Return to Russia

I flew out of Boston Thursday evening and got maybe 4 hours sleep on the way to Munich. I was feeling a little rugged when I arrived but decided to keep with my plan to not stay at the airport for the next 14 hours. I ditched my backpack at storage and then hopped on the S-bahn into the city, armed with a list of places in the old city. I arrived at the Marienplatz, site of the famed Glockenspiel, shortly before noon. The Marienplatz is beautiful. You walk up the steps out of the S-bahn into the middle of a stone plaza, surrounded by gothic buildings and clocktowers. The Glockenspiel is pretty cool. It's a big mechanical clock with a bunch of mideviel wooden figures that dance and march around, accompanied by bells and chimes. The show lasts almost 10 minutes.

After the Glockenspiel I caught lunch at a German restaurant. I had pork medallions and mashed potatoes with a really good German beer. Yum. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I grabbed a latte at Starbucks and walked around for a while. Near the Residenz (former home of the Wittleberg princes) is Englischer park, a gorgeous area. While walking around, I noticed several people sleeping on benches in the sun. I took the hint and claimed a bench for myself and slept for 30 min next to a fountain while a man was playing a cello nearby. It was nice. After my nap, I got another latte and walked around some more. I dropped into an Ancient Egypt exibit for a little while. Most of the plaques were in German, but it was still interesting. In the early evening I passed by a biergarten near a market and dropped in to investigate. I grabbed a whopper on the way out and made my way back to the airport.

When I checked in at the Aeroflot desk, I learned that when Luftansa transferred my baggage to Aeroflot they had written down the wrong flight number on the baggage tags. Fortunately, my bags ended up being loaded on the same flight as me to Moscow. That would have been a real mess to sort out in Moscow... God was looking out for me there. I think I got 3 hours sleep on the overnight flight to Moscow and was feeling even more rugged when I landed at 4:30 am. I made the transfer to Sheremetevo terminal 1 OK and caught the 9:05 am flight to Anapa. My friend Roman from church picked me up at the airport. ~36 hours later, I made it back to the house in Anapa and finally got some sleep.

Thanks, everyone!

I'm back in Russia, now. I had a great time visiting friends and family America. I kept busy: 2 weeks in Washington, 1 week driving through California, and 3 days in New Hampshire. Celebrating Easter at home was wonderful (Yay, Jesus!) and I got to see Marcia every day for 3 weeks. It was good to drop in on Mom and Dad, too. A big thanks to everyone who let me stay at their place, loaned me a vehicle, gave me a ride somewhere, bought me drinks, or took me out for breakfast/lunch/dinner. God has put some incredibly kind and generous people in my life, for which I am very grateful.

Got My Visa

W00t!

American Buses

American buses are nice. They're big and spacious, well kept, fast, you can stand up inside, and they have big seats for big American bottoms. The routes are well marked and route information is easily found online. The drivers are polite, answer questions, and don't try to run you over when you cross the street. Riding the bus in Seattle has been fun.

Waiting on my visa application...

I finally got my visa application submitted Monday afternoon. In order to get a Russian visa you need an official Letter of Invitation (LOI) from a company or organization registered with the Russian government. Previously, I'd obtained LOIs from a travel agency (for a hefty fee). This time around, I was able to get a LOI from a missions agency in Russia for a much better price. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than I'd anticipated for the LOI to be ready. I got a scanned image of the LOI in my email Monday morning, so I filled out the application and took it down to the Russian consulate downtown. Fortunately, they accepted the printout of the LOI and didn't require the original LOI (which would have to be mailed from Russia). I was starting to get nervous about the LOI, if it had arrived a day later I might have had to reschedule my flights back to Russia. Tomorrow at 2 pm I return to the consulate and find out whether I have a visa or whether the application was rejected.