Today's post will bring an end to the recap of the trip. Over the next few days, as I post, I will share a few specific cultural observations about my time in Russia, and will share some of my thoughts on how that impacts the sharing of the Good News of Jesus. Then, my hope is to share some pictures, describing different things, and letting you see a few of the same things that I saw along the way.
Day 17 (Wednesday) of our trip was a day pretty much dedicated to shopping. You may recall that we had actually spent quite a bit of time in-country traveling around, and because of that schedule and the various luggage restrictions, we hadn't wanted to buy a lot of souvenirs and the like. If we had, we would have had to carry them all over Russia, risking baggage weight limitations and breakage. So we had planned this day at the end of our trip to look for things to bring home.
I shared a little bit about the shopping experience Carrie and I had at the open air market close by our hotel. But today, we would be heading into town, to a place called Arbat Street, where a significant number of shops were located. So we loaded up on the metro and headed down that direction.
Carrie and I had done quite a bit of our shopping the day before, but there were still a few more things we wanted to get, such as memorable things for ourselves, and we wanted to keep our eyes open in case any great gift ideas presented themselves. So, for the next few hours, we wandered up the street, looking in the various shops. We did find a matrioshka for Carrie, as well as a small one for myself. We also found a Russia flag, which we had been looking for, and a few other odds and ends to help us remember our time in Russia.
Once again, it was fairly hot outside, so we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. Going in some of the shops was very nice, since a few of them were air conditioned. At various times, our group was pretty well spaced out. Some of us, such as Carrie and I, had done most of our shopping, so we didn't linger long in some of the shops after we had looked through them. Others spent a little more time looking around. Since we knew this would be the case, we had arranged to meet up at the Hard Rock Cafe located toward the end of the street.
Eventually, everyone made their way to the Hard Rock, and several of our group sat down for a drink and some food. However, Carrie and I wanted to check out a few other things, and to eat at a McDonald's, to see if they had any different kinds of food there. So we ventured up the street a little bit further, found our McD's, and went in to order. It was a madhouse, filled with people. I have to admit that there really wasn't much exciting on the menu, so we got our food and found a place to sit down and eat.
Once we finished up, we went back down to the Hard Rock. The rest of the group was wrapping up their meal, so we were kind of lingering around in the street. That's when we had one of those strange occurrences happen. A lady came across us and asked if we were Americans. We said we were, and she asked if she could conduct a brief interview with us. Both Carrie and I agreed, and so she started asking us questions. It seemed that Wendy's had started being introduced into Russia. Now, you may recall that Wendy's has that red-haired freckled girl as their "mascot". Well, it seems that the image of her which was being portrayed in Russia was a little more "sexed up". So this reporter asked us our thoughts on that, on how such an image would be received in the States, if the people of the United States were prude, and other similar questions. She said that she was from The World magazine, and that our answers could be included in her article in the near future. I guess we'll have to see if that happens or not!
Once we finished eating, we caught the metro toward the edge of town, where we were planning to take a boat ride along the river that flows through Moscow. We got on our boat, and found some spots in the shade along the sides of the boat, and started to float up the river. I really enjoyed this boat ride. It allowed us to see some of the sights of Moscow, since many of the more famous places are situated along the edge of the river. We saw Our Savior cathedral, the Kremlin, Gorky Park, and even the stadium where the 1980 Olympics were held (you may recall that the U.S. boycotted those Olympics). It was nice and relaxing, and overall, a pretty nice way to wrap up our time together.
Once the boat ride was over, we caught the metro (once we found where to get on it) back to our hotel. There we met the man who had made most of the arrangements for our trip, Alexey. He had been my contact person with lining up everything for the trip, from choosing hotels to transportation to shuttles, and we all really appreciated his work. So he met us at the hotel for a few minutes, where we presented him with the last cowboy hat. He said that, when it finally turned cooler in Moscow, he would wear it. We all thanked him over and over for all of his work on our behalf.
It was dinner time, so we made our way to this little shop where you could buy almost anything you wanted to, foodwise. Some of our group had found this place the day before, and so we all headed over there for this last supper together.
Wouldn't you know it, just as we got to the shop, the power to the store went out. We waited a little bit, sitting around talking, until the power came back on (about 5-10 minutes later). They had a couple of places to try different foods, so we ordered up. It was a delicious meal. I had some kind of sandwich wrap with some rather delicious meat and other things inside. Jon, our missionary, closed out our time together with a devotion, as well as a challenge to let this trip be a springboard forward as we thought about the ways to continue sharing the Good News of forgiveness in Jesus.
Then, it was candy buying time. Carrie and I had tried a number of different candies throughout Russia, and wanted to bring some back for others to try. The poor young girl behind the counter kept having to climb up her ladder, get some candy, bring it down to weigh it, and then climb back up the ladder if the weight wasn't up to what it needed to be. Carrie and I brought back 4 different kinds of candy, and several other members of our group also bought candy, too. I think that young lady really got her workout that day.
We then headed back to our hotel. It was time to start packing, as the next day would be an early day to head to the airport.
So we got up early the next morning, went down for breakfast, and then our shuttle arrived to pick us up at 8:00 AM. I have to admit that this was the nicest shuttle ride of the whole trip. Air conditioning and comfortable seats! We all commented that, if we had this shuttle when we first arrived, we would have been too spoiled with our expectations for the rest of the trip, so it was good that this best shuttle had been saved for last.
We arrived at the airport and started our process of checking in and going through security. We shared one last prayer with Jon, who had to get to the train station, as he would be heading up to St. Petersburg for some work up there. We thanked him for everything he had done for us, for traveling with us, and for putting up with us. He headed off, and we went through security to get on our plane.
The route we took on our return took us over the Scandinavian countries (Finland, Sweden, and Norway), and then out over Greenland and Iceland. We got to see some very astonishing views of Greenland (they really should rename it Snowland, since it was still covered with snow). Mountains topped with snow, little breaks where rivers or lakes were forming. Carrie managed to snap a few pictures out of the window to catch that majestic beauty.
Finally, our plane landed in New York some 10 hours after we left Moscow. Local time was only about 4 hours later than the time we had left Moscow. I think we could all officially say that it was to be the longest day of our lives! Anytime you add 10 extra hours to a day, it makes for a long day. Since we would all be heading out on separate flights from New York, we said our goodbyes there, and then Carrie and I headed for our plane to Salt Lake City.
What a surprise when we saw the husband of one of the ladies of the congregation in Utah also on the same flight with us. Carrie got his attention and we waved to him. We later found out that he had spent the week in Germany and just happened to be on the same New York to Salt Lake flight that we were on.
We landed at the airport, ready to just get home and fall asleep. Our flight landed a little after 10:30 PM, and we had a short ride to the place where we had parked our car. That's when we were in for a shock. The car wouldn't start. The battery was dead. Even after we tried charging it up (the shuttle driver for the parking company was a tremendous help to us!), it wouldn't even try starting. It seems that almost three weeks of sitting in the heat had sapped the battery dry.
So we ended up calling our roadside assistance, who sent a tow truck to take the car to a local dealership. Then, we had the shuttle driver take us back to the airport, where we rented a car to drive back home. By the time we got into the car to begin our 90 minute drive back, it was just after 1:30 AM. I can honestly say that was the longest day of my life.
That brings an end to my recap of the trip. I hope that my sharing has been enjoyable for all of you, and my prayer is that it also inspires you to venture outside of your comfort zones to see where all God really is at work in this world around us. My experience has been that He is often at work in ways and places that we would think are the most unlikely.
(One last word on the car. We ended up having to get a new battery for the car. That meant that Friday afternoon, we had to drive back down in two cars, drop off the rental, then we dropped off a nice note for the shuttle driver who had been so helpful the night before, and then, finally, head over to pick up the car. In the end, all is well that ends well, and this little side adventure did indeed end well. I should also note that this was the only travel problem we had the whole time. How ironic that it happened as we got back, here in the United States, where we tend to think of transportation as more reliable than in other countries. Maybe God has a strange sense of humor!)
Day 17 (Wednesday) of our trip was a day pretty much dedicated to shopping. You may recall that we had actually spent quite a bit of time in-country traveling around, and because of that schedule and the various luggage restrictions, we hadn't wanted to buy a lot of souvenirs and the like. If we had, we would have had to carry them all over Russia, risking baggage weight limitations and breakage. So we had planned this day at the end of our trip to look for things to bring home.
I shared a little bit about the shopping experience Carrie and I had at the open air market close by our hotel. But today, we would be heading into town, to a place called Arbat Street, where a significant number of shops were located. So we loaded up on the metro and headed down that direction.
Carrie and I had done quite a bit of our shopping the day before, but there were still a few more things we wanted to get, such as memorable things for ourselves, and we wanted to keep our eyes open in case any great gift ideas presented themselves. So, for the next few hours, we wandered up the street, looking in the various shops. We did find a matrioshka for Carrie, as well as a small one for myself. We also found a Russia flag, which we had been looking for, and a few other odds and ends to help us remember our time in Russia.
Once again, it was fairly hot outside, so we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. Going in some of the shops was very nice, since a few of them were air conditioned. At various times, our group was pretty well spaced out. Some of us, such as Carrie and I, had done most of our shopping, so we didn't linger long in some of the shops after we had looked through them. Others spent a little more time looking around. Since we knew this would be the case, we had arranged to meet up at the Hard Rock Cafe located toward the end of the street.
Eventually, everyone made their way to the Hard Rock, and several of our group sat down for a drink and some food. However, Carrie and I wanted to check out a few other things, and to eat at a McDonald's, to see if they had any different kinds of food there. So we ventured up the street a little bit further, found our McD's, and went in to order. It was a madhouse, filled with people. I have to admit that there really wasn't much exciting on the menu, so we got our food and found a place to sit down and eat.
Once we finished up, we went back down to the Hard Rock. The rest of the group was wrapping up their meal, so we were kind of lingering around in the street. That's when we had one of those strange occurrences happen. A lady came across us and asked if we were Americans. We said we were, and she asked if she could conduct a brief interview with us. Both Carrie and I agreed, and so she started asking us questions. It seemed that Wendy's had started being introduced into Russia. Now, you may recall that Wendy's has that red-haired freckled girl as their "mascot". Well, it seems that the image of her which was being portrayed in Russia was a little more "sexed up". So this reporter asked us our thoughts on that, on how such an image would be received in the States, if the people of the United States were prude, and other similar questions. She said that she was from The World magazine, and that our answers could be included in her article in the near future. I guess we'll have to see if that happens or not!
Once we finished eating, we caught the metro toward the edge of town, where we were planning to take a boat ride along the river that flows through Moscow. We got on our boat, and found some spots in the shade along the sides of the boat, and started to float up the river. I really enjoyed this boat ride. It allowed us to see some of the sights of Moscow, since many of the more famous places are situated along the edge of the river. We saw Our Savior cathedral, the Kremlin, Gorky Park, and even the stadium where the 1980 Olympics were held (you may recall that the U.S. boycotted those Olympics). It was nice and relaxing, and overall, a pretty nice way to wrap up our time together.
Once the boat ride was over, we caught the metro (once we found where to get on it) back to our hotel. There we met the man who had made most of the arrangements for our trip, Alexey. He had been my contact person with lining up everything for the trip, from choosing hotels to transportation to shuttles, and we all really appreciated his work. So he met us at the hotel for a few minutes, where we presented him with the last cowboy hat. He said that, when it finally turned cooler in Moscow, he would wear it. We all thanked him over and over for all of his work on our behalf.
It was dinner time, so we made our way to this little shop where you could buy almost anything you wanted to, foodwise. Some of our group had found this place the day before, and so we all headed over there for this last supper together.
Wouldn't you know it, just as we got to the shop, the power to the store went out. We waited a little bit, sitting around talking, until the power came back on (about 5-10 minutes later). They had a couple of places to try different foods, so we ordered up. It was a delicious meal. I had some kind of sandwich wrap with some rather delicious meat and other things inside. Jon, our missionary, closed out our time together with a devotion, as well as a challenge to let this trip be a springboard forward as we thought about the ways to continue sharing the Good News of forgiveness in Jesus.
Then, it was candy buying time. Carrie and I had tried a number of different candies throughout Russia, and wanted to bring some back for others to try. The poor young girl behind the counter kept having to climb up her ladder, get some candy, bring it down to weigh it, and then climb back up the ladder if the weight wasn't up to what it needed to be. Carrie and I brought back 4 different kinds of candy, and several other members of our group also bought candy, too. I think that young lady really got her workout that day.
We then headed back to our hotel. It was time to start packing, as the next day would be an early day to head to the airport.
So we got up early the next morning, went down for breakfast, and then our shuttle arrived to pick us up at 8:00 AM. I have to admit that this was the nicest shuttle ride of the whole trip. Air conditioning and comfortable seats! We all commented that, if we had this shuttle when we first arrived, we would have been too spoiled with our expectations for the rest of the trip, so it was good that this best shuttle had been saved for last.
We arrived at the airport and started our process of checking in and going through security. We shared one last prayer with Jon, who had to get to the train station, as he would be heading up to St. Petersburg for some work up there. We thanked him for everything he had done for us, for traveling with us, and for putting up with us. He headed off, and we went through security to get on our plane.
The route we took on our return took us over the Scandinavian countries (Finland, Sweden, and Norway), and then out over Greenland and Iceland. We got to see some very astonishing views of Greenland (they really should rename it Snowland, since it was still covered with snow). Mountains topped with snow, little breaks where rivers or lakes were forming. Carrie managed to snap a few pictures out of the window to catch that majestic beauty.
Finally, our plane landed in New York some 10 hours after we left Moscow. Local time was only about 4 hours later than the time we had left Moscow. I think we could all officially say that it was to be the longest day of our lives! Anytime you add 10 extra hours to a day, it makes for a long day. Since we would all be heading out on separate flights from New York, we said our goodbyes there, and then Carrie and I headed for our plane to Salt Lake City.
What a surprise when we saw the husband of one of the ladies of the congregation in Utah also on the same flight with us. Carrie got his attention and we waved to him. We later found out that he had spent the week in Germany and just happened to be on the same New York to Salt Lake flight that we were on.
We landed at the airport, ready to just get home and fall asleep. Our flight landed a little after 10:30 PM, and we had a short ride to the place where we had parked our car. That's when we were in for a shock. The car wouldn't start. The battery was dead. Even after we tried charging it up (the shuttle driver for the parking company was a tremendous help to us!), it wouldn't even try starting. It seems that almost three weeks of sitting in the heat had sapped the battery dry.
So we ended up calling our roadside assistance, who sent a tow truck to take the car to a local dealership. Then, we had the shuttle driver take us back to the airport, where we rented a car to drive back home. By the time we got into the car to begin our 90 minute drive back, it was just after 1:30 AM. I can honestly say that was the longest day of my life.
That brings an end to my recap of the trip. I hope that my sharing has been enjoyable for all of you, and my prayer is that it also inspires you to venture outside of your comfort zones to see where all God really is at work in this world around us. My experience has been that He is often at work in ways and places that we would think are the most unlikely.
(One last word on the car. We ended up having to get a new battery for the car. That meant that Friday afternoon, we had to drive back down in two cars, drop off the rental, then we dropped off a nice note for the shuttle driver who had been so helpful the night before, and then, finally, head over to pick up the car. In the end, all is well that ends well, and this little side adventure did indeed end well. I should also note that this was the only travel problem we had the whole time. How ironic that it happened as we got back, here in the United States, where we tend to think of transportation as more reliable than in other countries. Maybe God has a strange sense of humor!)
No comments:
Post a Comment