DAY 1 Trip to Russia
*blog post 8 day delay; before the liquid bomb plot

I arrived at the airport 2 hours before my 3:53 departure, almost to the minute. I checked in, and had the SAME ticket attendant that checked us in on our trip to Vancouver last year; I don’t know if you remember him, but he got us much better seats, and together, than the C’s had, and I thought he was very helpful and I told him so. He was very appreciative of the compliment, but it didn’t get me any special favors this time around, not that I was looking for any, at least not yet!

Since I had plenty of time to kill, I got money from the ATM and then headed to the chapel to pray. When I finished, I walked out of the chapel and who did I see coming down from an arriving flight and heading to baggage claim – none other than Archbishop Burke! He was in his “blacks” and all by his lonesome. It looked like some young man had just talked to him and was walking away, so I considered not imposing, but he looked so friendly and nice I just had to introduce myself. I asked if he was coming back from Rome – figuring that he had to go over there for his new court appointment, but he chuckled and said that he was returning from LaCross, “his former diocese” – like I didn’t know that! I wanted to ask if he had been on vacation, since he looked so good, but concluded that even when he’s on vacation he’s probably still “working” to one degree or another, so I just let him head down to get his bags. He made a nice point to bless me on my travels, which I appreciated.

That was about the highlight of my wait before take off. I was sitting down at the gate and they eventually announced that the gate had changed, from 17 to 18 so we all moved down a gate and I sat near a lady that had checked in at the same time I did. She had four kids traveling with her – they were traveling international too, since we both had to wait in line at the ticket counter and couldn’t use the automated check-in since it can only be used on domestic flights. Anyway, the kids were probably between the ages of 6 and 12. They were all running around when they checked in, but now were all dutifully sitting in a row playing video games and she was comfortably reading a book. I thought that perhaps she had played her ace too early with the video games and before they got to wherever they were going they’d be running amok again, but at least for now they were sedated. One of the kids had a “Gateway Academy” tee shirt on but otherwise they could have been kids from anywhere.

Eventually, just minutes before the stupid flight was supposed to take off, the United attendant gets on the intercom and says “sorry, this flight has been delayed” and some folks were kind of irate since they still had posted “on time” on the board and obviously they KNEW it wasn’t anywhere near ready to land here so it HAD to be late, but they waited until the last minute to tell us. So he says anyone with a connecting flight in Chicago later than 7 PM should come to the podium – I have a 6:59 flight but given the fact that it’s international and I’ll have to go to another terminal I figure I count.

So I wait in line and eventually he tells me that even though they think the flight will be delayed from 3:53 to 5:15, he’s still going to rebook me onto an American flight that is scheduled to leave at 5:15, “just to be sure” although I’ll only have 15 minutes to make my connection in Chicago. So I have to go back out through security and rebook at the main American ticket counter. And they have to pull my luggage off the plane and send it to American. I go and do that and she tells me that the flight might be a few minutes late, so she’ll give me a seat up front to aid in the connection in Chicago. I don’t like the sound of this, and so I go back to the United counter and talk to my buddy – he’s not much help but he tells me that even if they’re saying the United Big Blue flight will leave at 5:15 he’d bet that it will be at least 5:30 and I’m probably better off on the American flight. So back through security, where I’m singled out for a more extensive review due to my late change in flights, and eventually I get to the gate only to discover that now they’re saying departure won’t be until 5:45 which means I’ll miss my flight to Germany! Now what do I do – go back out and try my luck with the United flight? Call my ticket agent (on a Sunday!) and try and get their help? Call off the whole thing and reschedule for a day later so at least I won’t be stuck in Chicago overnight?

I’m kind of beginning to panic, when all of a sudden I hear on the PA, “last boarding call for American flight XXX to Chicago at Gate 8, everyone must be on board.” I’m standing at Gate 9, so I race to Gate 8, ask if I can possibly get on board not expecting that I can, but she says that two people have not yet shown up even though the flight’s been delayed, and I can have a seat, but my luggage will still be on the later American flight. I’m thinking it’s a good thing I have a clean shirt and underwear in my briefcase with me cause my luggage will NEVER make it and get on the plane. Of course, there’s someone in my seat. After my heart sank thinking there really wasn’t room she tells me that she had moved up since she didn’t have much time to make a connection in Chicago – I’m thinking I don’t either and I don’t’ want to go to the last row of this plane, so she goes back to her seat. I feel bad after I realize that I actually probably have a fair amount of time now that I’m on this earlier flight, but it’s too late to change.

I get to Chicago, and have to walk part way to Skokie to get to the other terminal, but I arrive with about 30 minutes to spare. The lounge in Chicago was worthless – no food but chips and not much else nice, but at least I could relax and call you and disturb you at Mass! Eventually we board and I have a pretty uneventful flight to Germany – still lot’s of World Cup promos on the plane and in Frankfurt, even soccer balls painted on the nose of most of the Lufthansa planes.

Not much food at the lounge in Frankfurt either – tomato soup and cookies is about it. But they do have Beck’s beer in a machine right next to the soda so I feel obligated to help myself to one.

After a couple of hours, S. shows up and then I remember how much easier it is to communicate by e-mail with him since I can’t understand but about 50% of what he says thanks to his thick Lancashire accent! After a while we head downstairs to the gate, get through a LONG line and then they tell us that this flight is delayed since they have to change planes. So we wait about an hour, and then they tell us we’ll be taking a bus out to the plane, but they can’t seem to find enough busses and it takes about an hour to get us all out there. Then I’m sleeping off that nice Beck’s beer as I wait for the plane to take off, and I can just barely hear in my foggy brain that they’ve now been delayed so long that the crew can’t fly any longer and they have to get a new crew, blah blah blah…

To make a long story short, we eventually arrive in St. Petersburg about 3 hours late. Fortunately, the arrival wasn’t too much of a hassle, we get through the immigration and customs without incident (I always worry that they’ll ask me some question like why the Russian Olympic Committee is the invitee for my visa!) and my luggage actually shows up! We meet N. and go out to S. the driver - I had forgotten how much of a mad man driver he was but it take long to remember!

The hotel is pure Soviet-style - not like where we stayed last time in St. Petersburg that was about a Five Star hotel. This is much more like the dive where we stayed in Kemerovo. Very bland and plain and HUGE. No AC, so it’s hot and suffy, and no screens on the peeling painted windows so you have to decide if you want air and mosquitoes or stuffy and hot! They’re supposed to have internet in the room, but I sure can’t figure it out! And NOISE, since it opens onto a busy street with streetcars, honking cars, car alarms, and anything else you can imagine. It’s on like a big corner, with a huge monument in the center with a big Soviet star on top and thousands of people walking outside.

I checked out the hotel – pretty drab. They do have a business center where I can get on a computer, but I can’ find an ATM so it’s a good think I have a couple hundred rubles from my last trip.

I walked around outside and got a couple bottles of water (unfortunately mineralized, but I’m so thirsty I don’t care) and a beer (but I need a bottle opener I discover when I get back to the hotel) so not a very exciting evening here in St. Petersburg! There were hundreds of people walking outside and even though it’s after 9:30 it’s still quite light out since we’re so far north.

I got about five hours of sleep – not bad for the first night, and now it’s Monday AM. Hopefully I’ll be able to send this either from the Design institute or the business center here at the hotel.

I’ve only been here a little over six hours and the thrill is already gone! I can’t wait to leave and I’m thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have planned on staying through next Saturday just to look around, but maybe by the end of the week I’ll be glad to take the time to visit the Hermitage and whatever else I’ll see on Saturday.

*names of Russians and other have been shortened to initials, for privacy. The Russian names are very Russian, like Natasia, Boris, Vladamir (use your imagination).