The Last Day of our trip

I never blogged the last day of our trip… well, I did, but I never posted it. I remember thinking it’s too long and not very interesting. But I don’t know that I’m going to be able to sit down and rewrite about it better, so here it is!

First, I’d like to commend all of you who have made it through these extremely long blog posts! Short and sweet, I am not! As each day runs into another, this has been my way to personally unload and journal. Today’s post will be extremely long and dull, I expect, as we are not visiting Jordan, but are just sitting in airports with no free internet. I don’t blame you if you don’t read further! 🙂

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Yesterday ELena and Chevdar took us to see the largest church in the city. We bought two small candles, following Elena’s example, and lit them with others there. I don’t know the proper significance of lighting the candles… but in a place of holiness and meditation and prayer, it seemed fitting to light them in memory of James. The church was beautiful, with many paintings on the stone walls and ceilings.

Next, we went to the oldest church in the city…. with foundations and pieces dating all the way to Romans in the 4th century! I wish we could have gone underground to the crypt… just seeing the ancient stones in the stairway was amazing. I’m afraid we forgot our camera, so we have no pictures of our own. We got a little free guidebook for the area, so we have a few pictures of these things in there. There was a wedding in progress in the old church! What lucky timing! The priest was chanting his sign-song message and moving some crowns on and off of the bride and grooms heads. There was also a choir, hidden up above that sang at the proper times and it was really beautiful. Being in that church, hearing age-old songs, I felt like I had been taken back in time.

Elena and Chevdar also took us to an art gallery that was displayed in none other than the old palace of the former king and queen of this country! The rooms were grand, and the floors…. I have never walked on squeakier wooden floors. hehe I got in trouble for leaning on the former queen’s piano too! Oops… or, in the right language, Oh-pu! (oopa?) We walked around downtown a bit, seeing where the big theatre is and a few other things (like we saw where the MOJ is).

After a nice tour and an unsuccessful attempt to find bottles and nipples like they use at the orphanage, we were taken back to our hotel. We told them about our decision to only adopt Jordan and they were very kind and understanding. We hope to find a family for this sweet boy as soon as possible! We made plans for the morning and said our farewells with smiles and hugs. Pretty soon, either Brian or I will be back to bring our son home.

We had an ok dinner (didn’t like the meal much, but the pepsi was great! ;-), bought ice cream bars at the grocery and headed back to our room for a little more internet time, reading time and resting time. We are so very ready to be home with our girls. It’s about 12am your time right now as I type… see you in about 18-19 hours!!!!

Let’s see, I will give you our iternerary in Oregon time. We went to bed at 12pm in the afternoon on Saturday. We woke up at 5:30pm and got in the car for the airport at 6pm. (Chevdar came to drive us) We got to our gate with no trouble and rested impatiently for our flight until about 8pm. Our flight landed in Frankfurt, Germany at about 11pm. Our next flight leaves at 4am… after one more layover, we will land in Portland around 6:30pm. I hope my rear end can handle so much time sitting! Agh!

It’s interesting to imagine making this trip with Jordan in tow. It is going to be quite the journey. Besides sleeping and changing diapers and crying in this predominantly adult atmosphere… how in the world are we going to make his meals? I wonder what we’ll do about a stroller and about a carseat. Lots to figure out for next trip. Right now I comfort myself with the idea that maybe it will be Brian enduring the long journey. 🙂

Frankfurt… oh my, what a huge airport! We landed, we taxied for awhile…. then we got on a bus and we were driven several miles. I don’t know how many… or how many airplanes we passed… but we went farther than I expected! After we got out and asked a counter where our gate was, we got on a monorail! Now Brian is resting on the chairs while I type a bit.

Misconceptions about this country in Eastern Europe:

1. Wearing your seatbelt insults the driver.
In truth, it will get you a fine if you do not wear a seatbelt. We were asked to put ours on!
2. People scowl and are unfriendly on the streets.
Ok, so maybe people don’t go around making eye contact and smiling… but I found this very little different from wandering around town in Oregon. We may be tourists and seeing things for the first time, but it’s their work week and most people appeared to have their “commuting to work” face on, if you know what I mean. In every instance where we were meeting people personally or going to their homes, the hospitality has been generous and the faces kind and friendly. 🙂
3. People in Europe dress more formally, not wearing t-shirts or tennis shoes.
I don’t know about tennis shoes, because it was so hot that most people had sandals on, but the formal dress idea was totally off! Apparently, see-through t-shirts are very much in style. We’ve seen enough underclothes for a lifetime. So if you are packing for here, t-shirts are fine, capris are fine, flip-flops are fine. I am glad that I was wearing clean clothes that aren’t ratty… I wanted to make a nice impression on the staff and other people we met.
4. People here drive very fast and dangerously.
I was so grateful when we discovered that Dmitry, our driver, is a conservative driver. On good roads, we drove the speed limit, 100 km/h which is 60 mph. I don’t think we exceeded that speed ever. Sometimes we passed, but he almost always left plenty of room. HOWEVER, some of the other drivers…. wow. They passed at high speeds towards oncoming traffic, sometimes squeezing back into their own lane with about as much room as I need between cars when I am parking. Jeepers. Making the other lane drive on the shoulder is pretty common.

Useful things to know:

1. Bathrooms.
Look for a door that says WC. Also keep a lookout for the girl/guy pictures, because there are usually at least two doors between the public area and the toilet. Sinks spring up for washing your hands in unexpected places between the first door and the toilet door. (Example – walk through a door that says WC. See a sink and two more doors. Try to pick the one that is the right gender. There is another room and sink here and another door. Go through that door and you see one or more bathroom stalls. I only saw one “squatty potty.” But do keep tissues in your purse – you may not find toilet paper.

2. How to find an address.
Don’t waste your time trying to find street signs. Many times, there are none. Take a look at a google map, note that zero streets run at 90 degree angles. Then, drive to the general vicinity of the location you are trying to find and flag a taxi. It’ll be only a dollar or two and they will show you what you’re looking for.

3. How to order dinner, or make any other decision.
Talk about it a lot. Then some more. I’m still not sure what all was being talked about, but it seemed important to making decisions about the meal.

4. How to eat a meal when you aren’t in a hurry.
First of all, don’t be in a hurry. Our first dinner here took an hour or two for my dish to come.You order your food in different portions. A salad, a bread, a soup, a main dish… we usually bought two different types of food per meal. (Usually a salad and a main dish) The main dishes are fairly small. Eating together is about being together. Just relax and go with the flow, talking about food and other things as the food is brought out one or two plates at a time (some people get their food right away, others have to wait awhile.).

Blah blah blah blah – ciao.

From our last visit:

Looking down at part of the garden from our apartment: