Well, well, well.....where to begin. I guess the worst of all was our trip to St. Petersburg from Los Angeles, for trip #2.
It took 33 hours, due to delays, all of which were IN THE AIR!!!! Snowing in New York, delay, delay, delay. Then, back-up at London/Heathrow, circle, circle, circle (which was absolutely horrible because we could not leave our seats and I REALLY HAD TO PEE!!!!!
), then run to an alternate flight to Frankfurt since we missed our St. Pete flight (like by 6 hours!) and get tossed around like a Caesar Salad at Ruth's Chris Steak House (due to high winds....bring on the Dramamine), then run to our flight to St. Pete (only to see it too was delayed) until we FINALLY arrived in St. Pete, 33 hours later, at Midnight.
Here's the kicker....NONE OF OUR LUGGAGE MADE IT! It was midnight, 10 degrees outside and we had no coats, boots, hats, toiletries, etc. At that point, after zero sleep and high stress, all we could do was laugh!
We made it in one piece and that was all that mattered. I had our important papers with me and really that's all we absolutely had to have. We wound up getting our luggage 2 days later (we washed our underwear and socks in the sink each night and dried them with the wall-mounted hair dryer). I looked like a beast and attempted to buy some cheap, temporary clothes but seeing how most Russian women are size ZERO, I didn't succeed. I wore the same old ratty sweat pants and tee shirt for 2 days. Oh yes, I was a looker. Made for some great pictures!
The day before court, we got our things after a typical Russian interrogation from Customs at the airport, but that's a whole different story! Truly, I have no complaints - all worked out. Thank you, Lord! It could have been sooooo much worse!
Shawn
