one time I got stuck in Russia...

Moscow never looked so good!

Ciao from Lucca! I just got to my friend's apartment a little while ago but it has been a long week of travelling...one hell of a long week. Not all bad of course, but the first 48 hours were pretty ugly. 

It all started at LAX, where I arrived at the International terminal with plenty of time to check in only to find that my flight to Moscow was delayed 3 hours. Which would have been just fine with me, if I didn't have a connecting flight out of Russia 2.5 hours after the first flight was originally supposed to arrive. Che palle. Fast forward 3+ hours later and we are finally leaving Los Angeles, with the optimistic thoughts from the flight attendants saying we will still make it in time. As well as the promises that if we don't that there is an Alitalia flight leaving shortly after that one. 

Fast forward another 12 hours past a very long but comfy flight to arriving in Moscow! Where we land about 1 minute after the connecting flight to Rome leaves. Che pallone! As it turns out, they were not able to put us on the last flight out of Moscow, which left about 6 of us stuck in Russia unexpectedly and quite Visa-less for the night. 

While most of Europe has the Schengen Agreement where you can be in any of the 26 participating countries for 90 days without a Visa, Russia does not. So the group of us were essentially stuck in Russia for the night illegally. Boh. This led to a lot of group bonding, waiting for chaperons and monitored elevator rides, a bus ride out of the back of the airport straight to a hotel where we were isolated on a floor from the rest of a hotel. Fortunately, I was stuck with some pretty cool guys who were entertained by this whole adventure about as much as I was! 

The next day we all returned to the airport where we were able to catch our 10 am flight to Rome at last! 4 hours later, I was back home in Italia! After catching a ride into Rome with my new found Russia/California friends, I was on my way to Castiglion Fiorentino...only to find a sciopero (train strike) at Roma Termini station! [insert lots of Italian swearing] So, some more waiting to catch a train to Arezzo, then a quick backtrack to Castiglion Fiorentino where I was finally reunited with my friends and Italian family, 2 days later than I had originally hoped. Vabbè, it was all worth it.

Oh home, yes I am home!

Bellina, my love on 4 legs. 

I've been running around catching up with people these past 2 days so sketching has been limited but my hands are slowly waking up with each espresso. Here's a peek at the progress in Terzo so far. I'll be going lots of exploring in Lucca this week so more sketches to come soon. 

It's so lovely to meet you!

Some Russian...