Tuesday, July 19 marked the end of our time in St. Petersburg. We woke up that morning and packed up, as we had a flight to catch. We were to fly into Moscow, and then, after a fairly lengthy layover, we would head out to Siberia, landing in a town called Ulan Ude. So that morning found us eating our last breakfast at our fairly nice hotel, and then packing up our bags and catching our shuttle yet again, for a trip to the airport.
We made it to the airport, and got on our plane. It was a relatively short flight to Moscow, a little more than an hour (the train ride had taken 8 hours, but it was also not the fast train). We arrived in Moscow, and guess what: it was hot again. Also, there was no air conditioning in the airport, which meant fairly sweltering conditions anywhere we would go.
Another interesting thing had happened on our flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We had actually met up with the President of the Siberian District of the Lutheran Chuch in Russia (named Ingria), and so, we got to spend our layover time in the airport with them. We looked around for a place to eat a little food, and finally found something resembling a food court. So everyone went to get some food, and we all sat down and sweated together.
We got to know Juha and Anu during that time. One funny thing: while we were sitting there eating and sweating, we found out just how much Anu loves her coffee. Though it was probably in the 80s or 90s inside the airport, she just HAD to have her hot coffee. Many of the rest of us marveled at her ability to drink the hot drink in the sweltering conditions.
Finally, it was time to catch our plane. We got on late that evening (this flight was an overnight flight, landing around 9 AM on Wednesday in Ulan Ude). The first thing we noticed was that the plane was HOT. Not just stuffy, but hot. We thought that, once we took off, the vents would kick in and we would cool down and, hopefully, catch a little sleep, but we would find out that this simply wasn't to be the case. It made for a miserable night of sleep, and thus, led to a group of unhappy campers when we landed in Ulan Ude, near the Mongolian border.
This overnight flight was a 6 hour flight. And yet, just to give you a bit of perspective, this hardly got us halfway across Russia. I would imagine that a flight from Moscow to Vladivostock would probably take longer than our flight from New York to Moscow. We had made the transition to a place which was 5 time zones earlier than what we had been in while in Moscow and St. Petersburg. That's just how massively large the country of Russia is.
Practically everyone needed to use the restroom, so we all ran downstairs in the airport to where the restrooms were. This is when my wife, Carrie, had a moment that took her back to her time living in China: squatty potties. Instead of toilets like we are used to, the airport basically had holes in the ground in which you did your business (oh, and no toilet paper, either). It was a reminder of our proximity to China and Mongolia, where such things are fairly common. Yet another way of realizing just how far we had traveled.
We caught our shuttle from there to one of the churches in town. Only, this wasn't really a church, but a few rooms on the lower level of an apartment complex. Many of the Lutheran churches in Russia have similar accommodations. This has led to some problems with the Orthodox Church in Russia, who has made the claim that, in order to be a recognized religion and not a sect, you need to have a building of your own. There is actually a good reason for this, as, at the time of the collapse of communism, many sects raced into Russia and did a considerable amount of harm to the religious life there. However, this presents challenges to legitimate churches who simply do not have the funds to purchase or build buildings for themselves.
We waited in the church for many of the pastors and wives to arrive. We would be riding on a bus with them out to the retreat center on the shores of Lake Baikal, the largest fresh-water lake in the world. As they trickled in from their bus or train rides (some as long as 45 hours with only a seat, not a bed!), we introduced ourselves. Of course, we needed translators, since many of them did not have a working level of English. This also meant that we would be taking two translators along with us to our retreat, to aid in the retreat that we Americans would be leading.
Once everyone had arrived, we went out to get some food. We caught a tram toward the downtown area, and, as we got off, the heavens opened up and poured down rain. None of us had really been expecting this. We heard over and over again that "it never rains in Ulan Ude". We just happened to show up on the one day of a massive downpour. So we waded through the water flowing down the streets toward a little place to get some food. Carrie and I, of course, decided to try out a few of the local foods, and really did like them.
Following that, we got to look out across the street at something which, I was told, is in the Guiness book of World Records: the largest bust of Lenin in the world. In the city square, there is a huge bust of his head, and I mean huge. We did get a few pictures, and I'll work to include them in some future blog posts.
After a brief stop at the post office, it was back to the church to load up everything for our ride to the retreat center. We got all of us on the bus, and then, we were off. It would be a little over three hours, with one stop along the way. We traveled through some majestic mountains, and saw many trees. Parts of the road were unpaved, and most of the rest of the road was a small, two lane road. But finally, we made it.
One of the first things that the Russians saw as we pulled up to the retreat center was a Sauna Bar. Saunas are huge for both Russians and Fins (we had a few Finnish pastors and wives in attendance, as well). So we unloaded the bus, got our room assignments, and got checked in to the place that would be home for the next 5 days.
When I say retreat center, you may be thinking about some fancy place with all sorts of accommodations. However, let me dispel you of that right up front. We had two twin beds in our room (in fact, this was something we had in every one of our hotels). We had a table, a couple of chairs, and a place to hang up clothes. We also had a bathroom with a tub and shower, but with no shower curtain. We had a couple of electricity plugs, and that was pretty much it. Oh, and a hot water pitcher for coffee and tea, if we wanted it.
With a long day of travel and with a short night of sleep on the flight, we were all pretty tired. We did take a little time to introduce ourselves to each other, but for the most part, we were all tired and wanted to get to bed. So it was off to our rooms to try and get some sleep, for the next day, we would begin our retreat, which was the biggest part of our whole trip. More on that in the next post!
We made it to the airport, and got on our plane. It was a relatively short flight to Moscow, a little more than an hour (the train ride had taken 8 hours, but it was also not the fast train). We arrived in Moscow, and guess what: it was hot again. Also, there was no air conditioning in the airport, which meant fairly sweltering conditions anywhere we would go.
Another interesting thing had happened on our flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We had actually met up with the President of the Siberian District of the Lutheran Chuch in Russia (named Ingria), and so, we got to spend our layover time in the airport with them. We looked around for a place to eat a little food, and finally found something resembling a food court. So everyone went to get some food, and we all sat down and sweated together.
We got to know Juha and Anu during that time. One funny thing: while we were sitting there eating and sweating, we found out just how much Anu loves her coffee. Though it was probably in the 80s or 90s inside the airport, she just HAD to have her hot coffee. Many of the rest of us marveled at her ability to drink the hot drink in the sweltering conditions.
Finally, it was time to catch our plane. We got on late that evening (this flight was an overnight flight, landing around 9 AM on Wednesday in Ulan Ude). The first thing we noticed was that the plane was HOT. Not just stuffy, but hot. We thought that, once we took off, the vents would kick in and we would cool down and, hopefully, catch a little sleep, but we would find out that this simply wasn't to be the case. It made for a miserable night of sleep, and thus, led to a group of unhappy campers when we landed in Ulan Ude, near the Mongolian border.
This overnight flight was a 6 hour flight. And yet, just to give you a bit of perspective, this hardly got us halfway across Russia. I would imagine that a flight from Moscow to Vladivostock would probably take longer than our flight from New York to Moscow. We had made the transition to a place which was 5 time zones earlier than what we had been in while in Moscow and St. Petersburg. That's just how massively large the country of Russia is.
Practically everyone needed to use the restroom, so we all ran downstairs in the airport to where the restrooms were. This is when my wife, Carrie, had a moment that took her back to her time living in China: squatty potties. Instead of toilets like we are used to, the airport basically had holes in the ground in which you did your business (oh, and no toilet paper, either). It was a reminder of our proximity to China and Mongolia, where such things are fairly common. Yet another way of realizing just how far we had traveled.
We caught our shuttle from there to one of the churches in town. Only, this wasn't really a church, but a few rooms on the lower level of an apartment complex. Many of the Lutheran churches in Russia have similar accommodations. This has led to some problems with the Orthodox Church in Russia, who has made the claim that, in order to be a recognized religion and not a sect, you need to have a building of your own. There is actually a good reason for this, as, at the time of the collapse of communism, many sects raced into Russia and did a considerable amount of harm to the religious life there. However, this presents challenges to legitimate churches who simply do not have the funds to purchase or build buildings for themselves.
We waited in the church for many of the pastors and wives to arrive. We would be riding on a bus with them out to the retreat center on the shores of Lake Baikal, the largest fresh-water lake in the world. As they trickled in from their bus or train rides (some as long as 45 hours with only a seat, not a bed!), we introduced ourselves. Of course, we needed translators, since many of them did not have a working level of English. This also meant that we would be taking two translators along with us to our retreat, to aid in the retreat that we Americans would be leading.
Once everyone had arrived, we went out to get some food. We caught a tram toward the downtown area, and, as we got off, the heavens opened up and poured down rain. None of us had really been expecting this. We heard over and over again that "it never rains in Ulan Ude". We just happened to show up on the one day of a massive downpour. So we waded through the water flowing down the streets toward a little place to get some food. Carrie and I, of course, decided to try out a few of the local foods, and really did like them.
Following that, we got to look out across the street at something which, I was told, is in the Guiness book of World Records: the largest bust of Lenin in the world. In the city square, there is a huge bust of his head, and I mean huge. We did get a few pictures, and I'll work to include them in some future blog posts.
After a brief stop at the post office, it was back to the church to load up everything for our ride to the retreat center. We got all of us on the bus, and then, we were off. It would be a little over three hours, with one stop along the way. We traveled through some majestic mountains, and saw many trees. Parts of the road were unpaved, and most of the rest of the road was a small, two lane road. But finally, we made it.
One of the first things that the Russians saw as we pulled up to the retreat center was a Sauna Bar. Saunas are huge for both Russians and Fins (we had a few Finnish pastors and wives in attendance, as well). So we unloaded the bus, got our room assignments, and got checked in to the place that would be home for the next 5 days.
When I say retreat center, you may be thinking about some fancy place with all sorts of accommodations. However, let me dispel you of that right up front. We had two twin beds in our room (in fact, this was something we had in every one of our hotels). We had a table, a couple of chairs, and a place to hang up clothes. We also had a bathroom with a tub and shower, but with no shower curtain. We had a couple of electricity plugs, and that was pretty much it. Oh, and a hot water pitcher for coffee and tea, if we wanted it.
With a long day of travel and with a short night of sleep on the flight, we were all pretty tired. We did take a little time to introduce ourselves to each other, but for the most part, we were all tired and wanted to get to bed. So it was off to our rooms to try and get some sleep, for the next day, we would begin our retreat, which was the biggest part of our whole trip. More on that in the next post!
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