Update: 3.15.10

After a few really long days we finally arrived in Krasnodar at 1:00 am(local time) Tuesday morning. That was 60 hours later than our scheduled arrival that all started with weather delays in NYC. Our flight out on Saturday night was cancelled because of severe storms which caused delays along much of the east coast so we had to wait until Sunday night to catch another flight. The only problem was that they waited until 2:00am to make that decision known to the passengers. There were so many other flights cancelled earlier in the day that by then there were no vacancies at any of the nearby hotels. Thankfully we had met another couple traveling to Russia who had driven to NYC to catch their flight. Since they had a car, they invited us to go with them to find a place to stay for the night. About 4:00am we found a hotel on Long Island and were able to get six hours of good sleep before we had to be back at the airport Sunday afternoon. We are so thankful that this new friendship was forged. Had we not met them, we would have spent the night at the airport which wouldn‘t have provided much rest. After yet another long day of false information about the status of our flight and many food vouchers later, we finally left JFK at midnight on Sunday. Thankfully our original travel arrangements included a free day on Monday to get acclimated to the time difference and see the area. While we won’t be able to do that, it allowed us the extra day to deal with the travel nightmare and our time with Alexandra will not be affected.

The craziest thing about the delays was being surrounded by a lot of really angry Russian people. It was like a mob scene right out of a movie. They were all yelling, taking videos and pictures and making demands. Apparently they were primarily upset because the airline didn’t provide passengers with a place to stay once the flight was cancelled. On Sunday when we got back to the airport there was a news camera near the ticket counter which we thought was interesting. Cancelled and delayed flights are nothing new out of JFK. Then when we arrived in Moscow there was news camera there, too. We later found out that this whole ordeal was all over the papers, internet and TV in Moscow. Under the links tab is a link to the article that was in the local paper about our flight. This was definitely the most bizarre flight we have ever experienced. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be more enjoyable.