I apologize for being MIA for so long! Sheesh! It's been almost a week since I've posted. Since which I've gone mobile.

I'm in the States currently visiting my family for Christmas, but it was definitely a bit of a journey getting here, which is why I haven't posted in a while.

We left bright and early on the 9th of December - the day after my birthday and after only three hours sleep because of last minute preperations. Ales' parents had just gotten back from Germany, but were supose to take us to the bus station about 7:20am. When they hadn't shown up on time Ales called them and found his dad very asleep! They were still on Polish time (they drove through Poland to get back to Belarus) and were an hour behind. So we had to quick call for a taxi, which thankfully in Belarus they are reasonably priced, and made it on time to catch our bus.

In the car Ales and I laughed about Murphy's law. It is a law that seems to be in permanent effect in our lives many days.

So anyway, from Belarus we were heading for Lithuania on a 4 - 5 hour bus ride. Our semi-final destination was Germany, but the reason we were going to Lithuania is that we had a very cheap flight from there to Germany.

In that day we ended up taking about 6 buses, one plane, and were in three countries in the same 24 hour period. After we took the main bus to Vilnius, we then had to catch two more buses to Kaunas where our Ryanair flight was departing.

We arrived in Germany in the evening and waited at the airport for the hourly bus to Mainz where Ales' brother was suppose to meet us. But along came faithful Murphy and we were stuck in the only two hour gap between buses. Then as we were leaving on the bus we found out that Ales' brother, Igor's wife, Nadja, was having her baby.

Okay if you didn't understand that, let me clarify. Ales' brother is Igor. Igor's wife is Nadja. She was having a baby. Better now?

So therefore he couldn't pick us up at the bus station. Hello again Murph, we're getting to be great friends.

By this time it was getting late and we were getting very sleepy after the sleep deprivation and traveling. The bus to Mainz was still about an hour long, after which we had to catch a couple more buses to get to Igor's house. I wanted to go to the hospital - I was seriously getting syced, for some reason I thought I could get in and take some just-born baby pictures, but that didn't happen. Instead we just went to Igor's house.

We went straight to bed. Well, as straight as possible over Nadja's mom talking on the phone to Ales' mom.

Least to say, it was a long day.

Anyway, that's the first part of the story. I will post some "Christkindlmarkt" pictures of the Christmas markets in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. They were amazing.

For now, I'll wish you good night and remember, it's only seven days til' Christmas!