Having survived two flights and a long bus trip, we currently find ourselves back in our apartment in Klaipeda, Lithuania. It is certainly good to be home. Although our luggage did not make the transfer in Amsterdam, the good folks at KLM delivered it to our door earlier today, even though we live in a different country than our arrival airport. Now that is service!

We will be here until Saturday. I have a faculty retreat on Thursday and Friday that will take up the better part of both days. We then leave for Austria to visit Stephanie’s aunt and uncle in Vienna. I will leave Stephanie and the kids in Vienna on Sunday to take a train to Budapest, Hungary, where I will be attending the European Society of Biblical Studies annual conference. Stephanie and the kids will join me on Wednesday for two days of sight seeing. We will return to Lithuania on the 16th.

We have left Lithuania behind for the summer.

This morning, we loaded all our luggage on a bus and headed out of Klaipeda.  Six hours later, we arrived in Riga, Latvia.  We would have been earlier, if our bus hadn’t blown a tired in the middle of nowhere.  But the driver and his assistant changed it and we were soon back on the road.

Riga is very busy right now.  All the hotels are booked because of the international hockey championship.  Teams and fans from all over the world are here.  When I found out about it two months ago, I checked on getting tickets, but they were already sold out.  Latvia has an excellent hockey team, and I hope to get to see them before we take off next year.

Tomorrow morning we will head to the airport at 4:00 am to catch a flight to the US.  It seems strange to be heading back to America, but I am looking forward to it.  I am dying for decent pizza and a good hamburder.  The pizza in Lithuania is not very good and unless you go to the one McDonald’s in town, there are no hamburgers to be had.  It’s funny the things we miss.