In Astrakhan now

Let me start off by saying Happy Birthday to my cousin, Charity! We’ll celebrate when we get home. Have a great one!

Boy, did we sleep last night! I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and woke up once during the night at about midnight, but went back to sleep. That’s great for me! The day started with a really nice breakfast at the hotel. It was free! Well, it was included in our room rate, but it was still good. We didn’t need to leave for the airport until 2:30 p.m., which only gave us a few hours, but we decided to be adventurous. We asked for specific directions for taking the Metro (the subway system) to go to the Kremlin and Red Square. We found the Metro station, got on the correct train, and made it off at the right stop. Yeah! We walked all around the Red Square and saw Lenin’s Masoleum and St. Basil’s Cathedral. We didn’t have time to go in the Cathedral, so we’ll have to save that for the next trip. We walked around the outside of the Kremlin and then down part of Tverskaya Road. Everything was very fascinating to see! The architecture of the buildings is just unbelievable. We (Greg) took a lot of pictures. It started to rain, so we went inside the mall and grabbed a bite to eat. We did a little window-shopping, but that’s all we had time for. Then we made it back on the correct train and got off at the correct stop. Yeah!

By the time we got back to the hotel, we only had a few minutes before it was time to leave for the airport to go to Astrakhan. On the way to the airport, our driver picked up another couple, also with CHI, that would be traveling with us. They have been here before, so they have been a wealth of information! Thank you! I’ve got to tell you about this plane ride. First, they shuttled us to the plane in a tram. Then we get on the plane. No kidding, it must have been at least 100 degrees inside that plane! I can tolerate heat very well, but this was too much for me. We sat in the plane for about 25 minutes before it took off and some cool air started coming in. Greg had sweat just dripping down his face. His hair was all wet. The rows in the plane were very close together, to squeeze as many in as possible. When Greg sat in his seat, there wasn’t enough room for his knees! The tray tables would hardly fold down all the way because we were so close to them. So we’re in this very HOT plane and also in very close quarters with each other. Are you getting a picture of this? Luckily, at least the heat did get better and made the close quarters more bearable! The flight was good. No problems. When we got off the plane though, they made us board a bus to get to the terminal. It was all of a 100 ft. ride. We didn’t really get that one. It would have been quicker to walk!

We were met at the airport and brought to our hotel. We didn’t get here until about 8:30 p.m., so we’ve been hanging out in our room and typing this blog post. We have a 9:00 a.m. appointment at the Ministry of Education tomorrow. We’ll be leaving here at 8:30 a.m. Wish us luck!