportunity to study culture, lifestyle - it was important for me to overcome the stereotypes about Russia that exist in the West. Now, unfortunately, we are forced to return. Due to the political situation, our teachers demanded that we return to France.

Julien and Guillaume are waiting for a flight to Dubai, where they will make a transplant to Lyon.

“For two flights will cost us more than 3,000 euros,” says Julien. - For students, this is a lot of money.

“To get home, I paid 2500 euros,” says Sorai. - And a ticket to Russia cost 240 - ten times less.

Students hope that after returning home, the university leadership will provide them with financial support. “Our university has already said that they would help financially. Let's see what will happen when we return, ”says Guillaume.

“I tried to read about what was happening, to understand this whole nightmare, but I did not have time to figure out everything: my government asked to return to Belgium as soon as possible,” says Sorai. - I barely managed to buy several Faberge eggs as a gift to relatives. At the university, I studied Russian history - I understand the origins of this conflict, but still it was a complete surprise to me. Petersburg gives the impression of a safe city. I was happy about the time spent here, and did not think that everything could end so quickly.

On the black T -shirt of Guillaume, a heart of barbed wire depicts a heart, but the young man assures: “It has nothing to do with politics - this is just the logo of the French brand of clothing.”

“I'm sorry: we will not be able to finish the project that we started here,” says Guillaume. - This is sad - to leave the country and the city that I love.

It is a pity that we did not do everything we wanted: we did not go to museums, to the Hermitage - we needed QR, but we did not have time to do the "satellite".

“Nothing, friend, we will return,” Julien’s friend encourages. - We’ll go to Moscow.

- Yes, we didn’t go to Moscow either: we thought that we would have six months to have time. But all life is ahead, ”laughs by Guillaume.

“I also want to return to Russia, although I’m not sure that this is possible, given the situation,” says Sorai.

“People most often buy irrevocable tickets, so the people are not going to hand them over to us,” says Cashier Nadezhda. - People cannot fly away anywhere, so everyone is torn to Istanbul. Today I sold a ticket for the flight of Turkish Airlines Peter -Stambul for 51,000 rubles. This is one way! And no one is indignant at the cost, glad that the ticket got.

Because of the rack, a woman takes out a sheet of paper with a list of closed airports in the south of Russia.

-I’ll hang a list with canceled flights to a prominent place-let it be right on the rack: it is for passengers. And then they ask about it every five minutes.

But there is good news. On Thursday, on Thursday, the Novosti -Maturation Correspondent called the long -suffering French, whom he met at the Finland Station. They said that they drove a bus in Helsinki at 6.45 in the morning and exactly 5 minutes ago passed border control. They cried and laughed at the same time. On the question of whether they will come again to Tula for the wedding, the connection was interrupted.