No Room at the Inn

Okay - so I can't say that I know how Mary and Joseph felt when they were turned away at the inn in Bethlehem, but I can tell you that I know what it feels like to be turned away from the Inn(s). I've been in St. Petersburg for 4 hours and I still haven't secured a hotel. I've been to the Hotel Russia, the Parkinskaya Hotel, Hotel Russ, the hotel across the street from the Hotel Russ, the Pilgrim Hotel, and I'm sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Sovietskaya (but it has a different name now so when I found it, I thought I was in the wrong place)

… anyway - the woman at the reception desk told me to take a seat for an hour and they would likely have a room for me. So here I sit waiting. 25 people just walked in and have formed a line at the desk. I know that this has already happened, but G0d exists outside of time. Would you pr@y that I'd be able to get a room here? It's pretty close to the best price I've seen too. The rooms have been VERY expensive -- the two places that had rooms were $180 and $220. I just can't AFFORD that. So here's hoping that there will be room here.

The trip from Estonia was fine. Nothing really happened. I also didn't sleep very much. At first I thought it was totally deluxe for sleeping. 5 seats across the back of the bus and I was in seat 1 and another guy in seat 5. But the bus stopped and picked up several soldiers at the border and a VERY large soldier sat next to me. And to be honest, he sorta crushed me against the wall of the bus. So I was uncomfortable. But I was VERY thankful that he used dial. (you know, the old soap commercials?)