Closing Thoughts
about my Trip to Russia
Just a few of the great staff that served us
from Vodohod Russian River Cruises.
Their youthful energy was fun.
My awesome table mates and traveling companions
Lisa Jacobs, my mom Mary, step-dad Jim Lawler
Me, then Mary and Jack Kuhn
And dear Irina our Vantage Tour Guide.
What an exhausting job she had caring for all our needs
but she did it with such charm.
My photos are my souvenirs from this trip...
Yet I did buy a few things (after Jim wrote out a conversion sheet for me!)
For example this blue, wool and silk scarf that I wore almost everyday
after buying it in Uglich was $300 rubles...$10 !
I kept looking for more along our route and on the last day at Peterhof
found the gold scarf for Brianna for $250 rubles.
I collect Nativity ornaments and my friend Lisa
spotted this one at the monastery in Yaroslavl
I bought this little ornament for Bri and the beer glass for Spence in St Petersburg
My favorite purchase is this ornament I bought for Spence
directly from the artist in the village of Mandrogi.
It depicts a family of three walking to church
in the snow and reminded me of our family.
******
Now for the last LONG day!
Thursday October 8th
Got up at 7 am, finished packing
then had my last breakfast aboard the ship.
Met Mom and Jim in the lobby at 9:30am
to load our luggage into the taxi cab
and head for the airport...where we made it through security
and I bought Spence some Russian, dark chocolate
while we waited till 12:35pm for our flight to Helsinki
Such a nice, new plane...bright blue seats, white interior, clean
and they even served lunch! The man next to me was from Sweden
and we struck up an easy conversation, talking about our work
and sharing how much we missed our families.
We landed in Finland at 12:30pm after an hour flight.
WOW
The Helsinki airport is gorgeous!
Modern, light-filled, clean...sorry no pictures
I was just too sick to get the camera out.
Thank goodness for medication and cough drops
We boarded our next flight at 2:10 pm for New York
This was another new Finnair Jet~ an Airbus A330-300
with personal entertainment players..
I watched two full length movies during our 8 and 1/2 hour flight.
We were served a meal, snacks and plenty to drink...
that's the good news.
The bad news was NO leg room and the seats were so narrow.
At 5'8" I just fit, but the plane was packed with tall northern Europeans
and there was a lot of complaining plus people standing in the aisles.
Fortunately Jim, who is very tall, was in the 1st row of seats with more leg room.
Now I see why people pay the extra money for business class.
We arrived at JFK at 3:50pm
Went through customs...oops something in mom's carry-on
stopped the flow. They finally took it out of the x-ray machine
and started digging through it to pull out her neck pillow!
There was a battery inside to make it vibrate...
she didn't even know it did that.
Now to survive the 4 hour layover.
We had good dinner at a bar so Jim could watch baseball.
I called home...neither Spence or Bri picked up,
so I called my sister Jenny and she told me they were fine.
At 8:45 pm we finally boarded a Boeing 767
for a 6 hour flight to LA.
I manage to fall asleep but only for 2 hours...
persevered.
And then we finally were landing,
but had to wait on the tarmac to get towed in...
off the plane, luggage arrive before we did,
grabbed it and there was Spence waiting at the curb!
It was 12:45 am Oct 9th.
After traveling 24 plus hours
I was home by 2 am
Thank God
True
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