I really want to share a lot of things about my recent trip to Russia with all of you. However, so much happened, and I have so many observations, that I'm trying to figure out how to share them all with you and not bore you to death. So here is how I'm going to approach this.
Initially, I will go through the trip, putting up two days worth of the trip each day. Once I've taken you through the whole trip, I'll make a few cultural observations from my time in Russia. Then, I'll share a few personal thoughts about how God and the Gospel are at work in Russia, and include specific things you can think of and pray for as the number of Christians grows in the former Soviet country. Following this pattern will hopefully keep things moving and coherent at the same time.
We left for our trip on July 11. My wife and I had a flight early in the morning that Monday, so drove down the airport, parked our car, and rode over. No problems on the flight to New York, where we met up with the rest of our group. There were seven of us total going, us from Utah, one from Texas, two from Minnesota, and two from Colorado. We ate together in New York, then boarded our plane for Moscow. Estimated time of flight: 10 hours.
About an hour and a half after takeoff, the attendants came around with dinner. We were all pretty full from our meal in the airport, but I did manage to eat it all. The flight was relatively uneventful, though we did cross over into Tuesday along the way. What made this unusual was that our flight path was so far to the north that it never got dark. We went from one day to the next with no darkness whatsoever.
We landed in Moscow late Tuesday morning, July 12 (10 hours time difference from our home). We met up with the man who had made our arrangements for much of our trip, and caught our ride to our hotel. Let me just say right up front: it was HOT in Moscow. For being as far north as it is, the temperature for most of the time we were there was in the 90s. The shuttle which we caught had no a/c (get used to this theme), so we had to rely upon the wind blowing through the windows. Overall, it was a hot, sticky, hour-long ride to our hotel. Thankfully, we weren't going the other way, as traffic in the other direction was backed up most of the way to our hotel.
We arrived at our hotel, checked in, and then experienced one curious part of Russia. At every hotel, they take your passports in order to register that you stayed with them. So we turned our passports over, got our room keys, and went up to "freshen up" after the long day or more of travel. However, since it was still fairly early in the day (around 1:00), we knew it wouldn't be good to sleep if we wanted to adjust. So our guide took us to the local metro, where we purchased a card for riding, and then we headed to downtown Moscow.
Our guide, Alexey, brought us off the metro and took us up to the Kremlin and Red Square. Let me just say, it was very interesting hearing about Russian history from someone who has lived in that country all his life. We saw the walls of the Kremlin, where Lenin's tomb sat, and a number of churches and cathedrals, many of which have been restored since the Soviet times. Oh, and did I mention that it was hot? We were all tired and sweaty, and yet fascinated to see places and structures that have been around longer than our country has been in existence. We walked along the outside of the Kremlin, seeing buildings that have stood for a long time, and which carry the weight of history.
After about three hours of being tourists and taking pictures (yes, I'll include some in future posts), we heard that the missionary who would be traveling the country with us had arrived on his flight. So we trekked back to the metro (ah, the cool relief of the underground!) and headed back to our hotel. We arrived to see Jon, our missionary guide and friend, who then took us to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner in a small diner near our hotel (though inside, it was very hot). We tried a few Russian dishes, though we also discovered that there really isn't an abundance of what is truly "Russian" food. Russia has been influenced, foodwise, by the many neighboring countries along its borders, so there was always a bit of a mixture of those kind of foods everywhere we ate.
I should also say that I was extremely proud of our group. Some of them had never traveled overseas before, and for others, it had been a really long time. Yet, everyone endured with a minimum of complaining. Then, since it was getting later into the day, we walked (yes, get ready to hear about a lot of walking, too) back to our HOT hotel, where we all made our way up to the rooms for the night.
One last note covering the first two days. I say we went up for the night. However, remember that Moscow is located in the very far north. From my observation, the sun did not actually go "down" until around 1:30-2:00 in the morning, and was "up" again around 4:30. As a person who finds his sleep pattern closely related to the light and dark, this would prove to be a big challenge on the trip.
Initially, I will go through the trip, putting up two days worth of the trip each day. Once I've taken you through the whole trip, I'll make a few cultural observations from my time in Russia. Then, I'll share a few personal thoughts about how God and the Gospel are at work in Russia, and include specific things you can think of and pray for as the number of Christians grows in the former Soviet country. Following this pattern will hopefully keep things moving and coherent at the same time.
We left for our trip on July 11. My wife and I had a flight early in the morning that Monday, so drove down the airport, parked our car, and rode over. No problems on the flight to New York, where we met up with the rest of our group. There were seven of us total going, us from Utah, one from Texas, two from Minnesota, and two from Colorado. We ate together in New York, then boarded our plane for Moscow. Estimated time of flight: 10 hours.
About an hour and a half after takeoff, the attendants came around with dinner. We were all pretty full from our meal in the airport, but I did manage to eat it all. The flight was relatively uneventful, though we did cross over into Tuesday along the way. What made this unusual was that our flight path was so far to the north that it never got dark. We went from one day to the next with no darkness whatsoever.
We landed in Moscow late Tuesday morning, July 12 (10 hours time difference from our home). We met up with the man who had made our arrangements for much of our trip, and caught our ride to our hotel. Let me just say right up front: it was HOT in Moscow. For being as far north as it is, the temperature for most of the time we were there was in the 90s. The shuttle which we caught had no a/c (get used to this theme), so we had to rely upon the wind blowing through the windows. Overall, it was a hot, sticky, hour-long ride to our hotel. Thankfully, we weren't going the other way, as traffic in the other direction was backed up most of the way to our hotel.
We arrived at our hotel, checked in, and then experienced one curious part of Russia. At every hotel, they take your passports in order to register that you stayed with them. So we turned our passports over, got our room keys, and went up to "freshen up" after the long day or more of travel. However, since it was still fairly early in the day (around 1:00), we knew it wouldn't be good to sleep if we wanted to adjust. So our guide took us to the local metro, where we purchased a card for riding, and then we headed to downtown Moscow.
Our guide, Alexey, brought us off the metro and took us up to the Kremlin and Red Square. Let me just say, it was very interesting hearing about Russian history from someone who has lived in that country all his life. We saw the walls of the Kremlin, where Lenin's tomb sat, and a number of churches and cathedrals, many of which have been restored since the Soviet times. Oh, and did I mention that it was hot? We were all tired and sweaty, and yet fascinated to see places and structures that have been around longer than our country has been in existence. We walked along the outside of the Kremlin, seeing buildings that have stood for a long time, and which carry the weight of history.
After about three hours of being tourists and taking pictures (yes, I'll include some in future posts), we heard that the missionary who would be traveling the country with us had arrived on his flight. So we trekked back to the metro (ah, the cool relief of the underground!) and headed back to our hotel. We arrived to see Jon, our missionary guide and friend, who then took us to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner in a small diner near our hotel (though inside, it was very hot). We tried a few Russian dishes, though we also discovered that there really isn't an abundance of what is truly "Russian" food. Russia has been influenced, foodwise, by the many neighboring countries along its borders, so there was always a bit of a mixture of those kind of foods everywhere we ate.
I should also say that I was extremely proud of our group. Some of them had never traveled overseas before, and for others, it had been a really long time. Yet, everyone endured with a minimum of complaining. Then, since it was getting later into the day, we walked (yes, get ready to hear about a lot of walking, too) back to our HOT hotel, where we all made our way up to the rooms for the night.
One last note covering the first two days. I say we went up for the night. However, remember that Moscow is located in the very far north. From my observation, the sun did not actually go "down" until around 1:30-2:00 in the morning, and was "up" again around 4:30. As a person who finds his sleep pattern closely related to the light and dark, this would prove to be a big challenge on the trip.
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